Badger Minitaire paints

[Einion]

The problem i find is that it doesn't actually save time. Any time made up bascoating and highlighting is lost when you get to shading & details because you have to be so careful not to screw up the air brush coat when painting the details.

I don't find this. I know what you mean about having to be careful around the airbrushed bits - not to overpaint a small area or otherwise marr it - but I'd typically be saving some hours compared to doing the same job by brush* so any pussyfooting around the airbrushed stuff I have to do would be hard pressed to outweigh that!

*Time savings increasing with scale.

I also picked a split color scheme to my current marines and have yet to find a decent way to mask the highly detailed surfaces sufficiently.

Sounds like a job for a liquid mask. They can be a bit of a pain to remove but no choice really if that's the kind of masking that's necessary.

Other options for intricate shapes and contoured surfaces include Silly Putty, and Blu-Tack or similar.

Einion

 

[Valander]

I don't find this. I know what you mean about having to be careful around the airbrushed bits - not to overpaint a small area or otherwise marr it - but I'd typically be saving some hours compared to doing the same job by brush* so any pussyfooting around the airbrushed stuff I have to do would be hard pressed to outweigh that!

*Time savings increasing with scale.

Also, if you're really worried about it, a quick, thin coat of matte varnish on top of the airbrushed work will help protect it and make it a bit easier to do "cleanup" if need be, as well as protect it from rubbing off too easily with a brush, if that's the problem. Most acrylics can be quickly cleaned off with a brush and isopropyl alcohol if you get to them before they've had more than a few minutes of curing time.

Sounds like a job for a liquid mask. They can be a bit of a pain to remove but no choice really if that's the kind of masking that's necessary.

Other options for intricate shapes and contoured surfaces include Silly Putty, and Blu-Tack or similar.

Einion

Yup, love the blu-tack masking. Again, to help protect, I usually do a thin coat of varnish before putting on masking stuff.

 

[Zab]

Yup, love the blu-tack masking. Again, to help protect, I usually do a thin coat of varnish before putting on masking stuff.[/QUOTE]

I'll try the silly putty or blue tac, I don't want to spend days picking liquid mask out of my nooks and crannies o.0

 

[Zab]

I don't find this. I know what you mean about having to be careful around the airbrushed bits - not to overpaint a small area or otherwise marr it - but I'd typically be saving some hours compared to doing the same job by brush* so any pussyfooting around the airbrushed stuff I have to do would be hard pressed to outweigh that!

*Time savings increasing with scale.

Einion

Yeah I guess I should just rip the band-aid off and use the air brush for more things

 

[Einion]

I'll try the silly putty or blue tac, I don't want to spend days picking liquid mask out of my nooks and crannies o.0

That's what a 'rubber' is for (a ball of dried mask), but to be fair when you're spraying they don't work as well as they might.

Einion

 

[mr_maxime]

A little bit of threadomancy, but I just ordered these off Amazon. They are ridiculously cheap for paint right now but are still out of stock. I only have a few airbrush colors so this will really bulk up my paint choices.

I actually talked to Rob from Spikey Bits before he put them up on the site. I think he honestly loves those paints lol since he talked about them for a while. I bought rugged skin to try. While it wasn't the color I needed, I wanted something to match VGC dwarf flesh, it did provide insanely good coverage over black for such a pale color. I actually liked it. I was hoping for a line to act as an airbrush ready equivalent to GW's old range, but I still can't wait to get my set.

 

[DreamKnight]

I'll try the silly putty or blue tac, I don't want to spend days picking liquid mask out of my nooks and crannies o.0

Silly Putty is a very good way to go Zab. And pretty cheap as well.

Also, on airbrushing, just be patient and keep trying new things with it. When you get techniques down and all, it become way easier and saves lots of time. It's not to say to throw you brushes away!

Chung

 

[DreamKnight]

To be fair, they don't make them they just buy them in from suppliers and that's what these bottles are like - exactly the same as the 2 fl. oz. bottles common to craft paints and some other acrylics that don't come in tubes.

Einion

Just a note on this Einion, Badger makes their own paint. They have their own chemist department and everything. They use the bottles because from what I was told, it's more economical to fill 1oz bottles thus able to keep the price a little lower. I do concur with jabbayoda (hey Schnauzer! ) on the frost on the bottle making it hard to figure out the paints. When things slow down I'll talk to Badger about it and see if we can't fix the bottle situation and I also want to talk to them about the formula for the metallics as well. It's just not that easy to put a new formula on the market as they have to pay for testing and approval by some agency just to get it done but it's worth talking about how to improve the metallics.

Chung

 

[kenbadger]

Chung and forum members,

To further clarify.Badger does make its paints. Minitaire and the numerous other brands we offer. Our chemist has over 25 years experience in formulating paints especially for airbrush application and adhesion and finishing of substrates commonly airbrushed on to. He was formerly the chemist for Createx paints, a well known airbrush paint manufacturer.

The reason we use the bottle we do is simple economics. We have used this bottle for years with our Air-Opaque illustration colors. By using the same bottle for other paints, including Minitaire, we're able to increase our bottle purchasing volume and hold down item costs. From what I have seen $3.33/1oz. is pretty fair price for paints in the wargaming market. Part of how we reach that price point is by holding packaging costs on the paints. We could do a different bottle - but then folks would complain about a $4.00 bottle of paint.

Sorry we didn't make a more satisfactory bottle decision, and we may re-visit it at some point if warranted - but right now we're kind of focused on trying to catch up with product demand than whether we should consider changing the bottle.

Anyhow, nothing is perfect - but I believe as far as paints go, performance-wise, the Minitaire product is pretty darn close.

As I do not have extensive time to frequent forums, if any of you ever have questions regarding Badger airbrushes or paints, please feel free to email me directly to kenbadger at aol dot com.

When able I will drop in here, and contribute if able on matters I may be qualified to assist with.

Take air,
Ken of Badger Castle

 

[Zab]

Yeah i have bought like 3 "eggs" worth and once i'm done with my DV box set hq I'm going to use the air brush on the rest. That way the HQ will still stand out but the troops will be decent and cohesive too. I'm very excited and a tad bit worried. It should be interesting not matter what happens...

 

[Einion]

To be fair, they don't make them they just buy them in from suppliers and that's what these bottles are like - exactly the same as the 2 fl. oz. bottles common to craft paints and some other acrylics that don't come in tubes.

Just a note on this Einion, Badger makes their own paint.

I was referring to the bottles... hence the, um, reference to bottles in that sentence

Einion

 

[Kelly Kim]

In regards to the "frosted" bottle issue, I would probably get a white sticker, airbrush it with the colour inside the bottle, and then stick it to the outside of the bottle for ease of identifying the exact colour / shade / tint within. It works for my brush-on paints, so I don't see it NOT working for airbrush paints either.

I think I'll give these a shot at some point. I find the Vallejo Air range a bit too biased towards the military colours, and very weak in terms of options for my fantasy and sci-fi pieces, so I'm pretty excited to give these a try. I first heard about them through Mathieu Fontaine, and while he's probably sponsored to some extent by Badger, he seems like the type of guy who'd have a hard time promoting something he personally disliked. He's too much the obnoxious Quebecois for that

 

[mr_maxime]

My set just got here! I'm very excited to use them.

 

[Milosh]

Mine just cam off of backorder and have shipped. what are your first impressions?

 

[mr_maxime]

Pretty damn awesome. They seem to be a bit thinner than model air which made building highlights much easier. I tried some of the ghost tints, but then my terrible compressor starting shooting out lots of water. I'm prepping a slaughterbrute and fantasy chimera to be airbrush painted soon and will provide more feedback.

So far Im very happy with the color range.

 

[thefloppy1]

Hi all,
An interesting read on what peoples thoughts are and the feedback from Kenbadger is handy as well.

I tend to do Historical models so I have no bright colours in my paints at all, I saw the spikeybits article, was interested in the paints for my incoming Relic Knights, I think I am going to give them a go.

I would be interested to see some of the results people are getting as well.

 

[Zab]

Not sure if this was done with them but it looks very close to what Les and others have done with the ghost tints.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/325980?browseid=4705829

I really love the shiny candy coat type look it gives armour.

 

[mr_maxime]

After using these a bit more last night, I will say that opening the pots is somewhat tedious because of the seal. That's my only complaint, which doesnt really count. The biggest issue I foresee it buying individual bottles once they start running out.

Zab, that doesn't look like a regular finish. The paints are not glossy.

 

[Zab]

Even the ghost tints are flat!? I was hoping they would be a nice transparent candy coat type of deal.

 

[Milosh]

I Painted a little with them last night and the colors I used were all glossy as glossy can be. They blew like a dream through the AB with supreme coverage but the glossyness of them is not going to work for me. i'll try adding the matte bottle to see if that helps. They would be a 10 out of 10 if they were a matte finish.