Schmincke Horadam 12-half-pan Palette Review (Part 1)

Coming tonight (for me anyway - Wed 15th February 2017, 2100h GMT, 1600h EST, 1500h CST, 1300h PST; Thu 16th February 2017, 0500h AWST, 0800h AEDT), is the first instalment of my review of the Schmincke Horadam 12-half-pan set - once it goes live I'll link it from this post. This set is BEAUTIFUL and has exceptional flow and wets SO easily. They are poured pans, not extruded, and look so pretty once they are all unwrapped - well, you'll see for yourself in the video I guess! Schmincke are a high-end German watercolour house and make stunning products with an exceptional range of colours. Whilst I normally prefer tube paints, I was pleased to try these in half-pans because The Frugal Crafter has recently reviewed the tube versions, so we each got to experience something a little different. This set has already migrated into my work bag with some watercolour postcards in case I catch a good sunset on my way home, so I can really road-test them before my Part 2 review in a few weeks, which will explore how they stand-up next to other brands and little tricks I've learned with them and so on.

The 12-half-pan set contains the basic colours you really need for en plein air in most any location - a cool and a warm of each yellow, red, blue and green, a yellow earth, a red earth, a brown and a black - and they are: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Permanent Carmine, Cadmium Red Light, Prussian Blue, Finest Ultramarine, Phthalo Green, Permanent Green Olive, Yellow Ochre, English-Venetian Red, Sepia and Ivory Black. All are single-pigment pace the Permanent Green Olive (2 pigments) and the Sepia (3 pigments). You also get a Size 5 Round Da Vinci travel brush, which is pretty decent.

If you want to buy this set, you can do so from:
Amazon USA: US$191.31
Amazon UK: £59.76 £54.01 
Amazon Canada: CDN$170.92 CND$142.96
DickBlick.com: U$227.55 US$155.59 [NB: this is the set of full pans, not half pans, which means this is one KILLER deal - not only 31% off of the list-price but even cheaper than the half pan set usually is and TWICE the amount of paint!]
Jackson's Art Supplies: £63.19 £55.00 £49.50 [as well as their normal amazing rate, they have an extra 15% off of Schmincke Horadam products right now!]

If the above is a little out of your price range, they have a near-identical student set (Schmincke Akademie) with a lower pigment load, effectively, which is much more economical. I have not tried this set, but if you want me to, please leave a comment and I'll look into it, but I thought I would link in here for those who like the paints but want a more economical option:
Amazon USA: US$69.99
Amazon UK: £30.86
Amazon Canada: N/A
DickBlick.com: N/A
Jackson's Art Supplies: N/A