I am a confirmed fan of Tamiya paint when it comes to the general colours for painting AFVs, but what paint brand do you feel is the best brand of paint to hand paint figures specifically. I have access to Tamiya, Testors, Revell, and Vallejo. Now I would prefer to use acrylics rather than enamels but I am tempted by the Testors range, your advice?

Darren, I think most acrylic figure painters would say Vallejo... I'm not sure if it is pigment, drying time or something else, but most "big-shots" are using those paints with great sucess. I myself am still a dinosaur, using enamels and oils; if you decide to try enamels, I would definitely recommend Humbrols. In my opinion those are still the best enamels around. Testors are OK, but I tend to aviod Revell... strange properties that I never could control well.

Mario

I use Vallejo Model Colour and Model Air a lot. I also use Privateer Press P3 paints and some Reaper Colours. The last two do more fantasy shades and Vellejo does a lot of good military ones.

Vallejo...been a fan for over 10 years. I still have some of my first bottles. Italeri has recently released a line of paints. In comparing Vallejo gunmetal to the Italeri paint of the same name, they have the same consistency, color and coverage. Both thinned the same with water and could be brushed over an initial coat of either brand very soon after initial application with no problems.

Hi Darren. I believe you should use the paint media that works best for you and gives the results you like, as well as the control over how you use them.
Top results can be got with many different sorts of paint, and no one paint type is the difference between a top painter and weak painter ... or in other words, your choice of paint type wont make you a better painter because modeller X uses it. The "right" choice of paint will make you a better painter because you can cotrol it, understand how best to work with it and you are confortable with it.
At the Euromilitaire we ate lunch both days with Mike Blank, and he explained that eventhough he has gone over to Vallejo and Andrea for the majority of the base work, he still uses enamels for many final steps as it gives him possibilites that acrylics dont.

My suggestion, is try all brands and see what works best for you. Dont decide on a paint because somebody else recommended it. See/try for yourself. Personally I use Tamiya and/or Vallejo for spraying/priming/ground colours, enamels for base painting and enamels/oils for detailing. Why .... its what works best for me.

Thank you all for the help thus far.

Frank I understand what you are saying and I think like that as well however figure painting is something I very rarely do. Hand brushing Tamiya paint is not as impossible as some suggest but it can also make life hard. The Vallejo paints seem to have a lot of followers for hand brushing and so I will give them a crack, but I will still stick to Tamiya for the airbrush for the most part.