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I'm looking to paint some fantasy minis for my D&D board game and I was told by my friend that the best paint to use is GW paints. He said they make a good boxed set that would provide me with all the paint I would need to mix and match.

Does anyone know where I could get this boxed set, here in Nagoya? Baring that, do you have any alternative recommendations for paint makers? Thanks!

The only place to get GW paints in Nagoya is from Hobby Shop Town Crier in Kamimaezu. It's close to the Joshin gaming shop, but rather difficult to find.
Another good paint maker is Vallejo, which you can buy just up the road from Joshin.
If you can make it to the gaming event this Sunday I can show you both shops.

Thanks for the helpful post, Prime! I can't say for sure if I can make it to Joshin this Sunday, but if I do, I'd be happy to take you up on your offer. BTW, how are the prices on both paints?

@fox - hum. Bit of a can of worms, this thread is. But hey! It's opened now, so...

GW paint is fine and good. No complaints from me about the quality. What I can (and do) complain about is the quantity. They come in 12ml pots for the ungodly price of 500yen or so. Vallejo, otoh, is 18ml for far less (I don't actually buy paint in Japan, but I can tell you that at current exchange rate its about 260yen for a bottle of Vallejo online.) In terms of quality the two companies are absolutely comparable. P3 is also a very good range of paint, and I hear that Reaper Master Series are also good. There's no reason to choose one of these four brands over another - they're fully intermixable. Personally I prefer Vallejo, but I still have plenty of GW from a couple of years ago, as well as a few P3.

I'd advise against buying a box set of paints, as they almost always contain some colours that you don't need. You certainly dont need anything like a full-range set (eg GW mega paint set.) Mixing and matching is the name of the game. Don't worry too much about planning for the future - just buy what you need for painting the minis you have now. Only piece of advice I have for colour selection is to make sure you have a bone colour, a nice dark brown, and a deep dark green or blue. These are all hard colours to mix. Other than that, red, blue, yellow, white, black, metal, gold.

Oh, and get a decent brush. But that's a whole other thread

Edit: depending on how pressed for time you are, my advice would be to buy online. The website i used to buy from has just gone bankrupt (to a great wailing and gnashing f teeth from the many gamers whose pre-order monies went spiralling down the Swanee with em) but the following site has been recommended to me by a chap I trust on CoolMiniOrNot. I haven't used them myself yet, but next time I'm buying, I'll buy from here. Key point: spend over 30quid to get free international shipping.

http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/vallejo-game-colour

Note:GW being who they are, they have imposed a blanket ban on their products being shipped to any address outside of the EU if you order from an EU site, and ditto USA. This is so they can charge 500yen a pot for us schmucks in Japan, whilst charging about 300yen if you buy in the UK. One of the many reasons I now use Vallejo...

GW are about 350 yen from Town Crier I think. Vallejo are about 300 locally.

As for the size of Gw pots, you've got to be doing a heck of a lot of minis to ever go through one.

Listen to Prim re: prices. As I said - I don't buy locally. All I have for reference is the GW website.

That said, I disagree that it takes a long time to go through a GW pot. I've already almost finished my pot of devlan mud, and there are plenty of other washes/foundations that I've almost finished. And that's coming from a guy who mostly uses vallejo. It basically comes down to:

Locally:
Pay 350 yen for 12 ml of paint
Or
Pay 300 yen for 18ml of paint.

Online
Pay 250yen for 18ml (at firestorm prices)

You may or may not have feelings regarding supporting your flgs, but either way, GW lose out to Vallejo...

I'm pretty sure you can also get GW paints from the Meruhen toy store on the red subway line. Worth checking out if you need GW supplies on a weekday when Towncrier is closed.

I use mostly Vallejo but there are a few colors that don't paint well, and GW has a few awesome ones like Tin Bitz. (Does it have a new name?)

@me

Thanks for extensive note and the helpful recommendations. I'm not in any hurry to get started. I probably won't start until after Christmas or even New Year's, so I plenty of time to order online or browse local stores.

Thanks again!