Hobby Cheating 109 - How to Use Pigment

[@Dakkadez]

Vince this is exactly what I needed. Thorough, step by step instructions done with different techniques. THANK YOU!

[@VinceVenturella]

Happy to help as always sir. :)

[@georgedebleu]

Enjoyable, entertaining and informative as always! Forty years ago, we called the "pigments" chalk pastels. You'd take a quality chalk pastel, grind it on a very fine sandpaper film or use a fine file or emery board, to get your "powder" and use the same techniques on models (real model kits - NOT _miniatures_ ) and miniatures as well.

[@VinceVenturella]

Very cool, I think there are many that still do that today honestly, but I have never given it a try.

[@thoughtstream9591]

Still do :)

[@DrParka]

At first I was not sure about the pigments, but they're definitely a game changer when it comes to adding details. Thank you as always Vincent 👋🏼

[@VinceVenturella]

Happy to help!

[@von2320]

After all these years, I keep find myself in your caring embrace Vincey V.

[@VinceVenturella]

Always happy to help.

[@codelicious6590]

Great tips thanks! I actually did not know that alcohol could be used as a pigment fixative, so that little tidbit saved me a few bucks.

[@VinceVenturella]

Happy to help as always. :)

[@gager73]

Thanks for sending this to me. It's really cool and I love the textured effect that the pigments give. Makes your miniature feel more realistic.

[@VinceVenturella]

Totally agree. :)

[@davidturner7903]

Pigments are definitely the way for me to tackle applying concrete dust on top of my armored vehicles. When I looked for pictures of Tanks in an urban setting, there's usually this thin film of concrete dust on the horizontal surfaces. Thank you for this tutorial.

[@VinceVenturella]

Right on, always happy to help.

[@pervyturtle2673]

About to start using pigments for the first time and this is exactly what I was looking for

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome, happy to help.

[@Wijkert]

I recently bought some new pigments from Vallejo I really like the color of. Have you ever tried to mixing them with a medium to make your own paints? This though occurred to me after using the GSW metal pigments, where we don't have any other option but to mix up stuff ourselves. Ps the fact that you answer all the comments is just the best thing. You are an angel Vince!

[@VinceVenturella]

Always happy to help. Yes, I have done this, I even have a video about it - kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5rbd5qbrdOskKM

[@johnmattioli9077]

Vince...I just found this video...Super cool technique. Thanks for your sharing it with me.

[@VinceVenturella]

Excellent, happy to help as always. :)

[@bronsonbarnhart8085]

Before adding the pigment, the colors and how matte the model was was just AWESOME! What paints did you use? I assume you used an airbrush?

[@VinceVenturella]

Yeah, just some simple military greens through the airbrush.

[@peterridder2116]

Thanks a lot! I have these pigments at home for years now and never dared to use them :D Could you also do a pigments-on-bases-tutorial any time soon?

[@VinceVenturella]

Sure, the techniques are much the same, though you often use more pigment and you definitely have to fix it then. If you go and look at the Urban and Waste Bases tutorials I did recently, I use some pigments in those videos which may be helpful until that point.

[@Henry-lk5pm]

really helpful vid Vince, thanks. Question - Do you think the alcohol could be sprayed on with a little pump spray spritzer-type bottle - to minimise risk of pulling off carefully placed pigment?

[@VinceVenturella]

Absolutely, I think that would work fine, but you would want to stay far enough away.

[@EviLNox8]

If you dip the wet alcohol brush into a pigment pot wont it cause clumping in the pot? I saw on the pallette that after dipping a few times the pigment looked like it bonded to itself and made a glossy looking pool in the area you were dipping. Will it just dry out again and behave normally or will that section kind of be like a dried chunk of acrylic?

[@VinceVenturella]

It will cause some lumping, so you want to be careful, but that being said, if you get a clump here or there, you can always let it dry out and break it up later.

[@MrFrostyankles]

Really fun idea. What few colors would you recommend?

[@VinceVenturella]

A good rust, a good brown a good green can all be magic.

[@MrFrostyankles]

@@VinceVenturella Thanks but what is a good rust, brown, and green? :)

Back to badoops, I see. I'm particularly impressed with the green on the robot- I got my start in 40k so I haven't really spent much time doing the more muted colors of non-sci-fi/fantasy, it's definitely something I want to work on. Would you say that the bulk of the highlighting on the upper panels was airbrushed, or with a manual brush blending technique?

[@VinceVenturella]

That model is basically all airbrush. There is some slight touches and edges with a bad brush I had, but that was a speed paint with airbrush during a class with Caleb Wissenback. Don't remember the exact green, but it was a tamiya green with an ochre highlight.

[@70rayvn]

Loved the Bob Ross reference there

[@VinceVenturella]

A personal hero and something I really believe in. I think too many people let fear of mistakes stand in the way. Some of the best things I have done were accidents that just worked - the rest, well you can just paint over. :)

[@Wijkert]

Trying new stuff: used pigment for the first time yesterday. I am trying to represent burned earth with Carbon Black from Vallejo. I remember you said (in this video or another one) that you can either activate the pigment with IPA or seal it in with a varnish. I tried activating it by brushing on the IPA. I think it worked, but also moved the pigment around, which is not what I was looking for. So what about using the airbrush to spray the IPA? Would that work? Will also try to seal it with varnish the next time I use pigment and see what that looks like.

[@VinceVenturella]

So the key is you want to use a pipette and drops of the ipa so it doesn't run anywhere. You can use the airbrush, it general, unless the airbrush is very close, it won't blow off any pigment.

[@Knittywizard]

Do you ever varnish a model and then apply pigments with fixer as the final step? or does that cause problems or look weird.

[@VinceVenturella]

Sure, I'll often do pigments as a final step, though I don't often use fixer, I just work them in tightly.

[@Wijkert]

Hi Vince, I am painting bases with stone on them and am looking for a mossy effect. Would a green pigment (e.g. Chrome Oxide Green from Vallejo) work for this particular use case? If not, would you recommend any other product besides moss tufts from miniNatur (which I own already).

[@VinceVenturella]

It depends on the size of the moss. So you can use green pigment for a very light effect, like what stains ocean rocks. You can use the scatter green flock from railroads for slightly larger moss, and you can step it up to small clump foilage for really large growths.

[@adrienbellon-serre8930]

Hey Vince, as always :) thank you for your content !

[@VinceVenturella]

My pleasure! Always happy to help. :)

[@Wijkert]

I also have hear that you can use white spirit is an activator. Have you have any experience with using that and if so, how does it compare to IPA?

[@VinceVenturella]

Never tried it, but it's an interesting idea, seems like it would work.

[@brianm7034]

Have you tried cosmetic powders as pigments or are their composition not suitable? I noticed they come in hundreds of shades and colors. I've searched the internet and KZbin and haven't found an answer.

[@VinceVenturella]

I haven't tried them, but I would have to imagine it could work. I will have to raid the wife's make-up cabinet and see what I can do. ;)

[@MrTheheirarchy]

Tamiya makes a pigment set just like that

[@captainn2502]

Thank you for you tutorial on how to use pigments!, I intend to use them to create a desert base on minis for gaming, so I need to protect the pigments using a matte varnish rattle can spray. For some reason, I just cannot get it right. Either I spray it too light and the pigments still comes off when you touch it, or I spray it on to thick (I guess) and the pigments turn white. The rest of the mini does NOT turn white with the same amount of spray on it. Do you have any idea what I could be doing wrong and how to prevent it? Thank you!

[@VinceVenturella]

You could always try a fixer through a pipette, that might be an option as well. I use a light mix of satin adn ultra matte varnish through the airbrush.

[@captainn2502]

@@VinceVenturella Thank you for your response! :) I have tried Vallejo's pigment binder, and also airbrush thinner and liquid matte varnish (also both Vallejo). I tried each of them by applying the binder/thinner/varnish first and then adding the pigments, and by adding the pigments first and then pipetting the binder/thinner/varnish. It makes the pigments not fall off when you tap the mini or blow the pigments, but when I touch the pigments with my finger they still leave a (in this case) brown smear on my finger. I know there are also dedicated pigment fixers (instead of binders) on the market. Do you know if they work differently?

[@VinceVenturella]

@@captainn2502 They tend to be a little stronger, as they have additional additives, so might be worth an investigation.

[@IDICBeer]

Excellent content and tips thanks. Very useful

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad to help as always.

[@sapper12b71]

Contrast medium is a glaze medium right? Citadel is unfortunately the only thing I'm familiar with.

[@VinceVenturella]

It is not, it's some mixture of thinner, flow improver and probably a small amount of retarder. So it's sort of a mix of things.

[@MrH-GB]

How comes the Iso isn't removing the paint underneath? I use it to strip minis so I would think it would destroy the paint underneath.

[@VinceVenturella]

That small amount of iso is acting as a binder for the pigment which is absorbing it, it doesn't have a chance to break down the paint. It has to be a large amount as it's not that directly destructive to acrylic paint.

[@MrStatistx]

Greetings into the past: If I use isopropyl, I assume it needs to be varnished beforehand? Not sure if I missed it or if it was implied by using pigments as the very last step (so after varnish) anyway. Also I got 99% isopropyl, are those 9 extra % an issue you think?

[@VinceVenturella]

So I use isopropyl to fix it, basically, I don't varnish it before. I put some drops of the alcohol to fix it, then varnish all over at the end of the process if necessary.

[@MrStatistx]

@@VinceVenturella curious. I would have thought isopropyl strips the paint, as it's used to strip minis, but I guess it would need to be in contact longer. Thanks for clearing that up

[@brendanrichardson3763]

Great video, very helpful, thank you 👍

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Iameddie2go]

Do you use pigments also like you would highlighting and shadowing? Have you ever done that?

[@VinceVenturella]

You can, I have a video on actually painting with pigment. You can also mix your pigments to contour, especially on terrain, much like a make-up tutorial.

[@npwroblewski]

Have you had success with the warcolour pigments if you’ve tried them? I’m always eager to put my money towards what I find to be a very lovable product range and business.

[@bartekkucharski3880]

Hey. We all know your hate for metal minis but with Aristea coming soon will you paint some Infinity models?

[@VinceVenturella]

I looked at the figs, I would need to see the minis to make sure the sculpts are actually quality. It's a question of the molds and whether they will be up to their normal standards (boxed games like this often have lower quality as they are produced in China at a lower cost). I would say I am tentatively optimistic.

[@bartekkucharski3880]

Vince Venturella quality is the same as Infinity.

[@VinceVenturella]

That's good to hear. Do you know can you get the figs separately? I didn't see that. I suppose timing wise, I can always see them in person at Adepticon, which is the next time I might have some space in my painting schedule. ;)

[@bartekkucharski3880]

New 4minis warbands will be released soon but dont know any prices yet.

[@stefanblackadder5236]

Do I need a special pigment fixer or can I use Vallejo Matt varnish as well as alcohol.

[@VinceVenturella]

varnish, any acrylic wash, pigment fixer, anything like that will work.

[@KerfluffinMcWooly]

I am not familiar with Isopropyl alcohol. Does it come as 90% ish or do you dilute it with something?

[@VinceVenturella]

When using it for either fixer or cleaner, I use either 91% or 99% isopropyl alcohol. I just get mine from amazon.

[@Iameddie2go]

Also, I've noticed the pigments dull in color dramatically after applying the clear varnish. Does this also happen if I first apply IPO and then varnish?

[@VinceVenturella]

It will happen in most cases if you use something to affix. That's why, for my display miniatures, I don't actually apply anything like that.

[@Iameddie2go]

@@VinceVenturella I guess what I'm asking is this: if I apply the IPA as fixative it will dull out, almost to the point of not seeing anything there. If I then apply varnish does the color dull further?

[@VinceVenturella]

@@Iameddie2go In general no, it will happen once from being affixed.

[@hobbithubby5076]

What’s a good basic pigment set to get started with?

[@VinceVenturella]

Vallejo makes a couple of good rust/weathering 4 packs that are an excellent place to start.

[@TriptonStudios]

Does using Alcohol to fix the pigment maintain its jockey dusty appearance that’s been my greatest pitfall I wanna be able to fix pigments without losing the dusty look

[@VinceVenturella]

Once it dries, you will have the dusty look back yes. There will oten be a very slight color change, but it will dry "dusty"

[@TriptonStudios]

@@VinceVenturella Awesome, I don’t mind the slight darkening of the color, it’s similar to the change you get from matte semi gloss, gloss as in the higher the gloss the darker it looks Thank you Vince!

[@aprilcot8953]

Do you varnish the model before or after applying pigment?

[@VinceVenturella]

Usually after, with an airbrush, unless it's the truly final step, where I am dusting feet or something and it's a display model, then there is no need to varnish.

[@aprilcot8953]

@@VinceVenturella thanks

[@Filiplego1]

If I use pigments for models and dioramas that are not going to be touched, I don't need a fixer?

[@VinceVenturella]

If they are for display only, then in general, no, you don't really need to fix them, a little drop of alcohol here or there can be a good middle ground.

[@josh1674]

I fixed my pale blue pigment with AK matt varnish. It removed it (darkened it to the point of invisibility). Guess I should use alcohol!

[@VinceVenturella]

I find alcohol changes the color very minimally.

[@sclogse1]

I imagine that one could experiment with just about anything to add to the pigment to get it to behave. As long as the added material behaves when you set the stuff. By the way, Testor's Dullcoat is just insanely rude to use especially if you're going to seal a 31" 20,000 Leagues Nautilus...You could mix it in with Sculpy, or an epoxy, or even something thick and neutral in color to make it easier to apply, more like a cream. Hmmmm..... Hair texturizer..... Do people ever put the alcohol in a spray bottle and apply it that way instead of brushing?

[@VinceVenturella]

I haven't seen anyone do that with alcohol, it might blow some pigment off or around would be my ponly concern.

[@arthuromendoza949]

Thank you for this tutorial

[@VinceVenturella]

You're welcome 😊

[@bubbadaluva191]

Hello, I was curious what is the alcohol mix ?

[@VinceVenturella]

FOr fixing pigment, more or less just 91% or above isopropyl.

[@Hepabytes]

Where'd you get the robit?

[@VinceVenturella]

I got it at a Hobby Seminar some time back from Caleb Wissenback (highly recommend his classes if you can take them if you want to get into airbrushing). The fig is from Warlord Games Konflikt 47.

[@ikkiiiieee]

would flow improver make the pigments settle? the same as glaze medium would?

[@VinceVenturella]

Flow improver probably wouldn't do it as well (as it doesn't tend to have medium or be a solvent). You can use alcohol or any medium. Alcohol is nice as it doesn't change the color much.