Warhammer Tone Pro

I’ve not been keeping up with new product releases from Games Workshop (GW) in the Warhammer 40K world. I’m still building them, and using the paints. But I no longer await the latest product announcements. I’m old, tired, and figure I’ll see it somewhere eventually.

So it was a surprise when I suddenly saw my YouTube homepage filled with creators promoting Warhammer Color Tone Pro paints. Right now, GW is saying this new paint range will be in addition to their old (current) paint range.

Yeah, sure… I believe you GW. 🤔

The creators who received the paints to try before they’re released had to sign a pretty tight agreement with GW, based on what I’ve seen. And some of the videos have been… ridiculous in my opinion. A few show paint being (literally) globbed on, and then drying nicely, to show the “self-leveling” properties. Others show things being covered in one coat.

Nothing says “we’re still hurt” like saying “all you need is ONE thick coat.” Take that, Duncan Rhodes. Now, GW, if you can show me on this painted pony where the bad Duncan hurt you…

Anyways…

A few of the creators seemed to be trying way, way too hard to essentially jump up and down and wet the carpet in their enthusiasm for these new paints. I get it though. When you make your living on YouTube, it’s a fine line between integrity and honesty.

To be fair, a few have come out with additional videos that seem a bit more balanced. But that first day… wow… it was weird.

I’m reminded of the whole Army Painter SpeedPaint’s “reactivation” issue. No one mentioned it… until someone did. And then Army Painter and most creators with AP logos everywhere said it was a “feature.” Until Army Painter released a new formula. One that didn’t reactivate. And suddenly no one mentioned the loss of that… ahem… feature.

So it’s nothing new. I get it. I can take potshots because I’ve lost at the game of trying to be a YouTuber so I can sit at home with my ball and point my fingers. Yet if Vallejo says “we’ll provide you anything you need from now on for free” you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll see “SPONSORED BY VYE-YAY-HO” all over my videos.

But Richard Gray… he of the Golden Demon and Slayer Sword and quiet painting videos, he was sent the paints. And his assessment was about what I assume reality will show. The TLDR version is that they’re not bad paints. They seem to have some nice colors.

But it’s… paint. It’s acrylic paint. And for years I’ve said that any paint that is water-based acrylic has to fit within a certain envelope of constraints to work. Yes, there are differences. But at this point I don’t know that there will be some wild chemical discovery that will suddenly mean we all ditch everything for a new brand of water-based acrylic. It’s like gasoline. The gas companies can name all sorts of exotic-sounding additives and specialized formulations. But it still has to work in that 1988 Honda Civic as well as it does in the 2026 model. You can’t stray too widely.

So… Did You Preorder Any?

Yes. Stop laughing.

I like the current (old?) Citadel range. I have a lot of them. They’re good paints. I’ve talked about that many times. But they’re still just paint. Citadel, Vallejo, and Two Thin Coats. That’s the bulk of my paint investment. And that is simply because they work. So if I see a color I like from those three, I get it. I may buy other brands, but those are the “big three.”

And because I believe that eventually the current (old?) range will go away—because it is expensive to maintain two paint lines and market them as equally good—I wanted to try a few colors I liked. So I ordered:

• Craventhrone Cloak 3
• Ta’unar Ochre 3
• Bloodtoof Red 1
• Gnarlwood 2
• Blackstone Void 3
• Chotec Orange 2
• Seraphon Blue 3
• Necrolith Bone 5
• Kasrkin Green 3
• Tech Pro: Shading Medium

Now, those numbers aren’t the quantity, but rather… the color within a range.

Currently, Warhammer Color uses a “three-step” method of Base, Layer, and Highlight. So ignoring their silly names, it means you lay down some dark blue on your space marine, then paint the major flat surfaces with a medium blue, and then highlight with a light blue. It’s a simple way to teach new gamers how to paint their models in a way that is more than just a boring, flat single color. And each bottle of paint has a unique name.

And, coincidentally, it means more sales too. I’m not criticizing, as it is a business. But make no bones about it… it is a way to sell MORE paints.

So these new paints have a name, and then hues within that range that are related. And instead of three colors, they have five colors. And thus “Blackstone Void” is not a paint’s name, but a paint set name. They’re numbered 1 to 5, with 1 being the darkest, and 5 being the lightest. It looks like this:

So instead of “white” being White Scar, in this new range it’s… Blackstone Void 5. Which is TOTALLY intuitive. (I’m sure John 5 loves it.)

I made some choices based on what colors I thought looked nice, and that I would use. The names are head-scratchers to me, but I can see a color I like. So I have no idea what a “Chotec Orange 2” is, but the paint chip color looked like a nice rust base.

One thing I did find really interesting was the Shading Medium. In several videos, this has received good reviews. It’s supposed to make any paint you mix it with act like one of Citadel’s Shades. Which could be really useful, BUT it also makes me wonder if their Shades will go away. And we’ll be left with Tone Pro and Contrast.

Which sounds like an ’80s hip-hop duo with stylin’ shoes.

Of course, I’ll try these out. Curiosity—and the expected $75 from YouTube for this month—convinced me to give them a try. And no, this won’t make me throw out my old paints no matter how good they are. Despite years of searching, I’ve not yet found a paint brand where the price AND quality is better than Vallejo. And the fact that the “old” paints from GW were $4.75 for 12 ml, and these new ones are $6.50 for the same amount… and Vallejo (at 17 ml) can be found for as low as $3… you do the math.

I’ll report back sometime what I think. And I predict it will be some form of “they’re just decent paints that are too expensive” will be my conclusion. Maybe not.

But I’m not holding my breath.

Low Friction Production

Over the years, I’ve “stripped back” my video production process. (Not that it was ever high-tech.) No opening music, no closing music, no “smash that button to like and subscribe” talk with an animation. And I gave up those stupid thumbnails with the “shocked face,” or the “surprised face,” or whatever. Embarrassing. What was I thinking? (I’m actually slowly replacing those…)

The goal nowadays is “frictionless production.” I sit down, turn my phone’s camera on, clip my mic to my glasses, and just talk. No “B-roll” footage, few photo overlays. Just talk and do. I learned several years ago that all those gimmicks got me nowhere. So why not enjoy the road to nowhere with as little trouble as possible?

As I looked at this quest I am on to spam release content to tens of modelers worldwide, I identified one more area that really doesn’t make a dang bit of difference—the thumbnail for a video or blog post.

I looked back at some of those horrible, horrible thumbnails I did because like a complete idiot I listened to the “experts” who said “you need your ugly face in every thumbnail looking shocked.” None of them gave the caveat of “except you Jon, because it’s pointless to do so.”

So I ended up with complete and utter moronic nonsense like this. (See sample of the idiot thumbnails.) 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️ I blame the lack of beard.

Anyway, when you see my thumbnails lacking ANY text, no, I’ve not lost my mind. Well… to restate that… yes, this is intentional. I may have lost my mind, but this is simply an aftereffect.

Will it result in more clicks or views? I have no idea. But I realized a simple fact.

I don’t care.

It’s just easier. Way easier. No thoughts of cleverness. No titles. No font choices. Just take a photo and make it the thumbnail and know that 70% of the 200 people who see it and click on it in the first hour after launch will be GONE by the 3:00 minute mark. And whoever stays probably wasn’t paying much attention to the thumbnail anyway.

Now, you may be asking yourself “how is this Newsletter worthy?” Go on… ask yourself. I’ll wait.

Well, what else am I gonna write about? 😉

Of course, there’s also a real possibility that a future newsletter will talk about why I’m adding text BACK to the thumbnails because traffic dropped even further than my “don’t care” attitude could absorb.

Ego is such a complicated thing.

New Book From Lincoln Wright

If you like Gunpla, or painting and weathering mecha, or simply models in general, be sure and check out the latest book from Lincoln Wright of Paint on Plastic. It’s a new series he’ll be releasing called Fireline, and Fireline 001 Rex is the flagship release for the series. It covers the entire process for building a single kit. Linc will have it available in both a print and digital edition soon, and you can get them bundled as well. The digital is planned for release in October 2026, and the print is scheduled to follow shortly thereafter. Of course, any time you publish a book, delays can happen. (Ask me how I know this. 😉)

Here’s a brief quote from Linc’s online store about this book:

FIRELINE 001 documents the full studio treatment of Bandai’s Full Mechanics 1/100 Lupus Rex — a machine from a universe where combat is kinetic. These suits don’t exchange beam fire at range. They dent, scrape, cook from the inside, and drag themselves home covered in dust and hydraulic fluid. Every surface decision in this build has a story reason: scavenged armour carries a different texture than factory plate, chipping concentrates where the machine hits things, and the finish is asymmetric because the damage was.

That highlights one of the things I love about Linc’s work, and how it has really helped me over the years. Decisions made during the finishing process are just that—decisions. Everything on a real-world object—chip, stain, leak, discoloration—has a reason behind it, and it happens in time. On our models, we don’t simulate this process haphazardly, but with deliberation and purpose—with decisions—because they are a map of the history that the piece tells. Even if it is sci-fi, those decisions convey a story. Linc’s work really highlights this.

I’ve really enjoyed Linc’s books and guides over the years. I still have his original “Rex” PDF guide from the early days of Paint on Plastic.

Be sure and check out his other books and kits as well!

Thanks But No Thanks, YouTube

YouTube is constantly sending creators announcements of how they are “helping” grow your channel. A recent one I received told me how if I mentioned a product in a video, I could just click a button and voilà… a little pop-up appears taking the viewer right to Amazon or other YouTube “partners,” whatever that means.

But, I checked a few prices. For example, one of the products YouTube flagged that I could link from in the video to Amazon was Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. The price on Amazon for a single bottle ranged from $9.99 to $13.99, and from a wide variety of sources that I had no idea who they were. And Scale Hobbyist—an online model shop I have trusted for nearly 20 years—has it for $6.99. And while I get it often comes with “free” shipping… that’s not really the point.

Because if a creator uses that service, they get a small “revenue share.” So YouTube would direct viewers to spend possibly way too much on a simple product from a source I have no idea if they are reliable, all so I can get a few cents.

Sorry… that’s not me. (Except you, Vallejo… call me.)

If you want to save money on Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, buy a bottle of Tamiya Airbrush Cleaner. And no, I don’t get a kickback from that. I just like Scale Hobbyist. (But please check with your local hobby shop first.) It’s way, way, way cheaper per ounce. And it is the same stuff. I know this because for the last year or more, every time you hear me speak of using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement in a video… it’s actually Tamiya Airbrush Cleaner that I decanted into a Tamiya Extra Thin bottle. It’s just less confusing to people on YouTube to not try and sort out the caveats, and then respond to the inevitable “no it’s not.”

Anyway… no thanks YouTube.

If you ever do see a product linked on screen… it wasn’t me.

Thanks for taking time to read to the end, friends. Happy day to you,

jon