Sometimes reviews are just hard to write. Often it’s because what you’re reviewing is hard to define within the scope you’re used to working in; it’s something new, a deviation. But what could be more straight forward than reviewing paints? I’ve done it before, after all. So why was a review so difficult to write?

Part of the reason is that, as far as my research has shown, these paints are manufactured by the same company that makes Privateer Press’ P3 line of paints. They’re even in the same bottles. There’s absolutely nothing wrong or shady about this, but it did color my perception as a reviewer.

It’s very standard practice for a company to purchase services from another. As an example, when I was attempting to start Stone Tower Miniatures I outsourced my casting to Iron Wind Metals. They handled the casting and packaging for me. In a similar way, I imagine, Colours of Battle had an idea for a paint range, looked around, and found the best company to work with.



As a test I did a test swatch of CoB’s Iron Grey next to P3’s Pig Iron. The colors look kind of close in the bottle, but on my test sheet it is easy to see that Iron Grey is a good shade darker. In fact, all of the CoB paints I was given to review were quite a bit different from their closest P3 counterpart.

These are a completely different brand of paint for a completely different company. My tests proved it. Even their black, when watered down and allowed to fully separate, had some different colors visible (I neglected to take a picture of this test and used up the last of my P3 black… and I couldn’t get another pot before this article was due- my apologies).



Another challenge for me was that I was only given 4 pots of paint to review… but that’s a statistically irrelevant sample size for judging an entire range of paints. I can comment on these 4 colors with authority, but feel uncomfortable making any sort of sweeping assertion.

I can say that the 4 paints I was given were impressive in their own ways. First of all, they come in a very nice, thinned mix. I didn’t have to add much water at all to thin it down to my preferred painting dilution. The paint had good coverage and the metallic uses extremely fine metal particles, resulting in a nice, smooth finish.

The price is also quite nice. I couldn’t find any US suppliers to purchase from, but at the exchange rate I was looking at less than $3 per pot- that’s an incredible deal for such a large amount of paint.

I do feel comfortable enough saying that Colours of Battle is worth the risk to purchase a color or two- try them out and see how you feel about them. Some consumers love to back newer, smaller companies- I think those people would be happy with the quality and color selection available. Anyone who prefers P3 paints should give them a look, too. The manufacturer is the same, so the quality you like only seems to be slightly improved upon with the increased dilution, and you may find a color that matches something you can’t get from P3’s core line.

While this isn’t a true review, it is a cautious recommendation that this company is worth looking at the next time you’re looking to buy some paints.