Review: Army Painter Warpaints Inks

Finally some hobby time again. And to start off I will do a review which I postponed now quite a long time. With my slow switch away from Citadel paints, I was also looking into something which could replace my washes which slowly dwindle away. Since I didn't like the Vallejo Smokey Ink (and thus stepped away from all their inks), I ordered me some Army Painter Inks, because I heard only good of them. And whoop here they are :)

The Inks (or Shades) come inside those handy dropper bottles and contain 18ml of fluid. That is 1ml more than the Vallejo bottles (17ml) and 6ml more than the Citadel pots (12ml). Price-wise I can't really tell the difference, because I got them in a set and with a discount but a short look at one of my shops its ~2.75€ for AP vs. ~3.20€ for GW. For completion, Vallejo Inks are roughly at 2.50€. So there is a huge difference here. But price is not all, thus I switched into painting mode and prepared a test.
Fun fact: I also have some very old paints left (Chestnut Ink anyone?) which had 17.5ml bottles and where around 3 Deutsche Mark (today something around 1.60€). And that was already an expensive price at that time because I bought them at my LGS without discount or anything :)

For testing the paints, I took a very old Skaven shield sprue and primed it with my trustworthy Vallejo Gray Primer (a review you will find here). After that had dried I just applied a coat of each color to one shield. No diluting, no wet palette, nothing. Straight out of the bottle. And to be honest: I liked it. I have the feeling that they are a bit more diluted than my old Citadel Inks.
If they have less pigments, that could also explain the price difference, but I can't evaluate that. The Inks dry out dull, no shine to see, also not on the Strong/Soft/Dark tones.

With a special eye on the Soft/Strong/Dark tone I tried to compare them with the old Devlan Mud and stuff. They come pretty close, maybe event a perfect replacement. The only thing I see is that if you want to replace old Gryphonne Sepia with the Soft Tone you will miss the slight reddish tone of Gryphonne Sepia. But that could also be because of the gray primer (and no metal basecoat). Dark Tone is a good replacement for Badab Black and Strong Tone for Devlan Mud. Please don't ask me how these colors are named in the new Citadel range, I honestly have no clue and I don't care anymore :)

Following a more detailed view of the colors, without the bottles:

Green | Red | Blue | Purple | Strong | Soft | Dark | Pure Primer

Conclusio

To make it short: I like the Army Painter Inks. For me they have just the right consistency to play with. If you want to have it stronger, you can always shade twice. With the dropper bottles and the right price, I think they are the perfect solution for me. And if you use already Army Painter paints they match perfectly to this color range (and colored spray primers).
There if you are in search for a new Ink, give them a try.
Hope you liked that review, I am interested if you share my opinion, have different experiences or use completely different paints.


So long,
Paradox0n

ETC in Prague

www.etc-events.eu

Last week ended for me quite surprisingly with watching the livestream of the European Team Championship event in Prague. The event consists of 3 team tournaments in Flames of War, Warhammer 40K and most likely the last time this year Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It is paired with the ESC (the Singleplayer Championship) which I didn't follow.
"Bastion" or "Saper" had a really big bulk of equipment in Prague and made an awesome coverage of the event on Twitch. At the moment it looks like he is uploading the matches and stuff on his Youtube channel, so if you are interested please pay him a visit.

I was quite fascinated because I already lost interest in the GW games but the presentation of the event and the nice mixture in the reporting kept me looking and returning to the stream.

The Flames of War table which was shown was absolutely fantastic and looked more like a diorama than a gaming table. It is only shown partially on the picture stream of the events Facebook page but you can guess how the whole thing looked like:

Flames of War

The stream itself is full of random geekiness and tournament impressions so it is worth a look.

This year Germany dominated in Warhammer 40K and achieved a new points record and  took home the first place. Also in Warhammer Fantasy Battles the team placed first (after some unbelievable close final matches) and in Flames of War they achieved a respectable 9th place. Congrats to all of the players and also kudos for playing in those rough conditions. It was extremely loud and roughly 40°C without working AC.

For the next year there is already a discussion taking place what game they will take instead of WHFB. Kings of War is handled here as follow up, which would be quite cool.

Hope you enjoyed and have a good start into your week!


So long
Paradox0n

Short tip: Paint compatibility chart

Just a very short tip, because I see this question in lots of threads in painting forums or hobby related forums or even in tutorials and very very often it is something like: "I don't own this and that color what should I use?" or "I don't like this and that brand which color can I use to replace it?".

Maybe most of you already know but if not here is maybe an answer to questions like that: The Paint Range Compatibility Chart from DakkaDakka.
This chart is really helpful to get the matching tones from different brands. Even if they are not exactly the same, it really helps (I also used that one in the past).


So long,
Paradox0n

Blogger changes - Cookies!

© dreamstime.com

Maybe you wondered why now a strange message box in the head of many blogs appears: That is because of some recent changes in blogger's cookie policies. In the EU there are some legal restriction for dealing with cookies and at some point you as user have to accept the usage of cookies. With those cookies you enable the website to track your behavior and, depending on the kind of cookie) your interests and stuff.

As always in the WWW there are good and bad cookies. Some are really needed for websites (like session management and stuff) others are somewhat neutral (tracking your likes and thus providing ads which fit to you) others are clearly harmful. 

For  my part, I have a cookie blocker which kills hopefully most of the harmful stuff. Other side of the coin is, I have to whitelist everything I want to allow. But that is up to your decision how you want to deal with all this :) 

I would be happy if you would allow me to track your visit for my statistics and also to display some ads (even if not personalized). If enough people choose to click on ads and have analytics track them, the more one gets for an ad. I will not get rich by this, but maybe (at some point) there is enough there that I can buy some paints or stuff, which I could make a review on or so ;)

So far for this more technical update. If you have questions about cookies and stuff, feel free to comment, maybe I can help you (if it gets not too far). 

So long,

Paradox0n

MMM - No system is safe! Who am I O.S.T

A wonderful morning to everyone. After a weekend of fun and party (yes it was my birthday, so I had a reason!) I return to my Monday Morning Music and Musings series with the playlist of an O.S.T of a movie I recently watched: Who am I - No system is safe a German movie about a hacker group who wants global fame.

The film struck me a) because of the fitting music and b) because there was much stuff in there which I (as "professional") had do acknowledge the makers of doing their research, which (sadly) isn't done too often.

As you may know, normally electronic music is not my thing, but this O.S.T is quite nice especially since it really suited the movie.

And for some musings today: While watching the latest Age of Sigmar reports and the growing interest for Kings of War here in Germany, I am more and more excited about the arrival of the first wave from the 2nd Kings of War Kickstarter. Also the weather gets nicer (temperatures below the 38°C mark). So maybe this could be the turning point for my motivation :)

Have a good start into this week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Kings of War 2nd Edition is out

Mantica

Mantic Games continue their more aggressive promotion of the new Kings of War edition and released the core rules and the nine base army lists as free download.

If you didn't follow the massive amount of blog posts they did and are not sure if Kings of War is something for you, you should risk a look. The articles are really great and have lots and lots of information in them:

Everything You Need To Know About Kings of War… But Were Too Afraid To Ask! P1

Explains what the game is about and the basics of gameplay.

Everything You Need To Know About Kings of War… But Were Too Afraid To Ask! P2

Tells you a bit about the different armies and their style of play.

Discover the World of Kings of War

Tells you a bit of the background of Mantica (the world of Kings of War).

To be honest, I am quite excited and can't wait for the rulebook and all the stuff to arrive. With the demise of Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Age of Sigmar not really being and alternative for me so far, this really comes to the right time. Especially since I already backed the first Kickstarter of Mantic Games and thought the first edition was quite nice and on the right track.

The only thing which I think one shouldn't do is to try to compare the game to the old Warhammer Fantasy or Age of Sigmar. They are different games, with a different focus. Kings of War is clearly based around armies with units and not so much on the single heroes which could kill nearly everything on the field on themselves. And to be honest: I prefer the first variant (why I started to like WHFB 8th edition). So let's see what the future brings for Mantic Games and especially Kings of War.

So long,

Paradox0n

The End has come - Farewell old friend!

I am so sad. Really! As it seems I finally have to say "Goodbye!" to an old friend, which was part of my gaming life (even if it was with big breaks) in the midst of the 90tis: This night the rules for Age of Sigmar, the so called successor of Warhammer Fantasy Battles came out. At least the first official glimpse with the free rules and the Warscrolls...
Even with all the rumors and those pictures of the Sigmarines I had a bit of hope left. But this is destroyed now.

I don't know what those guys/girls did take for drugs but honestly, the rules souond as if my godchild had written them, while taking some of the Space Marines from my old Starquest and doing "Pew Pew Chhhhhhhh" sounds. Honestly how can you call that a game with rules like "the count of models defines the army size you play" (as if 30 Skaven are as strong as 30 Sigmarines) and special rules like "If you do as if you ride and imaginative horse you get rerolls and if you even talk to this imaginative horse you get this and that bonus".

And the translations are also as if they where put through Google Translate or something (at least the German ones). Fluent reading not possible. Not that I would require German rules but nonetheless...

There is so much wrong in all this that I can't find words for it. Either it is a (very) late April Fool hoax or I don't know...

How convenient that the Mantic rules will be presented this week and they started a Kings of War offensive some time ago. Maybe this will be the new ruleset for all kind of Fantasy Battles in the future. I am already on that train and eagerly waiting for the Kickstarter stuff to be shipped. Maybe I then can convince my old gaming partner to give it a try, because for him WHFB was aleady dead some time ago. Otherwise my thousands of points of Dark Elves and Skaven will find a dark and silent grave again in my cellar.


What are your thoughts on the new rules? Are you happy with them? Or as disappointed as I? Please feel free to leave a comment below.


So long,
Paradox0n