Paints For Terrain

 Well, first proper post, so lets get on with it.

Recently I have been building some emplacements for use in Warhammer 40000, and I ran into the decision on whether to use craft or miniature paints.

Miniature paints on the left, craft paints on the right.

While miniature paints generally have good coverage, pigmentation and mix well, they are expensive (around $7 a pot). This means that it can be prohibitively costly to use them on large terrain pieces. Therefore, I found it better to use the craft paints. These do not like to thin or mix well, but their pigmentation is above average, even compared to some miniature paints. 

Chaos Space Marine painted with miniature paints, emplacement painted with craft paints.

You can see what I mean in the picture above. The emplacement has patches of white where the paint didn't cover (note: I am only talking about the brown bit. The other parts are white because they haven't been painted yet). In contrast, the Chaos Space Marine is covered fine. No white spots there.

However, the craft paint has one huge advantage: its price. The whole box of 9 paints only cost about $4, while you'd be lucky to get one miniature paint at that price. While paying extra is a sacrifice I'm willing to make when it comes to miniatures, on terrain, craft paints are the way to go. Besides, when it comes to poorly covering paint, two thin coats is better than one thick coat. 

Because of this, I recommend using craft paints on terrain if at all possible. The inexpensiveness, high pigmentation, and ease of countering their downsides makes them a great option for your terrain painting needs.

Happy painting,

FP01