Pro Acryl Paint Buying Guide

Rodge here! Today we're having some fun with Pro Acryl paints!
My official recommendation is below. This does differ slightly from my picks in the video as when there were two similar colors, I tried to pick ones from the same set for the list below (great discount on the base set, slight discount on the others - but not enough to warrant buying paints you don't need!)
Base Set
Expansion Set #3
Skip the remaining Sets and get these individual paints instead (if purchasing through the site, you can still get a 'set' discount for a bulk quantity like this):
Dark Purple
Dark Camo Green
Burnt Orange
Bright Yellow Green
Shadow Flesh
Pale Pink
Bright Neutral Gray or Dark Ivory
Dark Neutral Grey
Yellow Green or Dark Yellow Green
Bright Jade
Dark Flesh
Burgundy
Pink
Warm Yellow
Dark Jade
Royal Purple
White Blue
Beige Red
Dark Warm Flesh
Warm Brown
Dark magenta
Red Grey
Heavy Warm White
Advanced Flesh Tone
Green Oxide
*Rodge:
/ therodgerules
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[@MontyLuhmann]

Great suggestion, Rodge! Inspired, I took a crack at pruning my paint collection too. I discarded 10 old paints and pruned another 40+ to give away. I need to do this 1 more time!

[@RodgeRules]

Ooo, nice! Great to have a giveaway paint stash for those just getting in the hobby!

[@izzydarkhart4144]

Now, personally, I love having multiple colors that are slightly different sense they make my layering, glazing, and wet blending perfect and the more the better for me. Yes i can totally mix a slightly different tone to make the same effect, in fact i love doing that buy i am perfectly okay with just grabbing the next color instead if possibly. I was not able to tell much of difference between colors on the video but i could tell a huge difference after doing some of my own test with my own set of pro acryl at least with the ones i have. Granted I do not own every color, i already new what i wanted in my color range and i only got the base set colors set and got singles of everything else, so maybe i just never got some of the more similar duplicates and i did not have a lot of the colors you compared. I strongly suggest always buying singles for any brand. I completely understand the organization aspect. You either are the artist that is willing to decorate every room in your house with paint of every brand on every wall or you are the one who only keeps out what they are using and organizes and stores the rest. I actually just did the same. I actually completely put all of the other brands i have stopped using besides a few other specific brands in my storage building and will give them away to my friends.

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks for chiming in!

[@GoufinAround_]

I have the starter set of pro acryl and some of the signature and metallics and honestly, they're fantastic. However, as needed, I'm thinking of replacing them with ak 3rd gen or just model color. Also, with the twisting caps, all you have to do is let it sit open for like 30 seconds and then most of the leftover paint will go back into the bottle and then you can wipe the tiny excess onto the palette or paper towel

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks for the tip! I'll try that out. I think I've decided just to stick with the twisties. After using the few dropper ones I have extensively the last month, they're basically always plugged.

[@mikkelkirketerp4884]

Why'd you want to switch to AK or model color?

[@patricklaflin528]

I’ve noticed that ProAcryl has warm and cool version of most of their paints. If you don’t care about that sort of thing, you can just skip half of the line.

[@RodgeRules]

That would explain many the doubles! I would say for most casual army painters, that is not really a consideration and would just confuse things honestly.

[@platinumangel7446]

Thanks for listing the paints you kept.

[@RodgeRules]

No problem! Hopefully I can save folks a few bucks!

[@Night_Bacon]

Petroleum Brown and Dark Crimson are oil and blood “after effects”. Not necessary, but do look quite good if you’re after that sort of thing

[@RodgeRules]

Ooo, good to know!

[@johnmichael3740]

That was really a terrific video, I am just starting to look at this paint line and just have a white and an ivory. My main paints are VMC (play a lot of WWII) and Scale75. I am really looking forward to your Scale75 discussion. I really like them but they are a challenge to shake up and thin.

[@RodgeRules]

Thank you! If you're looking for a selection of brighter "fantasy" style paints with good coverage, then the Pro Acryl range is well worth digging into. That Scalecolors are nice but they can definitely be a pain to work with and I even made a video about it. IMO they are a supplemental range and you need another range to do all your basecoating!

[@aaronwindham6065]

I've had problems with the scale 75 metals ,they leave a lot brush strokes for me and are chunky, is there something I'm doing wrong with them?

[@capnbrunch9612]

I went a bit overboard when i decided to get in the hobby a month ago. I bought the speed paint 2.0 complete set and all the pro acryl excluding signature 3 and 4 and the transparents. The mental load is real. I really should have bought at most the mega set and just a few pro acryl

[@RodgeRules]

Ooo, nice! Just doing my part to push back against the shiny new paint syndrome! :) That is quite a stash! It doesn't really hurt to have all the options but you really don't need that much to paint. On the speedpaints, I've got the original big speedpaint set and have been eyeing up just a few more!

[@TheHedstrom]

I don't have any pro acryl, but should probably do this with my vallejo paints

[@RodgeRules]

Absolutely! I feel like Vallejo did a better job of keeping colors distinct on the Game Color line but if you add in Model Color and the others, then I'm sure there will be some crossover! :)

[@aaronwindham6065]

Hey you made a mistake with that dark bronze, it's one of the better ones. I agree with you on almost all their other metals but dark bronze is solid

[@RodgeRules]

Good to know! I've been thinking about giving their metallics a try!

[@aaronwindham6065]

@@RodgeRules some of them I think are God awful, I mean I can't speak for the rest but I've had good results with their signature series metals. The dark bronze mostlu

[@Kourosmenis]

I get awesome results by mixing any of the Pro Acryl metallics 50/50 with Scale75 metallics with a few drops of army painter speed paint metallics. Lol I know it sounds insane but my gold looks awesome imo

[@Gakusangi]

In many cases, it's just slight variations in saturation, which means it's a really good deal to get their $100 base set, because it'll cover most of this and if you get some practice in with blending the colors you have to make different tones, you'll be just fine with that.

[@RodgeRules]

Agreed, good coverage with the base set for sure! From there, better to pick and choose your individual poisons.

[@justinrisen1929]

Tried the base set and fell in love after getting used to the ultra and i mean ultra matte finish. Bought the expansions and next will be the metallics and the rest of the signature sets as i have Vincy Vs already of course. Hoping the Metallics are good because id like to exclusively use the line. I have tons of GW and VJ paints as well and use them but starting to slip from using them the more and more i use PA. VJ Metal Color is the best for metallics but the range has very limited options and the gold is just trash.

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks for chiming in! I'm thinking about picking up the Pro Acryl metallics myself!

[@justinslife8898]

Iv personally leaned from my army paint mega set purchase back in 2013 and I still have more then enough that I really don't touch now. No digs, I love army painter!!! Iv found that I rather purchase singles if available. I'm no master class painter here, it's not like I paint around the clock either soo having every color under the sun, then every single shade of each of those colors is just not worth it. Personally, purchase primary & secondary colors. Coule of each, back, white and grey. This is usually help you get light and darker, however you'll lose saturation in most. The real ingredient, purchase primary & secondary INKs. Iv personally have had zero problems obtaining a color, light or dark, shades and hues. Now what i do own an abundance of are washes and quick shades 😆 this is what works for me, bc I'm comfortable mixing and chasing what my minds eye see. I don't do army batch painting so rarely have I every needed to be exact to have whole armies color matched. All my work I do is genuinely unique to that particular peice. Shades, highlights all have their own exclusive vaules. Thanks for the vid upload, I own pro acryl transparents and love them!!

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks for chiming in! Would you be able to give me just a quick/rough example of how you use the transparents?

[@justinslife8898]

@RodgeRules many ways, I mix with different mediums or I may add to other paints to tint them. Inks/transparents could also be used as is just know if they're solvent based or water. Solvents usually eat brushes up fairly quick and require a thinner to clean them.

[@OnionLancer]

Since moving away from Citadel paints, I've been using a combination of Vallejo, AK, and Two Thin Coats brands.

[@RodgeRules]

Awesome! I've used plenty of Vallejo in my time and it's nice that it's frequently the "other one" the FLGS has. Haven't tried the other two. How have you been liking those?

[@OnionLancer]

​@RodgeRules I've found that both the AK and the Two Thin Coats lines dry a bit more matte than Citadel paints. As for the Two Thin Coats washes, I've gotten better results thinning them down with a touch of water. Edit: Also, the washes really stain the surface area it's applied to.

[@MattCexwish]

Hej Rodge, thank you for reviewing the Pro Acryl paint and some of our Signature Paints as well, much appreciated. Since you have wondered about the application of the 'Petroleum Brown', 'Dark Crimson', 'Heavy Titanium White', 'Loaded Brush', etc. you will be able to see how we use them in this Detailed Tutorial here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmbNaaZ7o5V2nposi=v5H-Dxf9f7AeWXy- The 'Dark Bronze' is the one Metallic Paint that goes super well as a Base for most types of Metal, it would be great if you could give it a try some fine day! :) Let us know if you have any further questions! Have a great Week, Matt

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks for chiming in, Matt! I've been thinking about giving the metallics a try!

[@ForgeFatherKotaun]

I avoid this problem by using a recipe book for the army and models I paint so I can always can go back to the paints I used later after taking a break to paint something different. Sometimes you need to take a break from painting a large army

[@RodgeRules]

I'll always take a pic of the paint bottles used after the first big push.

[@Thornspyre81]

As much as I absolutely love Pro Acryl, I gotta admit the Dark Purple actually made me a little angry at how blue it is. Anyway lots to love about this video!

[@RodgeRules]

Good point, thanks for chiming in!

[@pat0652]

A final review of what you kept would have been helpful.

[@RodgeRules]

Check the video description. :)

[@danielneal264]

I just started with Pro Acryl for some Footsore minis and so far I am very impressed.

[@RodgeRules]

Awesome! Pretty much all my figs now are started with a Pro Acryl basecoat or the Army Painter Speedpaint!

[@Prototheca]

I don’t paint most of my paints directly on black, which is what you’re doing looking at dried paints on the black caps.

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks for chiming in! I used this comparison method as it's the actual method I use for choosing my colors.

[@Hudston]

That's only really a consideration if the layers of paint are thin enough to allow some of the black to show through, as they would on a miniature, but the drops of dried paint on the lids are thick enough that I'd be stunned if they aren't completely opaque. That said, the contrast between the black cap and the lighter paints might be making them appear more similar than they would next to white. If the caps were white, you'd have the opposite problem and would have likely picked out more pairs of dark colours for being too similar. It's not a perfect solution, but a larger swatch size definitely helps to combat this. I brush some white primer onto the large rings on the caps of my Pro Acryl paints (the top part of the lid before the twisty part of the nozzle) and then paint those rings with the colour in the pot until I can't see the streaky primer anymore. You get a much clearer idea of what the paint will look like when dry and it makes the pots more interesting to look at as a bonus.

[@bebopper02]

Good video

[@RodgeRules]

Thank you!

[@troyjralph]

I've got the full range and have owned them for more than 12-months. To be honest, I regret buying them. I find them far too matte, they separate on the wet pellet, can be horrible directly on the primer, the twist-top caps suck, some colours such as Bold Pyrrole Red and White can be clumpy and not smooth, and finally the range of colours suck; especially a lack of reds, oranges, and yellows. I've genuinely considered selling them. If I were to buy again I'd have a deeper look into AK 3rd Gen, Vallejo and thier new Game Colour range, Two Thin Coats or heck even the new Army Painter Fanatics.

[@amorbavian]

The best paints by far when it comes to not separating on the palette are scale 75. Although they're also very matte so it won't solve that problem. Stay away from Game Color, they separate AND have bad coverage. Haven't tried TTC so idk I would try scale and AK if I were you. These are general observations as all ranges will have deviants from the general feel and performance.

[@RodgeRules]

Agreed on Scale75 on the palette! They seem to last forever! :)

[@izzydarkhart4144]

I have had a completely different experience over the years but how did manage to get so deep into a color range that you hate this much? Lol. Granted I love extreme matte finishes and it goes with my grimdark style and i even spray them down with a matte varnish because they are not matte enough after my enamel wash. Never had problems with separation but i guess that would vary on how much water, type of sponge and how long they are left sitting. I have heard that if you are struggling with this that you should try a dry palette and I have seen many videos of artists frat out suggest it and saying not to use the wet palette sense the paint is already pretty thin. Now if you are using a palette to keep paint fresh for multiple sessions, well you are definitely screwed there unfortunately and definitely a down side to the paint line. Now i never had problems primer and crumbly colors though and It is growing range and are about to release 3 new sets and will probably release more for years to come. Not a problem for me as much sense I primarily mix my own blends. But definitely a problem if they do not have your preferred color and mixing every time could be annoying and there are people who flat out hate mixing paint. And I am positive everyone hates there caps and I bought there dropper caps. But I definitely would not buys those unless you know you love them.

[@Thornspyre81]

​@@izzydarkhart4144I have almost the mirror of your experience with P.A.

[@joshuamichael1232]

Where were you six months ago?!?! 90 pots broke my drawer, you could’ve saved me a trip to Ikea!

[@RodgeRules]

Hehehe! I do have to be careful how far I pull mine out! :)

[@pizzalord3n]

I get major LGR vibes from you, and in a good way!

[@RodgeRules]

Why thank you!

[@vinniecastino3102]

Where did you get that storage cube? Can you share a link please?

[@RodgeRules]

It's from Michaels in the US here!

[@nathanmccook133]

As some one who owns and uses the full range i think this is a way simplified water down way to look at it. For example ive used golden brown as base tone fore a yellow scheme and then used yellow ochre next because they arent the same but rather more like steps in volumes/values. So yea if u want to mix paints instead u can drop some but they arent clones. Another example i just did a jade project using the dark/normal/bright jades and the dark sea ben is no where close to dark jade when swatched. Sea ben is bluer vs dark jade being well more jade/green. Like how in thia video u compared a dark blue and dark purple on how they look on black 🤦 blue and purple arent copies. Dark warm grey and netural grey arent similar either..... I can see what you were going for and all are entitled to our own opinions but at the same time the way u talk/delivered this information could be misleading to someone researching the paint line and cause them to skip paints as "duplicates" that quite frankly arent. Ps agree with an above comment dried cap paint on black not a very accurate reference especially if ur comparing and judging paints as "clones"

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks for chiming in!

[@jimbrown2809]

I think you need to review warm and cool colors..

[@RodgeRules]

Thanks Jim! That is a great idea for a video!