That mislabelling is likely criminal, but the seller probably thinks he can get away with it because he knows how hard it is to prove it's the old formula of paint.

Black 3.0 sticker under the 4.0 sticker already sus... agreed on the scamming, though-- wish I coulda got to your first and directed you to Musou Black, which I had success with!! Freakin' STUART!!

That’s so frustrating! I can understand why a small company would reuse packaging, it’s not great but understandable. But if they are passing off 3.0 as 4.0 that’s pretty dodgy. When 4.0 dried it went from a wet smooth surface to a textured almost velvety surface. It felt like whatever particles were in there kinda stood up. Anyway, great video, I’m sorry it didn’t work out like you’d hoped! 💜

at least you made a wicked Balrog

The texture of that paint and the way it behaves reminds me of the paints we used to use back in the day in Junior school that have an almost chalky grey appearance when dried

I think how a camera works distorts the effect of these kinds of paint. That's why it never looks the same in person as it does online. And I'm sure companies also tweak the contrast setting to enhance the effect too. Never used it myself, but have seen examples of 3.0 and 4.0 in various art shops and it just looked like a very matte black. However, I have used Musou black, and while it does give a decent effect of absorbing light, and is waaaay better than 4.0, it is incredibly delicate. It has a powdery like finish that rubs off really easily and loses the light absorbing properties. I tried giving it an ultra matte coating, but that also ruins the light absorbing effect (the website says this will happen) but is still very very black. I guess it's intended for display pieces, but for gaming minis it's too delicate. At least that has been my experience.

Really enjoyed your evaluation of this product. Looking forward to seeing your follow up of this expensive paint. 3.0 4.0 or whatever. Best wishes to you and your family. Keep the information coming! I’m watching and enjoying your content.

I had to click on this vid because a year ago I painted the same miniature and in a lot of ways it came out close to what you did. I didn't use fluorescent paint though and for the black sections I used a standard flat black with a grey drybrush to simulate ash like you would see on coals. Your Balrog still looks fantastic despite the paint swap which I feel should be outright illegal (bait and switch tactic?). I'm very glad you posted the video though not just to show your process in painting but also address the disappointment about the paint.

While the Semple Heresy is a tragedy to be sure, I appreciate the tutorial on how to paint fire. I will definitely be referring back to this video when I have some to paint.

I remember hearing that Black 2.0 was a much better choice for minis than 3.0 was. It may not have been quite as black, but was a better paint to use.

Good luck on the e-mail. I had issues with my paint, and they never got back to me about it

Max is over here getting that tar through an airbrush even somewhat consistently while I struggle to get actual airbrush primer for longer than a handful of infantry models before having to deep clean and not even with even coverage. Lol 😭

I'm convinced your actually using apple barrel craft paint from walmart.

I look forward to a follow-up video after you have an opportunity to reach out to the manufacturer… Will they deny or pretend it was some kind of mistake? Regardless, I enjoyed the video. Thanks. 😊

credit card charge back and fraud claim per your location's laws.

Interesting experiment with the black. Hope they you send you some proper 4 out!

7:00 , that should have been an indicator of your hardship to come ,versol/terpertine (paint thinner)would have done better i think.

I definately want to see what this leads to. I had been planning on getting this, because f kapoor i want cool paint. Hopefully this gets resolved, glad I didn't buy it yet but still holding out hope I can get the paint.

I like your idea of the dragon with neon paint. It makes the matte black disappear. I would be trying to get my money back for sure. Shame on them. You handled this very well (at least on camera, no curse words. LOL) I do think the dragon is awesome with the contrast of neon and other paints. I'm sure with the correct paint, it would have been off the charts awesome.

It was a really cool concept, too bad about the paint. Hope you are able to do the idea justice one day!

Also wishing you the best on your venture.

Yea it took me 4 months to get my order for some reason, I had to file a dispute for them to ship my items and then I was jipped half of my order, so I filed a chargeback

I just thought up an Orc 40k diorama where this product would help with the forced prospective. Thank you for sharing the experience

Ouch. I have "real" 4.0 and this is definitely not what it behaves or looks like. It's not quite as dark as advertised but it's definitely darker than that, and it behaves and applies pretty much like a normal acrylic paint, though rather thick. The worst part is the 4.0 label which is very clearly designed specifically for this purpose, the square bottle has a very different one.

Interesting ... I have been looking for a black black for some time, at least I can knock this one off the list

It's definitely worth noting that Vantablack is not really suitable for miniature art - it's fragile, impossible to seal, toxic, and ridiculously expensive, and the lack of depth perception means once you apply it you lose the ability to apply more - and any paint that could replicate the effects would necessarily be similar. I've tried Musou black and it's closer to black 3.0 than the infinite void of space. Honestly, my experience has been that if you want to do black, your best bet is to paint false lighting onto the miniature to trick people into thinking it's darker than it is in areas, but that's certainly not easy and it still won't give you that zero depth perception look. Still, at least the balrog looks cool in that ultra-matte finish

How does it behave after a wash is applied over it? I'm not a fan of matt black myself I have to the proacryl one and it looks chalky to me. I find a gloss black looks aesthetically more pleasing

I had the idea to use this paint for the cloaks of gaunts ghosts. Was very disappointed with the result, mean spirited marketing trick

That's really disappointing :/ great video though, and the models still look cool

Honestly the Colour Forge Matt Black spray would have given you a very close result!! It’s great stuff, and very very Matt!!

Wow, I've bought simple black acrylic glass paint from deco Art that is like 10x blacker t...wow

I had the same experience a few years ago and wondered if I got a bad bottle or was doing something wrong, but your experience was exactly the same. 🙁

Hopefully you'll get some justice for this scam you've been put through :(

I bought the 3.0 waaaay back (i think I kickstarted it) with a similar idea in mind, but its really not great for miniatures, the way the pigments have to apply in a certain structure to create the "void" effect - unfortunately this is not a levelled paint, so the details get really blocked up when it works properly. It's also super fragile, so not good for something that requires handling, and you can't varnish it without ruining the effect, since you then change the physical structure of the surface, and because its got that "fuzzy" texture, it attracts dust, so loses that effect with time anyway. Its also terrible to photograph, particularly digitally, as the processors can't balance correctly when displayed on itself. As you showed, it looks better against a brighter backdrop, so *maybe* in a diorama setting with something (or someone *cough*Gandalf*cough*) can provide the light value contrast, but yeah, all in all, its an annoying waste of money for our hobby, imo. I had fun airbrushing coke bottles and other stupid shit just for laughs, and I can see someone with talent could do interesting things with it, but I am not creative enough to work out what. That said, I think to get it working at all, I had to mix roughly 1:1 paint and airbrush thinner in an empty vallejo style bottle and vortex mix the hell out of it in order to shoot it through an airbrush, and yeah, dozens of super thin coats. I really have no idea about the bottle you got though. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt, and say that they were just using up old stock, but genuinely no idea.

what is that white paint that covered so well over black?

Just so you know, if its anything like Black 3.0 (which i used on my tau stealth suits) after a while if you havent sealed it, it crystalises into large white blobs. As you can imagine...i had alot of fun having to re-stealth my suits (sarcasm included)

IMO it's not even that nice of a black but your neon flames look amazing

where did you buy this from? direct or not that is something that needs to be sorted out

Dunno, I feel like Chaos Black from the rattle can might actually look blacker than this Black 4. Sorry to hear you got scammed. :( Still a very cool fire effect!

Have yoi contacted them? Wpuld be curious to hear their explanation (and im sure it will be, oh the factory must have stuffed up!!!)

I actually quite like the sooty effect.

What white paint did you use?

Scam.. yeah seems so. I placed an order 2mo ago and it still hasn’t been shipped. Order status still shows unfulfilled. TWO MONTHS!! I’ve gotten 6-8 emails for sales and please buy more emails yet they can’t send out what’s already on order.

Balrog.

Have you bought this direct from the supplier or a third party seller? Either way it sucks but one is even scarier than the other

Have you thought about trying Mushou black instead?

Not gonna lie, it looks just like ColourForge ^^'

I didn't know Russel Brand painted miniatures.

My husband bought this a long time ago. He uses it on the tanks he paints and has good luck with it. Albeit the ares he paints are miniscule compared to the dragon. The label...Disappointing Stuart did this. I smell a rat. I hope the dragon has fried rat for dinner.

just realized at the bottom of your description there are a bunch of random numbers. THE NUMBERS MASON! WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

Has the video generated any response from the company?

Wow. That’s a horrible scam Sorry that happened 😢

I hope u at least get a refund. You definitely have a case if u wanted to take it further

This isnt black thats dark gray ? Gw black looks far darker ?

I just got my Black 4.0 and opened it today and then realised it was a 3.0 video. I actually came here because I was searching to see if others had this issue and what they have been told by Culture Hustle. It seems dodgy and it is 25% more in cost. Have you heard back? I have seen people with other issues with the company and they never hear things back. It seems so dodgy. I find CH might be a little shady. I placed an order over a month ago and it still hasn't been shipped. It was only after ordering did I realise the 3-10 delivery for international meant nothing, as they will take anywhere from a few days to a few months to ship it. They pretend to have a cancel button on the emails, but it isn't just text with no link. They don't want people actually complaining.

I use Musou black

I was so worried for your airbrush. He/she/they/it got a name?

CURSE YOU STUART SEMPLE

shame it didnt work

The Anish Kapoor story is actually untrue and a story peddled by Semple. Vantablack is incredibly difficult to produce and Surrey Nanosystems is not a paint company, so they only agreed to let make it for one person, which just happens to be Anish Kapoor. Even then it’s only one type of Vantablack that Kapoor has access to, they’ve worked with Activision and BMW in the past to create works with Vantablack. I think your experience with Semple seems keeping in character with him

Boo

Any feedback from @StuartSempleArt ? Also, as others have already said, do a chargeback.