Derivan MINIS paint range = same price as GW 3x the amount

[Kara Jane]

To bring you up to date on Derivan MINIS

Matisse Derivan is an Australian company that sells a lot of paint, if you went to school in Australia you have most likely been covered in the stuff all through school, from kindy to art classes.

So now they have decided to make paint for miniatures (sort of a give-a-away with the name) with their main selling point being that they have 36 mls in the bottles.
\"SIZE MATTERS\" :twisted:

The story goes that they consulted a local miniature club and made the paints based on whatever the club said, I think they got a lot of paint too. They ended up with 72 colours and mediums.

So has anyone else had a go at Derivan MINIS range of paints?

I\'ve had a mixed reaction to it.

Pros:

Yes, they are affordable!

Bottle is easy to clean, the top part can be removed and washed.

Nice and thin, out of the bottle.

Very smooth to apply

layers nicely

It is a dropper bottle, but unlike VCM it is a twist up one, rather than a cap on top.

A completely matt finish, GW looks very shiny next to it. If you don\'t like it, mix \'surface tension breaker\' in.

\'Iridescent Medium\' makes whatever colour you mix it with metallic. I\'m going to have fun with that.

Cons:

Coverage is not that great with the lighter shades, but this may just have to do with the thickness (I usually have thicker undercoat paint than I use for shading).

Tastes like soap (I lick my brush )

If you like to be naughty and float thick layers of paint over an almost dry part DON\'T. Your paint brush will bald that spot, taking your last layer off.

I think that in the end it depends on what your style and methods of painting are.

I just wanted to see what other people thought of the paint.

 

[Einion]

Thanks for the mini review. Here\'s the MiNis page for anyone that wants to read up on them.

Originally posted by Kara Jane
So has anyone else had a go at Derivan MINIS range of paints?

These have been mentioned a few times, although they don\'t appear to have a lot of users. Here are a few of the older threads:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=20919
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=11671
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=11135
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=9365
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=7039

I actually use a range made by another Australian firm, Derivan\'s competitor Chroma, for most of my mini-related painting now, these:

Originally posted by Kara Jane
Tastes like soap (I lick my brush )

I wouldn\'t recommend it!

Originally posted by Kara Jane
If you like to be naughty and float thick layers of paint over an almost dry part DON\'T. Your paint brush will bald that spot, taking your last layer off.

Can you do this without a problem with other paints, GW for example?

Einion

 

[Kara Jane]

Einion I\'ve had a look at the links, they don\'t really say much about them at all. Some of them have the paint description of the paint being thick. It would have to be the last thing I would say about the paints.

While GW seems to be like whipped cream out of the pot, MINIS are like thin cream. Thinner than GW, VGC and VMC. Nice if you like it like that.

And you like to use Jo Sonja\'s? My Mum has a whole box of these paints, may have to borrow them, she hasn\'t touched them for years. Very easy to find, every Spotlight and craft shop I have been to has the whole range of them. I love trying different paints and collecting the colours.

As for licking my brush, I think that these paints are going to break the habit. All the other paints I tried never tasted this bad, I licked them to maintain a point on the brush. I admit it is not a good habit and I\'m just glad that they aren\'t toxic.

The floating the paint on the top thing does work to a certain degree, but the results can look too thick, I usually only do it for undercoats. I hate doing undercoats, they are either too thick (not orange peel) or they wear off as I am working on the model.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Kara Jane
While GW seems to be like whipped cream out of the pot, MINIS are like thin cream. Thinner than GW, VGC and VMC. Nice if you like it like that.

Maybe they\'ve altered the viscosity? Thinner than VGC is pretty thin!

Originally posted by Kara Jane
And you like to use Jo Sonja\'s? My Mum has a whole box of these paints, may have to borrow them, she hasn\'t touched them for years.

They\'re very nice. Consistency varies a bit but it should be mostly like thicker cream (still just about pourable, but not like typical artists\' acrylics which are a bit more like soft butter) so they do need diluting.

I\'m used to reducing the consistency of thicker paints so I don\'t find it a hassle to dilute everything but some people would find it tedious, especially if they use a brush for thinning.

Originally posted by Kara Jane
As for licking my brush, I think that these paints are going to break the habit.

Originally posted by Kara Jane
I admit it is not a good habit and I\'m just glad that they aren\'t toxic.

All paints can be considered to be potentially toxic, as they might be to you.

Even hobby colours can contain aluminium, chromium and cadmium compounds, as well as trace amounts of manganese in some of the earth colours. With individual sensitivity to things varying so much pointing brushes in the mouth is not a risk that should be taken lightly.

Originally posted by Kara Jane
I hate doing undercoats, they are either too thick (not orange peel) or they wear off as I am working on the model.

Don\'t handle the mini directly; this will solve a lot of that problem If you have a look at the sticky thread, there are a few about pinning and holding in the ones I collected, right at the top in the Basics, cleanup & equipment section.

Einion

 

[DaRat]

The Derivan MiNiS probably have only a few users since they don\'t have a wide distribution.

Dropping an agitator of some sort into the bottle seems to help quite a bit.

 

[Kara Jane]

Don\'t pay any attention to the colour chart for Derivan MINIS. It is rubbish. As all are.

So far the Militia Brown is lighter than Snakebite Leather with less yellow in it.

Aegean Blue is more blue than Hawk Turquoise and is also lighter.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Kara Jane
Don\'t pay any attention to the colour chart for Derivan MINIS. It is rubbish. As all are.

Some paints do have hand-painted colour charts. I like hand-painted colour charts

Einion

 

[Kombi]

Originally posted by DaRat
The Derivan MiNiS probably have only a few users since they don\'t have a wide distribution.

Dropping an agitator of some sort into the bottle seems to help quite a bit.

Agitators help these paints greatly.

As an aussie I used to be able to get them from my LGS, but they\'ve stopped stocking them. I\'m really glad I bought some of the colours when I did, Light and dark chestnut are perfect for auburn hair, and dwarf skin base tones. not to mention horses and whatnot.

I also like their payne\'s grey as a base for nmm, and the unbleached cloth in the range is really nice for purity seals, and, well, cloth. It\'s like a slightly pinkish bleached bone. I also got my hands on some banzai red, basically a cadmium red. difficult to use right but high-impact when it works. I\'d take some photos but the batteries in my camera are dead at the moment.

(it\'s just my first post, please be gentle)

 

[Jericho]

No worries Kombi, your post was perfectly readable, informative and on-topic. That\'s a pretty good way to start -- you\'re leagues ahead of many regulars (and on some days even some of the more laid back mods ).

Welcome aboard

Re: paint color charts, I really do like the idea of hand-painted ones. A lot When I have a ton of similar colors and I can\'t tell which one to use I make swatches on my old dry pallet (usually shaped like TG for Traitor Green as an example) for comparison purposes. I\'ve always meant to do a chart for all the P3 and all the Citadel paints, but I\'m far too lazy for that.