PlainsWorld90
Member
Greetings all I've decided to dive into a world of madness exploring the old days of my youth and GW.
This thread will be expanded and updated sporadically, to start with ( as my username would suggest ) I've decided to work on something small. That being based around the RT/Space Hulk background of the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter.
Originally it would have been the very early part of 1988, in which I first became exposed to GW. While my memory is hazy I believe my first miniature was a non bio degradable make hippies cry hard blister pack ( and I still love this crazy invention of the no F*s given GW 80s ) of the Knights of The Cleansing Flame regiment, after that I had picked up some of citadels Realm of Chaos and Undead line of blister packs.
Eventually I stumbled upon a real GW store in 1991, seeing Space Hulk on the shelves and all those blisters I became an addict instantly. On that specific trip due to my folks being awesome to me every birthday I think I left with Space Hulk + the two expansions and Advanced Heroquest. At this time they were out of stock with the basic Citadel Colour paint set and instead they had the AH Paint set ( the one that came with the plastic assortment sprues and some similar paints as the basic set ) plus the Creature and Expert paint sets. I already owned the Space Marine paint set from that era that I had bought at a local hobby shop, so early on it's fair to say I had a decent assortment of colors to work with.
Later on I bought my first issue of White Dwarf which was 139 ( with WFRP and Blood Bowl 2nd edition ) with the Space Marine Strike force Jes Goodwin had done ( you guys know the 15 man basic MK7 metal box with the ball socket arms ? ) and the original beakie plastic set, this must have been some luck as it had that outstanding Blood Angels painting article by Tim Prow. Since I am a self taught artist since birth, much of these techniques and skills came naturally to me, although having some of this ( rather basic compared to what we have now ) painting information was a huge help as a child.
I want to touch on this article a bit more in the future and will, one thing I will say if you find a chance to read this issue I highly suggest paying attention to Tim's words over the stages of this and looking at the photos. For anyone wanting to paint in that style this article is still relevant today and will teach you a lot for the look of that particular era. Everyone knows today over thinning paints ( and I did back then and explored many things on my own too ) but there is techniques in that one which are key to achieving specific things that are mostly lost to time now. Given how popular "Oldhammer" has become there is resources out there if you look in the right places that can help you with painting those styles.
Which brings me to my first post. Recently I was able to purchase some "Holy Grails ( in my opinion ) of Vintage Citadel Paints. All the paints with the scouts are what I have left from the early 90s and into the hex pot era ( but not the turdtastic dry out hex era with the new line they did ) of the original CD'A line. All the ones with the stack of books are brand spanking new, I luckily found an unopened lot of them and threw some paint mixing balls into them ( a must for CD'A paints ) and nearly had an orgasm experience with the new pot of Shinning Gold. Many things have been said over CD'A and there is quite a bit of misinformation out there. So here is some basic points:
1 Current CD'A paints are NOT the exact same as either the original round Citadel nor later Hex paints. Some of them do come very close, some of them are closer to the hex era paints ( which btw are different than the round pots ) such as Tentacle Pink obviously being very pastel like vs the neon Pink of T. Space Wolves Grey is a massive difference to CD'A current name. Shinning Gold is one of THE best gold's ever made ( having that green hue we all love...sadly CD'A only makes a dull old like gold now ) and while many of the current Winsor & Newton Inks come close to the looks of the "Expert Ink's" even many of these are a bit different.
2 Overall just like in the old days CD'A paints in those times had batch shade inconsistency as they do to this very day and I know as I was around and encountered this back then as I have recently buying multiple pots of colors I will run out of in time. You can expect this or that replacement pot might be a shade darker or lighter than the first pot. It's 100% normal with this manufacturer. Interestingly enough I recently encountered this situation with a few ( I've not rebought all of them so I can't speak on that ) with the current Citadel line, their "snakebite leather" ( Balor Brown ) new paint from around 2013 looks totally different vs a pot that I bought 6 months ago, in fact it's very much lighter. There has been a lot of chatter that the current GW paints are again made by HMG/CD'A but I can't really confirm that...it's possible but if it's true they have to be very different vs current CD'A line as like the past...the coverage of their yellows and reds is still as terrible as it always was ( unless over a white undercoat ), their inks are similar but not the same either but decent enough if you have no access to the original inks.
I personally love the original Citadel Inks, especially Red, Purple and Green. Their green is more towards the Veridian hue and can easily be changed into the yellow hue if need be with some yellow ink. This pot has a special place for me doing a pre full goblin green base look, it's amazing for doing certain slaanesh pastel greens as well and other things of this era. Some people have said they are not very good I totally disagree and you will find that out if you know how to use and abuse them correctly especially with matt mediums or varnish after, the same can be said with certain metallic's that can be tweaked after. I also use DR FW inks and while outstanding are not the same as these but they have their uses just like many brands do. Since this is Oldhammer there is certain paints that I feel are a must if available to you and some of them are just very good paints.
Overall CD'A paints I find go on VERY smooth, it's a rare thing I ever find bits of grit in their paints and this is a big deal for me especially over metallic's and a few other colors. I have totally switched from Leadbelcher ( a crap paint in my view) to CD'As excellent Gun Metal...which is mostly the same as their old Boltgun Metal.
More progress in time and will get into my slow but ongoing project of creating a Shadow War Armageddon RT era inspired Dark Angels Scout Kill Team with a Plain's World Deathwing "special operative".
This thread will be expanded and updated sporadically, to start with ( as my username would suggest ) I've decided to work on something small. That being based around the RT/Space Hulk background of the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter.
Originally it would have been the very early part of 1988, in which I first became exposed to GW. While my memory is hazy I believe my first miniature was a non bio degradable make hippies cry hard blister pack ( and I still love this crazy invention of the no F*s given GW 80s ) of the Knights of The Cleansing Flame regiment, after that I had picked up some of citadels Realm of Chaos and Undead line of blister packs.
Eventually I stumbled upon a real GW store in 1991, seeing Space Hulk on the shelves and all those blisters I became an addict instantly. On that specific trip due to my folks being awesome to me every birthday I think I left with Space Hulk + the two expansions and Advanced Heroquest. At this time they were out of stock with the basic Citadel Colour paint set and instead they had the AH Paint set ( the one that came with the plastic assortment sprues and some similar paints as the basic set ) plus the Creature and Expert paint sets. I already owned the Space Marine paint set from that era that I had bought at a local hobby shop, so early on it's fair to say I had a decent assortment of colors to work with.
Later on I bought my first issue of White Dwarf which was 139 ( with WFRP and Blood Bowl 2nd edition ) with the Space Marine Strike force Jes Goodwin had done ( you guys know the 15 man basic MK7 metal box with the ball socket arms ? ) and the original beakie plastic set, this must have been some luck as it had that outstanding Blood Angels painting article by Tim Prow. Since I am a self taught artist since birth, much of these techniques and skills came naturally to me, although having some of this ( rather basic compared to what we have now ) painting information was a huge help as a child.
I want to touch on this article a bit more in the future and will, one thing I will say if you find a chance to read this issue I highly suggest paying attention to Tim's words over the stages of this and looking at the photos. For anyone wanting to paint in that style this article is still relevant today and will teach you a lot for the look of that particular era. Everyone knows today over thinning paints ( and I did back then and explored many things on my own too ) but there is techniques in that one which are key to achieving specific things that are mostly lost to time now. Given how popular "Oldhammer" has become there is resources out there if you look in the right places that can help you with painting those styles.
Which brings me to my first post. Recently I was able to purchase some "Holy Grails ( in my opinion ) of Vintage Citadel Paints. All the paints with the scouts are what I have left from the early 90s and into the hex pot era ( but not the turdtastic dry out hex era with the new line they did ) of the original CD'A line. All the ones with the stack of books are brand spanking new, I luckily found an unopened lot of them and threw some paint mixing balls into them ( a must for CD'A paints ) and nearly had an orgasm experience with the new pot of Shinning Gold. Many things have been said over CD'A and there is quite a bit of misinformation out there. So here is some basic points:
1 Current CD'A paints are NOT the exact same as either the original round Citadel nor later Hex paints. Some of them do come very close, some of them are closer to the hex era paints ( which btw are different than the round pots ) such as Tentacle Pink obviously being very pastel like vs the neon Pink of T. Space Wolves Grey is a massive difference to CD'A current name. Shinning Gold is one of THE best gold's ever made ( having that green hue we all love...sadly CD'A only makes a dull old like gold now ) and while many of the current Winsor & Newton Inks come close to the looks of the "Expert Ink's" even many of these are a bit different.
2 Overall just like in the old days CD'A paints in those times had batch shade inconsistency as they do to this very day and I know as I was around and encountered this back then as I have recently buying multiple pots of colors I will run out of in time. You can expect this or that replacement pot might be a shade darker or lighter than the first pot. It's 100% normal with this manufacturer. Interestingly enough I recently encountered this situation with a few ( I've not rebought all of them so I can't speak on that ) with the current Citadel line, their "snakebite leather" ( Balor Brown ) new paint from around 2013 looks totally different vs a pot that I bought 6 months ago, in fact it's very much lighter. There has been a lot of chatter that the current GW paints are again made by HMG/CD'A but I can't really confirm that...it's possible but if it's true they have to be very different vs current CD'A line as like the past...the coverage of their yellows and reds is still as terrible as it always was ( unless over a white undercoat ), their inks are similar but not the same either but decent enough if you have no access to the original inks.
I personally love the original Citadel Inks, especially Red, Purple and Green. Their green is more towards the Veridian hue and can easily be changed into the yellow hue if need be with some yellow ink. This pot has a special place for me doing a pre full goblin green base look, it's amazing for doing certain slaanesh pastel greens as well and other things of this era. Some people have said they are not very good I totally disagree and you will find that out if you know how to use and abuse them correctly especially with matt mediums or varnish after, the same can be said with certain metallic's that can be tweaked after. I also use DR FW inks and while outstanding are not the same as these but they have their uses just like many brands do. Since this is Oldhammer there is certain paints that I feel are a must if available to you and some of them are just very good paints.
Overall CD'A paints I find go on VERY smooth, it's a rare thing I ever find bits of grit in their paints and this is a big deal for me especially over metallic's and a few other colors. I have totally switched from Leadbelcher ( a crap paint in my view) to CD'As excellent Gun Metal...which is mostly the same as their old Boltgun Metal.
More progress in time and will get into my slow but ongoing project of creating a Shadow War Armageddon RT era inspired Dark Angels Scout Kill Team with a Plain's World Deathwing "special operative".
