GW Getting Things Right – Ceramite White and Agrax Earthshade

Oh, how lovely it is to be able to say that our favourite evil corporation gets something right.

I got two of GW's new paints, with the express purpose of seeing if they were any good. I got Agrax Earthshade, because it's the closest thing to Devlan Mud in the new line, and Ceramite White, 'cause I've always missed white in the Foundation line.

I haven't done any extensive research or testing, but first impressions are good.

The Ceramite White is a) not really white, and b) awesome. Regarding the whiteness, the Ceramite is like Astronomican Grey with a lot of Skull White in it. I'm fine with that. It leaves room for a Skull White highlight, if it's actually white you're painting, but is still close enough to white to work well as a basecoat for light and/or bright colours.

For coverage, I applied the Ceramite White straight from the pot, over a black undercoat. It covered about as well as Astronomican Grey, which is the benchmark here, but a bit more evenly, and - I think - with a thinner coat, as the Ceramite is a bit thinner to begin with.

So top grades on the Ceramite White, so far.

For the Agrax Earthshade, I've been on the opinion that, if GW took Devlan Mud and made it smell (and yes, taste) better, that's a solid win. It's the only problem I've ever had with Devlan Mud: it smells like it looks - brown.

Well, the Power that Be (which might or might not be GW, and might or might not be Satan) seems to have thought the same. As far as I can tell, Agrax Earthshade is Devlan Mud with a pleasant sort of plastic smell.

Only thing that bugs me is the fact that it comes in a bottle that is very difficult to open the first time around. It got a lot better after that, but that first time was ourtright scary: fighting to open a bottle full of wet paint near to a half-painted mini (not to mention my sofa, living room table and wood floor) is not fun.

And those are my first impressions on these two paints. Just one hundred and forty to go...

Ta.