Miniature Paint Set: 18 x 20ml Acrylic Paints – Non-Toxic, Water-Based for Model Painting

As a lifelong scale model builder and 3D hobbyist I have to say I'm impressed with this brand. I have drawers full of every paint brand imaginable, and my go-to medium is acrylic. I brush paint only when I have to, preferring the airbrush for 95% of my work. I know my way around paints. Ok, bona fides out of the way. What do I think about Golden Maple acrylics?
-The colors in this set are rich and vibrant, which figure painters should appreciate (my normal color range is camouflage).
-The pigment size is super fine. These colors go on like butter.
-They mix incredibly well with water. I know, that's what acrylics do. Well, not all, and few of them mix as well as these. No clumping, no need for aggressive mechanical stirring. Just add water and the paint seems to mix itself.
-When brush painting undiluted the dry finish tends towards a satin, maybe even semigloss.
-When airbrushing the dry finish is flat. If you lay it on a bit heavy it will edge towards matte.
-When dry this paint WILL NOT reactivate with water or itself. When it's dry it stays dry and you can add additional color layers with no fear of reactivating the lower layer/s.
-It grabs the painted surface very tightly. I could not get layer lift even with new (un-detacked) Tamiya tape that was burnished down and aggressively yanked off. Not even when I mechanically scratched the paint and then tried the lift test. You can mask this stuff to your hearts content with no fear of ruining previous work.
-It dries within minutes and can be immediately recoated.
-Most colors, when airbrushed, give good 1 coat coverage. The usual suspects (white, yellow) need a couple coats. I found if I diluted at a 65/35 paint to water ratio I achieved great 1 coat coverage with no spiderwebbing or splatter.
-When properly diluted and airbrushed the paint has excellent self-leveling characteristics. Brush painting requires a bit more care to achieve a no-brushmark finish.
-As I said above, when this paint dries it stays dry. While your wet tools will cleanup easily with plain water, if you let them dry you have to use window cleaner or IPA (alcohol) to release the paint. Window cleaner will work fine on very thin layers of dry paint (i.e. the thin layer that dried in your airbrush paint cup) with some aggressive scrubbing, but brushes and thicker puddles will respond to IPA much better, dissolving almost immediately with little effort.
-Finally, I love the dropper bottles. They have a very fine, thin dispenser tip that is precise and creates little to no waste. Even though these are extremely affordable paints anything you can save is appreciated these days.

Conclusion: I love these paints. They perform. They stay on the model and let you work through your process without fussing over reactivating previous layers or damaging paint layers with paint mask removal. You figure painters should love the vibrant colors. As an armor and aircraft modeler I hope they issue a range of military colors.

The golden maple 18 Colors Model Paint Set is a nicely rounded collection of water-based acrylic miniature paints, with 16 matte colors plus Metallic Gray and Metallic Gold in generous 20 ml dropper bottles. I like the color selection because it provides enough variety for base coats, highlights, shadows, and mixing without turning into an overwhelming collection of dozens of nearly identical shades. The two metallic colors are also a useful addition for models, miniatures, armor, hardware, and other small details.

One feature I particularly appreciate is that the paints come pre-thinned for brush painting. Miniature paints can vary considerably in consistency, and having something that’s ready to go directly from the bottle makes the set much more approachable. Each bottle also contains a glass mixing bead, which is a small but important detail. A good shake helps reincorporate pigment that has settled between painting sessions and gets the paint back to a consistent texture. The dropper bottles are also much cleaner and more precise than dipping directly into paint pots, especially when I’m putting small amounts onto a palette or mixing colors.

The ability to use these with either a brush or airbrush adds quite a bit of versatility. For airbrushing, they can be thinned further with water as necessary to suit the airbrush and technique. Since they’re water-based acrylics, cleanup is also considerably easier than working with solvent-based hobby paints. The quick-drying, self-leveling formula is particularly well suited to building up multiple thin layers while still preserving the tiny molded details that make miniature painting interesting.

Overall, I think this is a particularly good set for someone getting into miniature or model painting who wants a useful range of colors without immediately investing in a huge paint collection. It’s equally convenient to have around for occasional hobby projects, dioramas, scenery, and detail work on plastic, resin, wood, or metal. Between the 20 ml bottle size, useful color assortment, mixing beads, and brush/airbrush compatibility, there’s a lot here to work with.

My four-year-old granddaughter loves to paint, and sometimes simple watercolor or poster paint just does not give enough coverage for what she wants to make. This set gave us a really nice palette of vivid colors, including a couple of shiny metallics, and it was a noticeable step up.

We used simple hand brushes on a few different kinds of models, wood, and plaster. The paint worked well straight from the bottle, and one coat did a good job coloring the different materials. It also mixed beautifully when we wanted to tint a color one way or another.

The bottles are a good size: enough paint to be useful without feeling like a giant container will sit around until it dries out. I especially liked the very fine dropper tips, which made it easy to control how much paint came out without making a mess.

Cleanup was straightforward with water on the brushes. I would not hand these to a young child without supervision, especially around clothes and surfaces, but for a carefully supervised “let’s paint this thing” project, they worked really well.

they did exactly what we expected and offered better coverage and color variety than basic water-based poster paints.

This set gives you a useful selection of 18 colors, including the basic shades needed for most projects along with metallic gold and silver. The 20ml bottles are a good size and provide enough paint for quite a few miniatures or smaller models. The colors blend well.

The acrylic paint is easy to work with and can be thinned with water to adjust the consistency for layering and detail work. Coverage is decent, although some of the lighter colors may need an additional coat depending on the primer and surface underneath. The paint dries reasonably quickly without making it difficult to work with. Its easy to clean up too.

The color selection makes the set versatile for miniatures, tabletop models, terrain, and 3D prints. It's especially useful as a starter set or for filling out a paint collection without buying every color individually. Decent quality and value.

I'm just starting out customizing figures and dioramas and have been looking for a good intro paint kit. Ithis set of 18 acrylic paints are perfect for what I was looking for. There are 18 colors and I find there is a good variety. The paint is pigmented so you can mix colors together to get your perfect shade. Because they are so pigmented, I find I have to use less coats than other paints I have tried. Great value for the price.
The tubes the paint is stored in does a great job at not letting air in to dry out the paint. I also don't have to worry about squeezing to hard and wasting paint. The paint tubes only let a little out at a time, and for someone like me he sometimes squeezes to hard and I use more paint than I intended to. I will definitely be buying these again when I need to restock!