After seeing a ton of posts on what paint works best in a FlatLine, I made this small chart. It is a synopsis of different paintball ratings from PBReview.com and posts of how the paint worked in a FlatLine (and with paint I have shot also my J&J Ceramics). I have yet to try them all myself (ones I’ve tried are marked with a * after the name), but I use this as a guideline for buying paint. The numbers (x /x) is the average rating out of 10/number of reviews from PBReview.com, and then notes that I’ve collected which includes; how thick the fill is, accuracy, break on target, deformed balls, and of course how they work in a FlatLine |xxx = good, xxx = caution, xxx = bad|. (Yes, I realize that there are some errors here with Manufactures, paintball lines, nor does this list contain every line of paint on the market, prices are just an estimate and may vary by store or location, and your results may vary.)

• Nelson
  • Hot Spot* – 6.8/97 | $40 – Accuracy questionable, shell seems rubbery, no breaks but lots of bounces, thin watery fill, Flatline questionable.
  • Nel-Splat – 7.4/80 | $40 - Accuracy questionable, reported bounces, some don’t recommend for a Flatline.
  • Special Forces – 8.8/15 | $60 – Reported fairly accurate, reported very thick fill, reported working well with a FlatLine.
  • Hemorrhage* - 8.4/13 | $40 – Fairly accurate, round but a noticeable seam, thick fill, several cases and never seen a break in any marker or barrel.
  • Anarchy – 9.2/109 | $45 – Reported good results in all areas with a flatline, but may get brittle in cold weather.
  • EKG - 9/3 | $40 - These are new to the market, but appear good in all areas and work good in Flatlines.

• Diablo
  • Formula 13 – 8.6/48 | $50 – Reported thin fill, reported good results in a FlatLine on PBReview but bad results here.
  • Midnight – 8.2/177 | $50 – Reported good results in a FlatLine, and ok results in all other areas.
  • Heat – 7.3/113 | $35 – Reported OK results for a Flatline, and so-so results in all other areas.
  • Blaze* - 8.4/180 | $50 - I didn’t get to shoot many of these but I had no breaks, and they flew fairly strait. Reported to work in FlatLines, and reported OK results in all other areas.

• Game Face
  • Visible Impact* - 9/83 | $40 - seen several boxes of dimpled balls, and lots of breaks in both my FlatLine and J&J Ceramics. Getting these to work my be related to how long the reseller has had them sitting in stock.
  • Recon Camo – 8.4/21 | $45 – Hard to see in flight, reported thick fill, reported good results in all areas, reported working with a Flatline.

• JT
  • Maxim – 9.4/97 | $65 (hard to find) – Reported good in all areas, reported working in a FlatLine.
  • Monster Ball* - | $30 -(may be made by Brass Eagle)- 5.8/10 – I had questionable accuracy and barrel breaks.

• RPS
  • All Star – 9.4/170 | $60 - Reported working with FlatLines and also good in all other areas.
  • Marballizer – 9.2/430 | $65 – Reported good in all areas (some report that these hurt like he** when hit by them), reported to work with flatlines (but some people complain about breaks).
  • Big Ball* – 7.9/418 | $50 – Reported bounces (Hard Shell), questionable accuracy, ok in other areas, reported FlatLine Frendly but I had mixed results.
  • Rampage – 6.7/23 | $44 – Reported fair to ok in all areas, the jury is still out on how these work with Flatlines.
  • Premium – 8.5/403 | $55 – Reported ok in all areas (mixed reviews), reported ok in FlatLines.

• Evil
  • Midevil – 7.6/52 | $55(hard to find) - Reported to be fair to ok in all areas, some reported Flatline barrel breaks
  • Ultra – 9.2/73 | $65 – Reported good in all areas, reported to work with FlatLines.

• Pursuit Combat Systems (PCS)
  • Combat 68*- 8.5/11 | $60 – hard to see in flight, break well on target, had a few breaks in my Flatline (may have been caused from an earler Visable Impact) but they ran great in my J&J Ceramics.

{Edit: Upgraded Marballizer status to green, Visible Impact upgraded to orange, added Nelson's EKG}

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Marblizers work the best out of what I have used with my fatty and thats what tippmann recommends I'm sure they know what there talking about I just don't like them because I had multiple hits on people with no breaks. Plus I was far away when the hit occurred so that didn't help either.

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I'm your Huckleberry......

Very nice post!

I have been using Hot Spots in my Flatline with breaks on target 75% of the time out to 200 feet. I'm not just pulling numbers out of a hat, I have done my own tests. I wasn't hitting my target 40% of the time at that range, but 75% of the one's that hit broke.

I have also used Nelson Special Forces and they performed excellent.

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Well, you should add nelson's EKG line, b/c the quality of seam and the flight pattern is as good if not better than marballizers, and they're about 15-20 a case cheaper! Out of that whole list, these I would use over all of them. But heck of a write up!

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You got a war face?!?LEMME SEE YOUR WAR FACE!!!

actually, I NEVER had a break with visible impact in all 3 flatlines ( A5 X7 98 )

with over 40,000 visible impact rounds put through them over just the past 18 months.

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The problem I've had with Visible Impact is not due to the paint, but the carry, wal-mart easily makes a habit of leaving boxes on the shelves for months, that's where they get dimpled and nasty, if you go somewhere that they move inventory much faster and get a fresh box, you should have great results, otherwise it's really kind of awesome or poop

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Tiberius 8 + 4 mags
Qloaded black invert mini with virtue board
A5 - G36 folding stock; APE grip; 14" J&J; full techt cyclone [squished/vortex/lightning rod/QEPH]; wargear clear cyclone housing; X7 hopper

I agree 100%, fortunatly the wally world 1.5 miles from my field rotates stock QUICK

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I have two walmarts within 5 miles of me, the one to the east never sells any paint because they started putting it behind glass because people where picking up the boxes and then going somewhere else, cutting open the boxes and stealing the paint. Now that they have it behind the glass, you have to run around the store for half an hour looking for an employee who has the dang key.

however the walmart to the west of me doesn't have em behind glass, so it's easy to pick em up then use the self check out so you don't have to wait half the day to find someone to help you, so that's my theory, because when i ever have to buy paint from behind the glass [for whatever reason] 70% of the time the paint is bad, where as if you can just grab it without waiting it seems to be alright

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Tiberius 8 + 4 mags
Qloaded black invert mini with virtue board
A5 - G36 folding stock; APE grip; 14" J&J; full techt cyclone [squished/vortex/lightning rod/QEPH]; wargear clear cyclone housing; X7 hopper

I avoid all "chain" stores for paintball stuff. I don't want to buy my paintballs from the same place i buy dog food and diapers. I'd rather order it online from a paintball store within my region than go to walmart. Actually that is what I do, if it's not fpo, i'll order from action village (northern IL loc.) and it's always fresh.

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You got a war face?!?LEMME SEE YOUR WAR FACE!!!

I'm using visible impacts and haven't had any problems, the Walmart here seems to run out every week, so it stays pretty fresh. Fortunately, I know people that work there that let me know when it comes in, otherwise I would be buying at the field. We don't have any Nelson dealers around so I haven't tried them yet, but I plan on getting my hands on a case of Special Forces to try it out.