Acrylic Paint Pens

[KeithS]

My hands are not as steady as they used to be (not to mention my dodgy eyesight) so I'm thinking of using acrylic paint pens to add smaller details to figures, for example collars and cuffs (red), pack straps (off white, ochre), badges (gold) and so on.  I am also considering getting a flesh tone pack for hands and faces.  The idea is that the pens will give me better control than a wavering paint brush.  I have bought a pack of ultra fine (0.7mm) tipped pens in various colours from Amazon and am quite hopeful about giving this a go.  Has anyone tried this on 10mm figures and if so how well did it work and any hints and tips gratefully received?

[Chad]

Have the same problems. Be interested to know how they turn out.

[Scorpio_Rocks]

Watching with interest and eagerly awaiting piccies of the results
 

[jimduncanuk]

They will be a minefield of issues.

I have given up using them.

[T13A]

Hi

I bought several 'Pintor' 0.7mm pens last year for much the same reasons. Unfortunately apart from using a black pen for horse harness I have found the 'nibs' to large for practical use on 10mm figures. Just my experience of course and hope others have had more success. I'm not sure if you can get smaller 'nibs'. 

Cheers Paul

[steve_holmes_11]

I had some ages back to write the names under small scale warship models.

I wrote onto a painted base.
The ink/paint faded after a couple of years

[KeithS]

Watching with interest and eagerly awaiting piccies of the results
 

I will post them when I have had a go, assuming that it works out.  Might be a bit of a wait though I am not the fastest painter around.

[KeithS]

Hi

I bought several 'Pintor' 0.7mm pens last year for much the same reasons. Unfortunately apart from using a black pen for horse harness I have found the 'nibs' to large for practical use on 10mm figures. Just my experience of course and hope others have had more success. I'm not sure if you can get smaller 'nibs'. 

Cheers Paul

That sounds a bit ominous, but nothing ventured... I think 0.7mm is the smallest size available.

[KeithS]

I had some ages back to write the names under small scale warship models.

I wrote onto a painted base.
The ink/paint faded after a couple of years

I've seen a few reports of fading, but I am hoping that sealing/varnishing the figures might help with this.  Plus I generally keep the figures in a drawer out of direct sunlight so that might also help.

[jimduncanuk]

I've seen a few reports of fading, but I am hoping that sealing/varnishing the figures might help with this.  Plus I generally keep the figures in a drawer out of direct sunlight so that might also help.

I experienced some lifting of the ink/paint when varnishing them.

[KeithS]

Thanks to all who have posted, the overall tone doesn't sound especially encouraging, but as I said previously nothing ventured...  If it doesn't work out I can always give them a try for non-figure painting.  I am also considering having a go at the Strength and Honour rules when they come out using non-Pendraken 2mm (or smaller) figures.  Since at this scale you don't detail individual figures, but rather large warbands and legions they might work for a the kind of semi-abstract representations of use there.

[KeithS]

I experienced some lifting of the ink/paint when varnishing them.

Yes, I had considered that possibility as well.  Obviously I need to do some testing, normally I paint gloss varnish directly on to the figures.  Personally I prefer the 'toy soldier' look that get with gloss varnish, I'm a bit old fashioned in not being especially keen on the more realistic look that comes with matt varnish and flocking. However, in this case I might experiment with spraying a layer of matt varnish on first in order to try to 'fix' the pen paint, before applying a gloss coat.  I am hoping that spraying rather than brushing will be less disruptive to the paint.

[jimduncanuk]

Yes, I had considered that possibility as well.  Obviously I need to do some testing, normally I paint gloss varnish directly on to the figures.  Personally I prefer the 'toy soldier' look that get with gloss varnish, I'm a bit old fashioned in not being especially keen on the more realistic look that comes with matt varnish and flocking. However, in this case I might experiment with spraying a layer of matt varnish on first in order to try to 'fix' the pen paint, before applying a gloss coat.  I am hoping that spraying rather than brushing will be less disruptive to the paint.

Good luck with that.

[Last Hussar]

How big are the points on the pens? I was using paint pens on the MDF Napoleonics? However I've also used fine point brushes with acrylics.

[KeithS]

The figure given is 0.7mm, but the tip is conical so they taper down to that. They look to be larger than the finest brushes, but I think the problem might be getting the paint to flow into awkward areas.  I don't think there would be a problem using it for larger areas such as jackets or trousers, assuming that there is enough paint to cover these economically.  However, I am ok with simply painting those larger areas in the normal way, my real hope is to use the pens for more detailed work on the finer detail work such as collars and cuffs, which tend to get messy when I use a brush and I frequently need to correct.  I plan to have a go with the pens in the next couple of days, so we will see then.