Yellowbeard
New member
I\'m just getting into painting and was wondering if anybody has used their paints and what they think of it? I\'ve see that lots of people like Vallejo but no mention of Adiken (http://www.adiken.com)
Adiken paints?
- Thread starter Yellowbeard
- Start date
Wren
New member
Adikolor Paint Review
I recently broke down and purchased the Adikolor paint set (59 paints, 1 mixing bottle, 4 brushes, 2 minis, in a plastic carrying case). I decided to use only the Adikolors to test them out when painting my latest mini (http://www.coolminiornot.com/?id=47365). I ended up using a couple of Reaper paints – the whites of the eyes, and a iridescent glaze on the pink overdress. I’d been planning to write up a review anyway, so I sat down to do that when I saw your question.
NOTE: I am a new painter, so I don’t have a ton of experience with different techniques, or with different paint lines. The bulk of my paints are Reaper Pro Paints. I have a handful of Vallejo Game Colors, and two GW paints. I use the Magic Wash described in the article on here by dnaGRIM, minus the dishwashing liquid.
Bottles, Packaging
Dropper bottles worked fine, I didn’t have problems with them getting clogged. Paints require a good shake, some paints require an arm-busting shake.
Colour Selection
I like the colour selection quite a bit. It doesn’t seem to overlap a lot with the Reaper’s, or with what I know of the GW/VGC lines. In particular, I think it has an interesting selection of lighter colours, although there isn’t really an off-white/ivory type colour. I’ve got several of those in other paint lines, but given the Adikolor’s properties for layering, I’m starting to hope they add these in future releases. (They’re supposed to put out 12 new paints a quarter or something like that.)
The _names_ of a lot of the colours are a bit wacky. In particular, the two named skin colours are very pale and a little too pinkish (I originally did the cherub in one, wanting a very pale skin, but it was way too pale for a base.) However there are lots of other colours with totally non-skin names (the base of the angel’s skin in dragon breath), that I think would work pretty well for skin, both Caucasian and other ethnicities.
Base Coating and Coverage
On the whole I’d say coverage is pretty good, but I did have to do a lot of coats on the two pinks. I kept seeing gray tones on high areas, particularly on the darker pink. In the end I’m starting to wonder if that was a paint separation issue more than an issue of the metal showing through the tons of coats plus two coats brush primer, and if I was actually working against myself by using thicker coats that would take longer to dry.
Little bubbles were a consistent issue doing the base coats, more with some colours than others. I’m thinking of testing whether this is as true with plain water as with my magic wash medium. I’m also considering buying Adikolor’s medium when it’s released soon and testing that.
Layering and Feathering
This is a major strength for the Adikolors, IMHO. I’m not the greatest at feathering (using a wet brush to smooth the edges of a new layer), I generally only try it out of desperation when my layer has gone on thicker than I want, and usually my Reaper paint layers dry immediately and it doesn’t work much. Adikolors are made for feathering. I slopped too much paint onto layers on several occasions, and just wicked it up or feathered it with a wet brush no problem. Plenty of time to rinse my brush and touch up the layer. Yet the Adikolors don’t seem to be taking forever to dry in general, I used my usual technique of starting the next layer as soon as I finished the previous without paint lifting up or anything. I don’t wetblend, so I can’t comment on them for that use.
Drybrushing
Can’t say I noticed any difference or anything notable here, but the only thing I drybrushed was some metallic onto the harp strings and the cherub’s hair.
Washing
This, for me at least, is the Adikolor’s achilles’ heel. Now, I’m not very good at washes on a good day, so that might be part of it. But I had two bad experiences with doing the wash on the base. The first is the bubble problem, which was much worse than putting down a basecoat. I’m sure it didn’t help that the mini has so many nooks and crannies and swirls, but it got pretty annoying, and it did impact the finish. Also, the colour of the wash seemed to separate in a few of the deep areas that had a lot of wash in them.
The Goodies
The plastic case isn’t the sturdiest thing in the world, but it’s solid. The rows that hold the bottles are only cardboard, which I found a bit disappointing, although they’re holding up fine so far. Put a dab of colour on the top of each bottle, and you’ll see your palette at a glance when they’re in the case.
I’m not that jazzed about the minis. I’ve seen some Adiken minis I think look kinda neat, but none of these were what was sent to me. They look a little taller than the Reaper minis I’m most familiar with. Haven’t painted one yet, so I don’t really wanted to comment on quality or amount of detail or anything like that. Likewise, I haven’t touched the brushes. All my current sables are still trucking, so I thought I’d save them.
Hope that helps,
Wren
I recently broke down and purchased the Adikolor paint set (59 paints, 1 mixing bottle, 4 brushes, 2 minis, in a plastic carrying case). I decided to use only the Adikolors to test them out when painting my latest mini (http://www.coolminiornot.com/?id=47365). I ended up using a couple of Reaper paints – the whites of the eyes, and a iridescent glaze on the pink overdress. I’d been planning to write up a review anyway, so I sat down to do that when I saw your question.
NOTE: I am a new painter, so I don’t have a ton of experience with different techniques, or with different paint lines. The bulk of my paints are Reaper Pro Paints. I have a handful of Vallejo Game Colors, and two GW paints. I use the Magic Wash described in the article on here by dnaGRIM, minus the dishwashing liquid.
Bottles, Packaging
Dropper bottles worked fine, I didn’t have problems with them getting clogged. Paints require a good shake, some paints require an arm-busting shake.
Colour Selection
I like the colour selection quite a bit. It doesn’t seem to overlap a lot with the Reaper’s, or with what I know of the GW/VGC lines. In particular, I think it has an interesting selection of lighter colours, although there isn’t really an off-white/ivory type colour. I’ve got several of those in other paint lines, but given the Adikolor’s properties for layering, I’m starting to hope they add these in future releases. (They’re supposed to put out 12 new paints a quarter or something like that.)
The _names_ of a lot of the colours are a bit wacky. In particular, the two named skin colours are very pale and a little too pinkish (I originally did the cherub in one, wanting a very pale skin, but it was way too pale for a base.) However there are lots of other colours with totally non-skin names (the base of the angel’s skin in dragon breath), that I think would work pretty well for skin, both Caucasian and other ethnicities.
Base Coating and Coverage
On the whole I’d say coverage is pretty good, but I did have to do a lot of coats on the two pinks. I kept seeing gray tones on high areas, particularly on the darker pink. In the end I’m starting to wonder if that was a paint separation issue more than an issue of the metal showing through the tons of coats plus two coats brush primer, and if I was actually working against myself by using thicker coats that would take longer to dry.
Little bubbles were a consistent issue doing the base coats, more with some colours than others. I’m thinking of testing whether this is as true with plain water as with my magic wash medium. I’m also considering buying Adikolor’s medium when it’s released soon and testing that.
Layering and Feathering
This is a major strength for the Adikolors, IMHO. I’m not the greatest at feathering (using a wet brush to smooth the edges of a new layer), I generally only try it out of desperation when my layer has gone on thicker than I want, and usually my Reaper paint layers dry immediately and it doesn’t work much. Adikolors are made for feathering. I slopped too much paint onto layers on several occasions, and just wicked it up or feathered it with a wet brush no problem. Plenty of time to rinse my brush and touch up the layer. Yet the Adikolors don’t seem to be taking forever to dry in general, I used my usual technique of starting the next layer as soon as I finished the previous without paint lifting up or anything. I don’t wetblend, so I can’t comment on them for that use.
Drybrushing
Can’t say I noticed any difference or anything notable here, but the only thing I drybrushed was some metallic onto the harp strings and the cherub’s hair.
Washing
This, for me at least, is the Adikolor’s achilles’ heel. Now, I’m not very good at washes on a good day, so that might be part of it. But I had two bad experiences with doing the wash on the base. The first is the bubble problem, which was much worse than putting down a basecoat. I’m sure it didn’t help that the mini has so many nooks and crannies and swirls, but it got pretty annoying, and it did impact the finish. Also, the colour of the wash seemed to separate in a few of the deep areas that had a lot of wash in them.
The Goodies
The plastic case isn’t the sturdiest thing in the world, but it’s solid. The rows that hold the bottles are only cardboard, which I found a bit disappointing, although they’re holding up fine so far. Put a dab of colour on the top of each bottle, and you’ll see your palette at a glance when they’re in the case.
I’m not that jazzed about the minis. I’ve seen some Adiken minis I think look kinda neat, but none of these were what was sent to me. They look a little taller than the Reaper minis I’m most familiar with. Haven’t painted one yet, so I don’t really wanted to comment on quality or amount of detail or anything like that. Likewise, I haven’t touched the brushes. All my current sables are still trucking, so I thought I’d save them.
Hope that helps,
Wren
P
Pirate_Wench
Guest
I too scumbed to the lure of the free plastic case!
Very disappointed to see the insert is only cardboard. Am already thinking of how to replace, fix it so it stays in place. Overall the range of colours seems good, except in the greens, maybe it is just that I like greens but there is no bright grass, or lime greens. there are several nice dark ones so I guess I will have to do that mixing thing.
I\'ve not tried the brushes yet, still too busy abusing my old ones (why do ALL my synthetics curl after even half a mini?)
That said, I am a complete newbie, so I\'m not really sure how much my opinion actually means to anyone .... yes one of those annoying twinks who has some money and decides to find a new toy to play with.. I found miniatures and decided that since everything I want to do involves mailorder from countries far far away , it was best to buy a complete set of paint (justified by the idea that if I really do suck at painting I can still use all the colours to do a faux mosaic effect coffee table) Well I have painted one and a half miniatures, and found using these paints to be a fairly painless hassle free experience. I think I would use something other than just water next time for doing washes just to give it all a little more viscosity. it was a little thin and hard to control though it still dried smoothly without leaving rings.
Very disappointed to see the insert is only cardboard. Am already thinking of how to replace, fix it so it stays in place. Overall the range of colours seems good, except in the greens, maybe it is just that I like greens but there is no bright grass, or lime greens. there are several nice dark ones so I guess I will have to do that mixing thing.
I\'ve not tried the brushes yet, still too busy abusing my old ones (why do ALL my synthetics curl after even half a mini?)
That said, I am a complete newbie, so I\'m not really sure how much my opinion actually means to anyone .... yes one of those annoying twinks who has some money and decides to find a new toy to play with.. I found miniatures and decided that since everything I want to do involves mailorder from countries far far away , it was best to buy a complete set of paint (justified by the idea that if I really do suck at painting I can still use all the colours to do a faux mosaic effect coffee table) Well I have painted one and a half miniatures, and found using these paints to be a fairly painless hassle free experience. I think I would use something other than just water next time for doing washes just to give it all a little more viscosity. it was a little thin and hard to control though it still dried smoothly without leaving rings.
The Artisan
New member
Just picked up a bunch of them at a convention last weekend. Considering it was a Canadian company, I had high hopes. I got them home and tried them out. My results were a mixed bag. The metallics were absolutely brilliant. The golds are significantly brighter than any other brand. The problem I found were the reds and oranges, they were terrible. Poor coverage even on a white undercoat and slightly glossy.
I will say this though. They\'re an ambitious company. They plan on releasing 12 new colours every 6 monthes. I hope the quality does improve over time but all in all they\'re not to bad.
Patrick
I will say this though. They\'re an ambitious company. They plan on releasing 12 new colours every 6 monthes. I hope the quality does improve over time but all in all they\'re not to bad.
Patrick
