After a year or so, I want to get back into the hobby. I have a box of minis, mostly my elves, but unfortunately no paints. So I was just wandering if there was a place where they sold a large set of paints, preferably on the cheaper side. Thanks!

Moved to correct Forum.

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There are fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world

I do have a few GW paints, and I must say, I have found no better alternative to GW's base coat spray paints. Its pricy, but after using four or so different brands, the results are far superior to anything else out there(Testor's is a close second though).

Regarding paints, I see you are in the USA. I would hit up a Michael's, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, etc. I get most my paints from Michael's. The paints I get are Craftsmart, Ceramcoat, and FolkArt. A 2 fl oz bottle goes for around 70 cents or so, and they are good quality, fast drying, water-based, and tons of colors. You might start there. With $20 a guy could walk away with everything you need to paint pretty much anything LOTR/Hobbit related, and so long as the paint stays fresh it will go a real long ways. In ~10 years I think I am on my third bottle of the most common colors. Plus they mix very easy for highlighting, etc.

I don't play the game at all, so I do not put a protective clear coat on my minis (my protective cover is a display cabinet, hahaha). I purchased a flat crystal clear coat and used it on one mini a long time ago and it was still glossy. I didn't like it and never used it since. But if you are going to clear coat them, I would find flat clear coats, but I am sure the veteran players here can point you in a better direction on that end.

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Check out my WIP at http://paintingmiddleearth.blogspot.com/

I use Vallejo paints. You can find several Vallejo Game Color paint sets here.
http://www.thewarstore.com/VallejoGCCollections.html

The Game Color line copies the Games Workshop colors.

+1 for Vallejo.

They are the right consistency, good colours, long lasting and come in a dropper so they don't dry up and you can mix them easier.

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My trade thread
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=25957&p=325932#p325932

I too have heard good things about vallejo, and will probably switch over slowly as I need new paints. The dropper bottles and slightly larger size are two things that I value.

I also like that they have more than one color range, game colors (gw equivalents), model colors (realistic colors) and the panzer aces line (WW2 military colors) I mix and match colors from all three lines.

I'm slowly incorporating more Vallejo into my paint collection and I agree with the comments made, they seem better to me though I've heard GW do the best metallics.
I think it's all down to a question of taste and experimenting but one thing that does help is having a different palette to work from.

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mallysminiatures.blogspot.co.uk

Yeah I would agree with Gandlaf... the metals are good, nothing wrong with them but I think due to the consistency of GW paints the metals work better.

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My trade thread
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=25957&p=325932#p325932

I use Vallejo and P3 paints (from Privateer Press) exclusively. I used to think that GW's metallics were the best, but P3 do a better brass and Vallejo's metallics have improved significantly. Also, their bottles hold more and are cheaper than GW.

I don't use GW paints any more and haven't done for a few years now.

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Dagster

Do the FolkArt colours survive exposure to light for several years? Have you noticed any changes on your painted miniatures? My local hobby store supplies them but I've been reluctant to paint miniatures with them without knowledge about how well they will last. I'd hate to notice after ten years that some miniature I've spent dozens of hours painting has changed colour...

-- Pasi

I could have really used that skin set a while ago, my first Gondorian and Rohan set (which I'm still not complete with since I moved and it was in storage) it took about half an hour to figure out how to mix white and yellow and one other skinnish color perfectly to get the human skin type of Middle Earth

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"Now they sprang forward, formed, quickened to a gallop, and charged with a great shout."