Pro Acryl Paints Buyer's Guide — What to Buy First for Miniature Painting
View the Pro Acryl 1-Step Set 1 at Monument Hobbies (affiliate link) — code: SCALEMOTION776
If you have been spending any time in miniature painting communities — YouTube tutorials, Reddit threads, hobby Discord servers — you have almost certainly heard 'Pro Acryl' mentioned. Monument Hobbies' flagship paint range has built a strong and genuinely earned reputation over the past few years, and it has done so without the decades of brand inertia that Citadel or Vallejo carry. The question most new painters ask is not whether Pro Acryl is good — the consensus on that is fairly settled — but rather where to start. The range is broad, the sub-lines can be confusing, and buying the wrong one is an easy mistake to make.
This guide cuts through that. It explains what Pro Acryl is, how the range is structured, and — most importantly — what to buy first based on your hobby level. All products link directly to Monument Hobbies, where you can use the code SCALEMOTION776 (US) or SCALEMOTION496 (EU) at checkout for a discount.
What Is Pro Acryl — and Why Does It Matter?
Pro Acryl is Monument Hobbies' in-house acrylic paint range, developed from the ground up with miniature painting performance as the priority. Each bottle is 22 ml – notably larger than the 12 ml standard of Citadel or the 17 ml of Vallejo – and formulated for consistency across brush, wet palette and airbrush applications. The key characteristics that the community keeps returning to are coverage (opaque colours that cover in thin coats without losing detail), flow (smooth application without pooling or tip-drying), and colour integrity through dilution (paints that stay true when thinned, rather than becoming chalky or separating).
The range was designed by painters, for painters — Monument Hobbies is built around a community of hobby content creators, and the paint development reflects that feedback loop directly. The result is a range that performs well across techniques: base coating, layering, wet blending, glazing, NMM, and OSL. It is not a beginner range that limits you as you improve, nor an advanced range that trips up beginners—it scales with the painter.
Read Monument Hobbies' own overview of what makes Pro Acryl different
How the Range Is Structured
Understanding the Pro Acryl ecosystem before you buy prevents confusion and wasted spend. The range breaks down into distinct product lines, each with a specific purpose:
Paint Singles
The core of the range consists of individual 22ml bottles that cover the full Pro Acryl colour palette. These are the paints you build your collection with over time, adding colours as your projects require them. The palette is well-considered: strong neutrals, useful mid-tones, and a good spread of warm and cool variants within each colour family. If you know what colours you need for a specific project or faction, singles are the most targeted way to buy them.
Browse Pro Acryl Paint Singles (code: SCALEMOTION776 US / SCALEMOTION496 EU)
Paint Sets
Curated bundles of Pro Acryl singles grouped by theme or purpose. This category is where most new painters should start — sets are priced with a discount versus equivalent singles, and the curation does the selection work for you. The current set range includes the following:
- Pro Acryl Starter Paint Set — the designed entry point for new Pro Acryl painters. A foundational palette covering the essential colours needed to get started on most miniature subjects.
- Pro Acryl Base Set — a broader core palette at $100.00, covering the full range of base colours needed for serious army painting across multiple factions and subjects.
- Pro Acryl Metallic Set — dedicated metallics covering the core metal tones: iron, steel, gold, bronze and their variants. Metallics are one of the areas where Pro Acryl's formula consistency shows most clearly – a smooth, non-gritty application that works as well over a brush as through an airbrush.
- Pro Acryl Expansion Sets #1–#4 — additional colour ranges that extend the base palette. Expansion Set #2 is the Transparent set — highly diluted, glazing-weight colours ideal for OSL, colour modulation and skin tone work.
- Fluorescents Set — at $28.50, a compact set of fluorescent colours primarily used for OSL effects, Warhammer 40K energy weapons, and spot-colour work. Not a primary palette but a useful speciality purchase.
- Signature Series Sets — palette sets curated by well-known painters in the community: Vince Venturella (Set 1), Ninjon (Set 2), Ben Komets (Set 3), Matt Cexwish (Set 4), Flameon Miniatures (Set 5), and Rogue Hobbies (Set 6). Each set reflects the curating painter's colour preferences and techniques. These are worth buying if you follow the work of a specific artist and want to paint in a similar way — the palette choice is intentional and coherent.
Browse all Pro Acryl Paint Sets (code: SCALEMOTION776 US / SCALEMOTION496 EU)
Pro Acryl 1-Step
One of the more distinctive products in the range is paint formulated to prime and basecoat simultaneously, eliminating the separate priming stage for painters who want to move directly to colour work. 1-Step is particularly useful for speed painters, batch painters working through large armies, and anyone who wants to reduce the number of steps between an unboxed miniature and a painted result. The formula bonds directly to plastic, resin, and metal without needing a separate primer coat, while still giving a consistent basecoat surface for the next layers.
AMP Colors
Atmospheric and Mood Palette colours are highly transparent, tinted paints designed primarily for zenithal priming, atmospheric underlighting, and colour modulation work. AMP colours are applied over a black-and-white or grey zenithal prime, creating a tinted base that retains the light/shadow information of the prime while introducing colour temperature. The technique has become increasingly mainstream in the miniature painting community, and AMP colours are specifically designed to support it.
Washes
Pro Acryl washes are formulated for shade and panel lining work – flowing into recesses and drying with a matte finish that does not leave the tide marks common with some wash formulas. A useful complement to the main paint range for painters who want a unified system.
Paint Mediums
Additives for modifying Pro Acryl behaviour: flow improver, retarder (for extended wet palette working time), and Jentastic's Drunken Brush Goop — a brush soap and conditioner that has become something of a community staple. Mediums are not essential for beginners but become increasingly useful as you refine your techniques.
Primers and Spray Primers
Dedicated primers in brush-on and spray can formats. The spray primers are worth considering for painters who rattle-can prime (the most common approach for batch painting), as they are formulated to work specifically with Pro Acryl over the top.
Weathering Pigments and Basing Textures
Finishing products for completing a miniature's base and applying environmental wear – dust, rust, mud, and soot. These sit at the end of the painting workflow rather than at the beginning but are worth knowing about as your painting progresses.
Weathering Pigments → | Basing Textures
What to Buy First — By Painter Type
Complete Beginner — New to Miniature Painting
Start with the Pro Acryl Starter Paint Set. It is specifically designed as the entry point, contains the foundational colours you need to paint most miniature subjects, and avoids the paralysis of choosing from the full single catalogue. Pair it with a bottle or two of the wash range for shading and a spray primer (or the 1-Step system if you want to skip priming entirely). Do not overinvest in paint before you know what subjects and factions you will be focusing on — the Starter Set gives you enough to work with while you find that out.
Painter Switching From Citadel
If you are coming from Citadel and switching to Pro Acryl, the Pro Acryl Base Set is the most logical move — it gives you a full working palette equivalent to a Citadel base coat collection, and at 22 ml per bottle, the volume per pound spent is substantially better. Add the metallic set if you paint armour-heavy subjects (Space Marines, historical armour, Custodes). The Expansion Sets can follow as your projects develop.
Intermediate Painter Wanting to Improve Technique
Look at the Signature Series Sets — particularly the set of the painter whose work most closely resembles the results you are trying to achieve. These are not random assortments: each is a curated palette that reflects a specific painter's approach. Vince Venturella's set, for instance, reflects his colour theory emphasis on temperature contrast; Ben Komets' set reflects his approach to smooth blending and high contrast. Buying the relevant set and then watching that painter's tutorials with the same colours is genuinely an effective way to accelerate technique development.
Also worth adding: AMP Colours and the Expansion Set #2 (Transparents) — both open up colour modulation and glazing techniques that are difficult to achieve well with standard opacity paints.
Army Painter / Batch Painter
The 1-Step system is worth serious consideration — removing the primer stage from a 30-model batch saves meaningful time. Pair with the base set for consistent basecoats and the washes for efficient shading. The Basing Textures range rounds out an efficient production-line workflow.
Browse the Full Pro Acryl Range
- All Pro Acryl Paints — the full range overview.
- Paint Singles — individual colours, 22 ml.
- Paint Sets — Starter, Base, Metallic, Expansion, Signature Series, Fluorescents.
- Signature Series Paints — community-painter curated palettes.
- Washes — shade and panel line formulas.
- Paint Mediums — flow improver, retarder, and Drunken Brush Goop.
- Primers — brush-on primers for plastic, resin and metal.
- Spray Primers — in rattle-can format.
- Fluorescents — OSL and energy weapon effects.
- Weathering Pigments — dust, rust, and soot finishing effects.
- Basing Textures — texture pastes and materials.
- PRO Series Brushes — a sable and synthetic brush range designed for miniature painting.
EU customers: shop at monumenthobbies.eu using code SCALEMOTION496.
US customers: shop at monumenthobbies.com using code SCALEMOTION776.
Further Reading
- Trajann Valoris – Adeptus Custodes (Warhammer 40,000) — a centrepiece character model that rewards careful paint work; a good test subject for Pro Acryl metallics and gold tones.
- Warhammer 40,000 Starter Sets — Understanding the First Step Into the Hobby — If you are buying paints for your first 40K army, start here for the miniature side of the equation.
- How to Choose Your First Warhammer 40,000 Army Box — a faction selection guide that informs which Pro Acryl palette and Signature Series set makes most sense for your army.
Image Credit: Monument Hobbies product imagery. All product images © Monument Hobbies.
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