---- In mini-painter@y..., "chronomaster2000" <chronomaster2000@y...>

My observations:

VALLEJO - I *love* these paints. I am ditching my old RP paints and
switching over to them. As Craig said the pigments are *extremely*
fine. You can thin them down practically forever, though even they
start to experience pigment settling after a while. The paints go on
very thin, but with very good coverage! Because they're vinyl-based,
the layers of paint are wafer thin, beating out any other acrylic
I've ever tried except Badger Modelflex. They dry dead flat, with no
unevenness to the paint when dry. *Great* bottle design - the dropper
control is awesome and they can be stored or carried in any direction
(unlike screw-lid bottles, where the paint gets into the threads, or
leak in the case of inks!)

The white is the best I've ever used, even better than Createx
airbrush white, which used to be my standard. Their metals are
extremely good, though more in the school of "pearlescent" than
metallic, unless you buy the alcohol-based metals. The alcohol stuff
is fantastic (looks like metal), but it oxidizes over time because it
uses real metal flakes!! You have to seal the alcohol metal with
varnish after you put on the basecoat.

Okay, after the good stuff, there's always the bad ;^), though in
this case it's not too bad. Since they are vinyl-based (like cel paints)
they adhere very well, but unlike cell paints they have a tendancy to
chip after they dry. I had a few chips on my Golden Demon entry
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mini-painter/files/Laszlo/ - note,
this is exclusively Vallejo except the pink flesh tones) because I didn't
have a chance to seal it before the contest. If sealed properly I
think you'll be alright.

As Craig noted they require a *lot* of shaking. I use some old
DemonBlade pewter skulls in mine, but marbles, etc. would work. I
wouldn't recommend copper BB's or lead bits as they'll oxidize like
steel would. Also, they dry *very* fast, both on the model and your
palette. At the minimum you should add a drop of water to the paint
before using it, preferably a drop of Slow-Dri liquid retarder, which
makes it last much longer. With water and Slow-Dri I've gotten mine
to stray wet on the palette for a 1/2 hour or so.

REAPER - I have a lot of these. The colors are strong and, like the
Vallejos, they dry dead flat. Color choice is good: they have a great
selection of browns and greens. They cover very well, though not as
well as Vallejos, and the pigments are fairly fine and consistent
(finer than RP paint). The bottles have nifty skulls in them to help
with mixing. Good bottle design - I'd put in one step below RP in the
best of the "screw top" paint bottles.

Downsides include the aforementioned "glorpiness", which is easily
remedied with water. There are a few colors which are glossy when
dry, though all of the paints are supposed to dry flat. I had one
dark green and one dark blue which did this (don't have the names handy),
so watch out. Even if you seal with matte, the paints seem to behave
differently than the others and coat with streaks or translucent
areas sometimes. I would not recommend their metals - the metal flakes are
too large and they dry with an almost powdery look to them. I'd stick
with GW or Vallejo for metal.

Hope this helps!
Laszlo
Hot Lead Miniature Painting
http://home.pacbell.net/lnlcoolj/Hot_Lead/index.htm