The Army Painter John Blanche Signature Sets - A Quick Review

 I just opened the John Blanche sets from The Army Painter, and whilst they are undoubtedly useful, I have a few thoughts.

Here are the colours and paints included in the two sets, after getting through the plastic, cardboard sleeve and indeed the box itself. Why oh why do we need so much packaging for this product?

Once you get inside, there's the same rather uninspired piece of artwork in both sets (why they didn't go for something more exciting or indeed two different pieces, given the amount of packaging fluff, I don't know, but it's the visual equivalent of Steve Hackett's 'noodling', and a massive oversell on the part of TAP.

There are sundry other flyers and booklets, which, given that this is a supplemental/advanced set, seem to be another waste of paper and effort, which, like it or not, the customer will have been charged for. 

So; here's the stuff you really want to know about:

Now, on reflection and as a veteran full-time painter, I would have liked to have seen possibly three sets with one having washes and effects and metallics, one with the 'vivid' colours and one with the Grimdark colours.

Speed Paint is great, if you use it. I personally don't because frankly I just don't like the finish and it encourages in most hobby painters a lazy reliance on something which can be done just as efficiently with traditional fine art products and with far better permanence. Brook me no buts... It's a fact and no matter how much you shake your head or make offensive comments, it still remains a fact, fanboys!

I have to hand it to TAP, they have played a blinder here, by getting John Blanche to endorse what is in essence a brilliant set of paints, but, the colours seem to be exactly the colours I felt were missing from the Fanatic range when I bought the who kit and kaboodle.

They are useful colours, and again, I will say they are brilliant, but did we need a John Blanche masterclass to tell us that there was a lack of a truly vibrant yellow and red, or that there were two gaping holes in the military greens? The berry is a very useful black with red combo which will make for punch strong midcoats and highlights when used in combination with what is another paint taht should have been in the core set. 

The one colour which seems at this stage to be a waste of a slot, is the ivory which looks like two shades already in the core set of paints. I have (or did at last testing) 100% Pantone recognition ability, so unless I am missing something - and maybe I am, I cannot see what the advantage of this repetition is.

The metallics do look similar to others in the range, but I can see them being popular if only to allow a variety of shades of a given metal and to add variety when painting an army.

Now, this is my opinions on a brief inspection, and although I may seem negative, that negativity is merely targeted at the fact that, as I say, some of these colours - most in fact - should have been part of the core set, perhaps sacrificing some of the pretty pointless variations of pink - a notorious colour for 'bleeding' anyway - to fit them in, if that was an issue.

So, I will give this an 80% rating but really I think that the use of the John Blanche 'brand' and cache, is being used like smoke and mirrors to cover up some glaring holes in what I think is probably the best range of paints in 30 years and the most game-changing set of paints in 40 years or more.

Buy them, becuase at the very least they will provide ready mixed base shades for some oft-used colours. These are useful colours for the most part and without them your collection is lacking.