New Paint

 

New to me, that is.  Somewhere on my blog travels, and as I recall it probably was the Grand Duchy of Stollen, there was an interesting thread about painting techniques. Mike Siggins replied to it with a link linking Chroma Atelier Interactive acrylics.  What sold me on trying these out was the more controllable dry time.  That seemed a nice fit with the flats as I've stretched the mileage as I can with the Vallejo bottles.

What's pictured above is the introductory set with a dozen 20ml. tubes, plus sample media and an instructive DVD (which I'll admit to not having watched).   This isn't a bad way to go if you just want to test the waters as the starter kits go for around $25 online.  I have to say the results seem to be quite satisfactory so far.  You can control the drying time with water or prolong it medium to long depending upon the choice of media. Just using water seems quite satisfactory to my own needs. You can re-wet the paint on the palette or directly on the figure.

For those of us who like quick results with acrylics, the 7 days recommended cure time can something of a drawback, although of course it has doesn't impact on overall your work rate - things just stay in the completion queue a bit longer while you paint the next figures.  And I think the 7 days is generous, perhaps calculated to let all moisture wick out from heavy application on canvas.  No doubt Chroma wants to avoid disconsolate e-mails from artists who varnished part of their masterpiece into a smeary mess.  I expect to be able to cut down this time with the figures.

Here's the first figure which I just finished painting primarily with the Atelier Interactive.  I'm satisfied, the blending for more subtle shading works well and the colors seem richer than with the standard wargames paints.