Reply To: [unofficial weekender] Paintpens!

[blinky465 17208xp 3]

I tried AK Real Colours for edge highlighting and was impressed with the coverage; less so the actual results I got with them! Maybe it’s a practice thing, but my lines weren’t consistent enough (at least compared to the finish I can get with a decent brush). I might come back to them every now and again – I’m tempted to get a brown/black and a metallic for drawing quick battle damage on armour.

I saw the Army Painter Speed Paint pens and tbh, they are ones I would avoid most.
Don’t get me wrong – I love speed paints (especially over a zenith white-on-black base).

But trying to use speed paints like regular paints gives pretty patchy/inconsistent results. I find that speed paints work best when you do as the original tagline says – give it one thick coat. Flood the model, let the paint find the recesses. Too little paint and they don’t behave like speed/contrast paints, they behave like really poor quality craft acrylics!
From what I’ve seen of pens, most users “colour in” with them (like felt-tipped pens) and that’s not how speed paints work – in fact, the video Gerry posted here just a few days ago highlights this very issue – painting the shade colours on the apron just didn’t look a) much fun to do and b) particularly good at the end of it.
Far better would be a slapchopped (or zenithal) base (with the contrast already present in the folds of the cloth) and slap on a nice thick coat of a single colour – let the speed paints behave like speed paints, instead of trying to “layer” with them, like regular acrylics.

@sundancer – what a great choice of music – my favourite band of all time! (I skipped work many a time in my youth the day after going to see them play live!). Have we had this one before?

(seeing D.A.D, Skin, Therapy? or Terrorvision on a double-bill with the Wildhearts was always an amazing night out!)