Last weekend I took my wife to a hobby and craft show at Excel. Most of the traders there were selling stuff I wasn't interested in (Papercraft, Knitting, Crochet, Jewelry making etc) but there were a handful of stalls selling painting accessories. In an ironic twist - despite this being a day out for my wife - I ended up buying more than she did... a fact not lost on her! A regular attendee at these sort of shows is ArtMaster from whom I have bought brushes and other accessories many-a-time. I picked up a new water bowl, a brush rack, yet more brushes (doh) and best of all, a waterproof ink pen.
The pen cost just a couple of pounds but it looked like a great way of drawing fine lines on miniatures, especially as the tip is just 0.05mm! Potentially very useful for drawing intricate designs on 6mm shields and other flat surfaces. The question was, would it write on an acrylic surface and would the ink bleed when varnished? I decided to run some tests and in the end I thought it worth sharing my results here so you can draw your own conclusions,
The pen cost just a couple of pounds but it looked like a great way of drawing fine lines on miniatures, especially as the tip is just 0.05mm! Potentially very useful for drawing intricate designs on 6mm shields and other flat surfaces. The question was, would it write on an acrylic surface and would the ink bleed when varnished? I decided to run some tests and in the end I thought it worth sharing my results here so you can draw your own conclusions,
And the winner is....
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Ink from this pen can be applied directly on top of acrylic paint. It adheres cleanly and when dry remains waterproof enough to allow brushed or spray gloss varnish to be applied over it (top row of the picture above). However the best results seem to be obtained with a coat of brushed on gloss varnish over the ink (top left). Once this has dried Matt/Dullcoat can be applied over the top if that is your preferred finish.
The bottom row in the picture shows some tests using the ink on top of already varnished surfaces (Matt on the left and Gloss on the right). It was immediately clear to me that the ink adheres very poorly when applied over varnish and subsequent sealing with another layer of varnish just seems to result in smearing and bleeding of the ink.
I have used other ink pens before but this has produced by far the best results. Now that I know this works I'll be investing in more of these pens which also come in Blue and Red ink as well as Black.
Very handy!!! In the olden days when I painted eyes on 25mm figures I used to use a pen like this to dot the eyes. Which as you can imagine was a hell of a lot easier than a brush!
ReplyDeleteGreat Find! Now I can draw the belt-buckle eagles on my 2mm Napoleonic figures :>)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lee- good tip (no pun intended). :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, I can see the uses for these in several colours!
ReplyDeleteGood find - I'll keep an eye out.
ReplyDeleteUsed a blue one of these when I had to do the stripes on the trousers of my Louisiana Tiger's :-)
ReplyDeleteI have the 0.2 as I could not find the smaller one, it works great, I do want a 0.05 one though :-)
ReplyDeleteIan
The Range sell these in the UK. Set of three for £4.99
ReplyDeleteHandy for detail work. Could be good for drawing designs then painting between the lines. :) Cheers
ReplyDeleteHmm, not available in the US, so therefore expensive on Amazon ($4 for one).
ReplyDeleteWe do have Pigma Micron pens though, which are similar. I need to do a similar test with mine and see which conditions they are best for...
I did in fact manage to complete the test mentioned, and have the results here.
DeleteExcellent. Glad to see there are similar options across the pond.
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