Review: P3 hobby paints wave 1

Remember your favourite paint range from the late 2000s? Formula P3 is back, baby! Following the unexpected acquisition of the Warmachine licence, Steamforged Games have relaunched the iconic P3 range via Kickstarter. They’re promising an updated formula and a fresh start. P3 was once hailed as the go-to paint for wet blending — but does that still hold up? And in a market now brimming with high-quality miniature paints, is that enough to make P3 stand out? In this review, I’ll test the entire new P3 range to answer these questions and more.

Formula P3 was originally developed by Mike McVey, one of the most iconic ‘Eavy Metal painters of the 90s, who also had a hand in the vintage Citadel Colour ranges. Launched in 2006, Formula P3 quickly gained a loyal following alongside the rising success of the Warmahordes game system. However, over the years, the range saw little innovation or expansion. And when Privateer Press began scaling back their miniature lines, availability of P3 dried up almost completely. It seemed the range was fading into obscurity, as many painters began shifting to more modern and more readily available paints.

But I still have a soft spot for the P3 range and when I saw the Kickstarter announcement I wondered: Are these still the P3 paints we know and love? How do they perform compared to the originals, and can they keep up with more modern paint ranges? 

Check out my video to answer these questions:

The P3 paint range review

I got my hands on the entire range and tested each and every of the 110 paints thoroughly. So let’s see if Steamforged Games has managed to improve on what was already good, or if they’ve potentially skimped on the quality to make a quick buck on Kickstarter. If you backed P3 there, you could choose between dropper bottles and the old-school flip-top pots. However, the retail paints will be sold in dropper bottles only, containing 18 ml of paint and two mixing balls each, which are always a welcome addition.

The refreshed P3 palette has grown to 110 colours, with 18 metallics and 1 mixing medium. This is noticeably smaller than many other hobby paint ranges these days, but a second wave with 64 more colours is already planned. The selection of primary and secondary colours is for now a bit limited, as neutral and brown tones are proportionally somewhat overrepresented. The colours are loosely organised, there isn’t some sort of triad system like in other ranges. However, there is a leaflet with suggested colour combinations for shading and highlighting, which you can probably download somewhere. While there are plenty of new paints, not all old colours made it to the new range though. For example, they ditched all of the washes and inks. 

Maybe these will return in a future wave, but I wasn’t a huge fan of them anyways. For me, the regular acrylics have always been the star of the P3 range. I’ll show you how the new P3 acrylics stand up to the previous generation in a moment, but first, I want to take a look at the metallics. 

Testing the new P3 metallics

As I often say, metallics are usually a good indicator of the overall quality of a paint range. And being brutally honest, I found the old Formula P3 metallics to be hit or miss. I don’t know about you, but I found some of them were quite decent, but most reminded me of the consistency and covering power of the Citadel Layer metallics. You know, the more mediocre ones, not the better ones with the white caps. And that’s no surprise, as P3 paints are made by HMG in the UK, which used to make the current Citadel Colour range before Games Workshop moved the production in-house. I made a video about the secret changes in the Citadel Colour range, check it out if you haven’t yet, it’s a must-watch for anyone using Citadel paints.

So the new P3 metallics are… different. Apparently, Steamforged Games, similar to Two Thin Coats, uses a new technique employing coloured aluminium particles instead of mixing silver metallic particles with a dye to tint them. This results in high covering power and a smooth finish with a fine metallic texture. The sheen is also super nice – once dry, the metallics look fantastic. Especially if you prefer your metallics a bit shinier and sparklier, rather than matte and smooth. The consistency is cohesive, though the medium doesn’t seem to bind the metallic flakes quite as evenly as with Vallejo’s Mecha Color or Model Air metallics, and the paints need a lot of shaking.

I also found that especially the metallic and pearlescent colours in the Irregular paint set are all very light, which naturally makes their covering power quite weak. Although, to be fair, that’s the same with similar pearl metallics in other paint ranges like AK 3rd Gen.

All of this taken together, I find it difficult to give a definitive rating. Still, the new P3 metallics are a clear improvement over the old versions and easily hold their own against ranges like Two Thin Coats and Warpaints Fanatic. They’re not quite the “toppest” of top tier in my book , though the potential for a score of 9 would have been there if not for the Irregulars. As it stands, I’d still give them a very respectable 8 out of 10. my favourites are probably the bronze and copper colours, which have outstanding covering power. Let me know about your experiences with the metallics in the comments if you already got yours from Kickstarter.

The updated acrylics – improvement or sidestep?

Right, having now tried the metallics, I’m a bit worried about testing the acrylics. You see, I absolutely love some of the old formula P3 colours and I really look after them in my collection. So let’s see if the new P3 acrylics are an improvement or more of a side-step.

I remember that back in the late 2000s Formula P3 was a breath of fresh air. All we had was Games Workshop and Vallejo, plus eventually Reaper paints when you lived in the US. The P3 palette was perfectly tailored to the model range of the Iron Kingdoms, with matching 6-packs for each faction. This led to many quirky and unique colours that you couldn’t find elsewhere at that time. For example, the iconic grey-green of Cryx, Menoth burgundy, or the pale turquoise skin of the Trollkin. What really won me over, though, were the bone and mocha brown colours. These are still part of my daily rotation, and later in this review I’ll compare if the new generation can colour-match the old versions.

But apart from the colour selection, what made P3 paints stand out for me was their silky consistency and slightly longer drying time. This made them perfect for blending, and beautiful blends were the trademark of Privateer Press’ studio painting style. Let’s see if that’s still the case. At first glance, when I put the new P3 on my palette, I feel that they didn’t change too much. Okay, the paints now come in dropper bottles instead of those containers where the hinge always seemed to break after a few weeks. But the paint itself feels pretty much identical. The consistency is as silky as you remember, not too thick, not too thin. The paint glides off the brush really well, and the thinning and glazing properties are fantastic, which also benefits airbrushing. 

So even though Steamforged Games hasn’t drastically changed the feeling of the paints, they have managed to improve a crucial aspect. As good as the old Formula P3 range was for its time, there was one problem. Most of the colours had a high pigment density, but tricky colours like white, yellow, red, purple, and light green had only a quite weak covering power. Back then, the technology behind hobby paints simply wasn’t at the level it is today. Especially brighter colours are now much more heavily pigmented and opaque without sacrificing too much vibrancy. And you don’t need to be a Golden Demon-level painter to benefit from it. One of my new favourite paints is Khador Red – a bright neutral red that covers black in just two to three thin coats. A fantastic upgrade over the old version.

What stayed the same though is the finish. It’s proper old-school satin glossy, just as you remember it. It’s noticeably glossier than, say, Citadel paints and Warpaints Fanatic. I think it goes well with the colour palette, as the gloss adds even more depth to the rich and highly saturated colours. You’ll either love it or hate it, but seeing as the trend is leaning more towards matte paints, the gloss is definitely a unique selling point of P3.

Is P3 really the best paint for blending?

And speaking of USPs – how does it blend? Well, the drying time is still longer than with, for example, Games Workshop or Warpaints Fanatic. This gives you a longer working time for blending. In my tests, I had no trouble mixing two colours on the model while still wet with a second, clean brush. So, yes, it’s true that P3 paints are well-suited for blending.

But it’s also part of the truth that many of the more modern paint ranges have an increased amount of drying retarder and flow improver added. For example, Pro Acryl, Two Thin Coats, and Vallejo. In my opinion, this makes these paint ranges just as good for blending. In fact, Two Thin Coats has an even longer drying time, which in theory should make blending even easier. Two Thin Coats also has slightly better self-levelling properties and is more forgiving when it comes to avoiding visible brushstrokes. So the idea that P3 is the paint for wet blending is, at the end of the day, a marketing thing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, and I should also mention that I’m not the best wet blender in the world. I know that other creators such as Ninjon who paint at a much higher level than me swear by P3 for blending, so there must be some truth to it.

So I don’t want to criticise that, but if I had to be picky and nitpick about something, it would be that a few colours didn’t have the same consistent texture as the rest, similar to the metallics. My Thamar Black for example, was a bit too thin for my taste.

Colour-matching old Formula P3 vs new

But one question remains. Not all colours from the old P3 range were carried over into the new one, and some older colours got renamed. But for the colours that stayed, have they remained consistent in tone, which is crucial for matching older paint jobs, or have they changed?

To check this, I grabbed a random selection of old and new paints and put them side by side. Here’s the result.

By and large, the new versions match the old ones quite well, but not 100% perfectly. Which is why I’ll say what I always say during a range refresh: if you rely on a specific colour, stock up while there are still some old paints around. And be aware that P3 paints have changed over the years. I have an older and newer pot of Coal Black, and the newer version is a nuance lighter and the consistency a bit thinner. I also have a pot of Battlefield Brown that is more reddish, and one that is more neutral.

If you want to compare the new P3 paints for yourself, I’ve created a professional digital swatch featuring the entire range. It’s made from real hand-painted samples and much more accurate than any other graphic, and fully cross-compatible with my library of other swatches, so you can make direct comparisons with ease. You’ll find my swatches and my interactive 7-in-1 document over on Patreon, so you’ll never have to accidentally buy the wrong paints for your projects again:

This hand-painted swatch is available in my Patreon shop for a small donation (or by becoming an Autarch tier member). I also have swatches for Pro Acryl, AK 3rd Gen, Vallejo Game & Model Color, Citadel Colour, and more – all cross-compatible with each other so you can compare colours across different brands. Check out my shop for details.

Value

The RRP of a bottle of P3 paint is £3.99 / 4.50 € / $4.75, with the metallics being slightly more expensive. At 18ml per bottle, that works out to £0.22 per millilitre for the acrylics – identical to Citadel Colour paints, which are also £0.22 per millilitre. This places P3 hobby paints firmly in the premium price bracket, though many of our partner stores offer a 10% discount:

You can find the latest hobby products at our 🇬🇧/🇪🇺 partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Firestorm Games, at 🇩🇪 Taschengelddieb and PK-Pro, and at 🇺🇸 Noble Knight Games with a welcome discount of up to 10–15% over RRP. Using our links helps to support Tale of Painters at no additional cost to you, so thank you very much for using them!

I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.