Vallejo-ho-ho

In the last week or so I've been beavering away getting the complete range of Vallejo hobby products onto the webstore as well as their Game Color range, so that's the superb Model Color range, the Model Air and Game Air ranges for airbrushing, the Weathering FX, Texture FX and Wash FX ranges, the tools and brushes... the list goes on!

Having said that, if it's not relevant to you as a Mierce Miniatures customer (such as most of their hobby scenery range of diorama sets), I've not bothered, but you would be able to grab those on the Anglia Models store at some point.

Miercenary Paints

So what is relevant to you as a Miercenary? Pretty much everything else!

Brushing

The Game Color range is one of my personal favourite paint ranges, especially with their new formula. The old formula could be a little iffy for some colours, especially the brighter ones, but I have to say this new formula is very good - consistently opaque across all the colours, covering well and very easy to use. That's just the paint though; the eyedropper bottles, I think, are probably my favourite way of dispensing paint, so they get a big thumbs up for me on that one. As well as that, for an 18ml bottle their prices are pretty good compared to other ranges.

Xpress Color is Vallejo's attempt at contrast paints and again, they get two thumbs up from me; I'm currently painting a Vras horde with this range (yes, I'll show pics at some point!!) and they work very nicely indeed. Pop your light primer on, base colour them and then Xpress Color them and hey presto - you've got an army! Even so, I still like to add highlights, as long as I've got time...

For metallics, while there's plenty of Game Color silvers and golds Liquid Metal is absolutely wonderful stuff - try it!

The Model Color range (if you didn't know about it) is their oldest range and has been around for years. Again though, their new formula has improved on the original. It's a huge range, too, and while designed for historical subjects... well, paint is paint, and you can get some excellent earthy shades for your miniatures.

Mecha Color also provide some excellent shades; while intended for mechanical and sci-fi miniatures, you can get some really lurid stuff from this range.

Airbrushing

For airbrushing, Vallejo now provide a range of Game Air airbrush paints as well as those from Model Air, and of course the renowned Metal Color is the metallics range for airbrushing, or so I'm told. I've yet to take the plunge with airbrushing, but I will at some point this year...

Hobbying

On to hobby stuff. I'll be adding loads more tools and brushes onto the site over the next few weeks, but Vallejo's range of brushes and painting accessories is excellent and not to be sniffed at. With a few different types of brush in all the usual sizes, plus some superb paint stands and palettes and whatnot, you've got everything you need for your painting stations.

The Vallejo hobby tools are great, too, with all the usual types of things - craft knives, tweezers, cutters, pin vices and so on, in addition to masking tape (possibly useful if you fancy doing stripes on banners) and flexi sanders.

Something that Vallejo does really well is weathering, pigments and textures, which I've lumped in one Texture FX page. Some of these materials are meant for historical miniatures and model kits, but a lot of it can be used for your Darklands basing and for all that rust our rather more inbred monstrous infantry tend to get on their weapons.

They're also moving into the scenics side of things with grass tufts, and I reckon they'll do a lot more of that kind of thing, so watch out for that...

Paint Sets for Darklands

I did promise a while back to do a set of paints for each kindred of Darklands, and I should hopefully be able to get that sorted this week, so watch out for that... and as I add paint ranges, I'll do a set from each range so you can grab your favourite paints.

More Paints! More Hobby!

There's the rub - all of you have favourite paint ranges, so what I'll be doing over the next few weeks and months is adding everything I can lay my hands on so you have choices. Next up will be The Army Painter; then probably Mr Hobby, then Ammo by Mig, then... well, the list is pretty long, I can tell you...

...but why should you get your hobby stuff from us, I hear you ask? Well, apart from the fact that you can get your hobby stuff with your Mierce Miniatures, I can tie in promotions and discounts with our figures as well as naked promotions on particular ranges... and maybe some of you have never heard of the ranges I can get a hold of, so who knows? Maybe you'll try something different because you've seen it here!