Vallejo Game Color is the standard matt acrylic range at the heart of the wider Vallejo Game Color family. This is the workhorse line, the one you reach for when you need to paint clothing, leather, skin, fur, wood, stonework, or any of the surfaces that make up most of a typical fantasy or wargame figure. The line covers around 80 colors, all 18ml dropper bottles, all sharing the same water based acrylic chemistry that runs through the rest of the family.

The new formulation was developed in collaboration with professional painter Angel Giraldez and represents a meaningful step up from the older Game Color generation. The paint is more fluid, more opaque, and carries higher pigment saturation than the previous version. It self-levels as it dries, which means brush strokes vanish into the surface instead of leaving streaks on a cured layer. The matt finish is consistent across the whole range, so colors sit next to each other without one panel suddenly looking glossier than its neighbour.

Adherence is the other thing the new formulation does well. Vallejo built the resin around the reality that miniature painting involves figures that get handled, packed, transported, and pushed around a tabletop. The cured paint resists rubbing and scraping better than most water-based acrylics in this category, which matters for an army you actually game with rather than a display piece that lives in a cabinet.

The line is structured around the Base, Shadow, Light triad system. Colors are grouped in chromatically compatible sets of three: a base tone, a shadow tone for recess shading, and a light tone for raised highlights. You do not have to follow the triads to use the paint, but they take the color theory guesswork out of the equation if you are starting from scratch. The standard matt range also includes a series of Extra Opaque variants with higher pigment density, designed to cover dark primer or contrasting base coats in a single layer where the regular formulation would need two.

Where does standard Game Color sit relative to its siblings? It is the foundation. Vallejo Xpress Color is the speedpaint shortcut, Vallejo Game Color Metallic handles armor and weapons, Vallejo Game Color Wash shades, Vallejo Game Color Ink glazes, Vallejo Game Color Fluo glows, and Vallejo Game Color Special FX weathers. The standard matt range is what most of those other lines build on top of. Most figures spend the majority of their paint time in this line.

How to Use

Surface preparation. Always primer your figure first. Game Color adheres well to plastic, resin, and metal, but only with a primer underneath. Water based primer in white, light grey, or black all work depending on the look you want. White primer keeps colors brighter; black primer pre-shades for darker, moodier figures; grey is the neutral middle ground. Let the primer cure fully before you start painting.

Brush application. Shake the bottle, dispense one drop onto a wet palette, and apply with a soft synthetic or sable brush. The paint goes on smoothly straight from the bottle for opaque base coats. For layering and glazes, thin slightly with water or an acrylic medium. The self-leveling formulation does most of the work of hiding brush marks, so you do not need to overwork the layer.

Airbrush application. Game Color works through an airbrush when properly diluted. Vallejo Airbrush Thinner is the recommended thinner; ratios of 1:1 to 2:1 paint-to-thinner work for most colors. Low pressure (around 1.5 bar) and short passes give you the smoothest result. For a dedicated airbrush formulation, the Game Air range is the matched companion.

Quick reference.

Layering and the triad system. The classic Vallejo workflow is base, shadow, light. Apply the base tone over the whole panel. Apply the shadow tone into the recesses, either by direct brush placement or with a follow-up Vallejo Game Color Wash for capillary recess flow. Then apply the light tone to the raised surfaces and edges with a smaller brush or drybrush. Each step uses paint from the same triad cluster so the colors stay coherent.

Mixing. Colors mix freely with each other, with Vallejo Game Color Ink, with Vallejo Mecha Colors, and with the rest of the water based Vallejo paint range. The shared chemistry means you can move between lines in the same paint session without compatibility issues.

Cleanup and sealing. Wet paint cleans up with water and brush soap. Once cured, you need a dedicated acrylic cleaner. Seal finished figures with a water based or compatible acrylic varnish in your chosen sheen.

Specifications Table