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INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/12 00:45:04


Post by: Mousemuffins


keen to try these out, but your website tells me there are no shipping options for Australia.

I do like that you offer your paints in assorted sizes.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/12 07:56:10


Post by: ulgurstasta


Do you plan to release something like lahmian medium?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/12 13:13:39


Post by: Supershandy


Mousemuffins

That’s odd? I’m pretty sure it was on the list of destinations, not sure if the issue we had yesterday affected shipping areas, will have to look tonight.

I’ll let you know when we’ve sorted it!

ulgurstasta

We are looking at bringing g in a supplemental range, we’ll let you know if it’s something we can do!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Mousemuffins

We've sorted it out, turns out the corruption went a little deeper than we thought and quite a few countries were missing from all the shipping zones, if you head there now you'll find that shipping to Australia is now available

Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for making us aware of it!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/13 06:43:21


Post by: Lance845


I had a thought today about a product you might be interested in producing.

The idea is you make a few different clear mediums. One for Inks, one for washes, and one for glazes.

Basically making sure that the clear medium has all the properties, spelled out in the items description on your site, to do the different jobs these different products are designed for.

You would fill the bottle up to a point where you could add any of the Instar standard paints to the pot and shake well to create a Glaze, Ink, Wash of any color in your range. The bottle itself would have a little hard plastic line/ridge showing the fill point for a proper mixture.

So, if I got a bottle of Glaze Medium and set it on a level surface, I could pop off the dropper top of the bottle and add drops of any of the other paints in your range until I reached the molded fill line on the bottle. Reseal it, shake well, have a whole bottle of glaze in the color of my choice.

Instead of releasing a whole line of various washes (or whatever) you could just sell a bunch of a single bottle that opens up the color options for your customer to pretty much anything.

Thoughts?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/13 07:54:58


Post by: Mousemuffins


 Supershandy wrote:
Mousemuffins

That’s odd? I’m pretty sure it was on the list of destinations, not sure if the issue we had yesterday affected shipping areas, will have to look tonight.

I’ll let you know when we’ve sorted it!

ulgurstasta

We are looking at bringing g in a supplemental range, we’ll let you know if it’s something we can do!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Mousemuffins

We've sorted it out, turns out the corruption went a little deeper than we thought and quite a few countries were missing from all the shipping zones, if you head there now you'll find that shipping to Australia is now available

Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for making us aware of it!



Thanks! I'll throw in an order later this week.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/13 20:02:34


Post by: Supershandy


 Lance845 wrote:
I had a thought today about a product you might be interested in producing.

The idea is you make a few different clear mediums. One for Inks, one for washes, and one for glazes.

Basically making sure that the clear medium has all the properties, spelled out in the items description on your site, to do the different jobs these different products are designed for.

You would fill the bottle up to a point where you could add any of the Instar standard paints to the pot and shake well to create a Glaze, Ink, Wash of any color in your range. The bottle itself would have a little hard plastic line/ridge showing the fill point for a proper mixture.

So, if I got a bottle of Glaze Medium and set it on a level surface, I could pop off the dropper top of the bottle and add drops of any of the other paints in your range until I reached the molded fill line on the bottle. Reseal it, shake well, have a whole bottle of glaze in the color of my choice.

Instead of releasing a whole line of various washes (or whatever) you could just sell a bunch of a single bottle that opens up the color options for your customer to pretty much anything.

Thoughts?


It’s an interesting concept and would be a bit of a game changer if it worked.

We’ll put some thought into it while we extend the metallic and Vintage lines (should be this weekend...)

But this is why we love the Dakka community, it’s you lot that made INSTAR what it is


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/17 13:13:39


Post by: Supershandy


 Lance845 wrote:
I had a thought today about a product you might be interested in producing.

The idea is you make a few different clear mediums. One for Inks, one for washes, and one for glazes.

Basically making sure that the clear medium has all the properties, spelled out in the items description on your site, to do the different jobs these different products are designed for.

You would fill the bottle up to a point where you could add any of the Instar standard paints to the pot and shake well to create a Glaze, Ink, Wash of any color in your range. The bottle itself would have a little hard plastic line/ridge showing the fill point for a proper mixture.

So, if I got a bottle of Glaze Medium and set it on a level surface, I could pop off the dropper top of the bottle and add drops of any of the other paints in your range until I reached the molded fill line on the bottle. Reseal it, shake well, have a whole bottle of glaze in the color of my choice.

Instead of releasing a whole line of various washes (or whatever) you could just sell a bunch of a single bottle that opens up the color options for your customer to pretty much anything.

Thoughts?


We did try this with some material we had here, though we may have to do some more investigation work as the result, while creating an effective wash left a really (and I mean really) glossy finish.

It is showing some promise though, when we'll be releasing it is a different question while we're working on a few things but we'll certainly keep working with the idea!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/17 13:19:33


Post by: jeff white


 Supershandy wrote:
 Lance845 wrote:
I had a thought today about a product you might be interested in producing.

The idea is you make a few different clear mediums. One for Inks, one for washes, and one for glazes.

Basically making sure that the clear medium has all the properties, spelled out in the items description on your site, to do the different jobs these different products are designed for.

You would fill the bottle up to a point where you could add any of the Instar standard paints to the pot and shake well to create a Glaze, Ink, Wash of any color in your range. The bottle itself would have a little hard plastic line/ridge showing the fill point for a proper mixture.

So, if I got a bottle of Glaze Medium and set it on a level surface, I could pop off the dropper top of the bottle and add drops of any of the other paints in your range until I reached the molded fill line on the bottle. Reseal it, shake well, have a whole bottle of glaze in the color of my choice.

Instead of releasing a whole line of various washes (or whatever) you could just sell a bunch of a single bottle that opens up the color options for your customer to pretty much anything.

Thoughts?


We did try this with some material we had here, though we may have to do some more investigation work as the result, while creating an effective wash left a really (and I mean really) glossy finish.

It is showing some promise though, when we'll be releasing it is a different question while we're working on a few things but we'll certainly keep working with the idea!


Call it a glaze.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/17 16:51:23


Post by: Supershandy


Oooo, hadn't thought of that!

It's still very much in the works though


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/18 07:04:35


Post by: Lance845


Well the components in the body that make it shiny or flat can be added or subtracted from the medium you order from your manufacturers I assume.

Just like you can have matte or gloss paints there is no reason you couldn't have a matte or gloss medium.

That being said... How important is it how shiny any of it is? Don't most people seal with clear coats?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/18 09:55:57


Post by: Supershandy


 Lance845 wrote:


That being said... How important is it how shiny any of it is? Don't most people seal with clear coats?


I suppose they do, personally we don't seal ours but when we took a picture of the tested mini, it was really reflective so we quickly abandoned any further tests.

We're speaking with our manufacturer next week to see if they can provide us with a matte medium, but that could be considered bad form.

That's not to say we don't have other contacts we can speak to!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/18 16:43:11


Post by: Lance845


 Supershandy wrote:
 Lance845 wrote:


That being said... How important is it how shiny any of it is? Don't most people seal with clear coats?


I suppose they do, personally we don't seal ours but when we took a picture of the tested mini, it was really reflective so we quickly abandoned any further tests.

We're speaking with our manufacturer next week to see if they can provide us with a matte medium, but that could be considered bad form.

That's not to say we don't have other contacts we can speak to!


Sure. Not sure why they would dislike selling matte medium. Lahmian Medium is matte medium and Ard'Coat is gloss medium. Then it's just a mater of getting the viscosity and such right for the different products. So the inks and washes flow right. Then figuring out the different recommended fill amounts.

But if it all work right, endless options for colors.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/02/24 20:11:01


Post by: Supershandy


Hope you're all well, we have some new items we'd like to share with you - as always here's the link to the store INSTAR Paint Webstore

We also got some feedback from a couple of our customers this week who kindly provided us with some images.

The first one was from a commission painter who ordered a few of our colours to do a Necromunda gang, but before he started on them he had a couple of pieces left to finish for a client, so he used our Bronzed Flesh and Polished Steel on them.

The results were fantastic and the client was extremely happy with the result.

"I am very impressed. The Dull Pewter is like working with the old Boltgun Metal and the flesh looks fantastic!"



The next image comes from a customer who purchased our entire range, we got the image this morning and the results blew us away, these were painted entirely with INSTAR

"The dropper bottles are fantastic I used a tiny amount of each paint compared to the waste of spooning paint from tubs, and the fact I didn't have to compromise my brush to spoon the paint. There is a bit of a learning curve in terms of applying it as it is different but it went on very controlled didn't run nearly as much as GW paint can - which has pros and cons, more precise control but couldn't push the paint around larger areas as quickly, however that's not really a big problem. I'm very happy with the quality and extremely happy with the price and various options for sizes."



We've added three new colours to our Paint line, we felt we had far too many dark colours so we decided to go the other way and even it out by adding some brighter colours. We now have available

Bright Yellow



Pale Flesh



Arctic Green - This will look different on monitors, it's a green tinted white, kind of like a pale mint



We've also extended the Vintage Line as well, originally it was only going to be two colours, but since we needed to do some skin for our Tau Army, we increased it to three, so there is now available

IV-03 - Calthan Brown (Foundation line)



IV-04 - Shadow Grey (Colour Line - 2012)



IV-05 - Space Wolves Grey (Crystal Hex Jar - Pre 2011)



We've also extended the metallic line too with two new pigments

Radiant Red



Antique Bronze



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/04 11:07:52


Post by: Supershandy


We recently got more feedback from another commission painter who bought some paint off of us, to say we were blown away was a bit of an understatement, but we're not going to babble on, just take a look at the picture!



We're also playing around with colour flip metallics this weekend as well as there was a bit of a discussion on it in the Painting and modelling forum, one of the biggest complaints was the size of the flakes leaving models looking more like a metallic car finish, our metallics have a finer grain so should provide a better finish, however we want to do some extensive tests before we decide if we're going to release it.

In other news, we're also planning to expand the vintage line again as we feel it's a little thin on the ground. One of our customers asked if we were going to do packs for old colour schemes based on the older colour ranges, this got us thinking so keep an eye our or subscribe to this thread to hear the latest news on this development!

If you've bought the paint and like it, we'd really love to hear your feedback on it, drop us a PM

We'll have more updates soon!




INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/04 12:14:33


Post by: JonWebb


Are more of the pseudo foundation paints coming?

I use them for my bases, and obviously supplies are now limited. I used the following triads for rocks and dirt.

Charardon Granite
Adeptus Battlegrey
Astronomical Grey

Calthan Brown
Khemri Brown
Deneb Stone

So, some good solid replacements for these would be ace.

Of course, one of the good things about the original run of foundations is the pigment. Made for (sometimes) not amazing miniatures painting, but great for drybrushing... Not sure how your pigment matches up as I feel you are going more for a rounded paint rather than something specifically as dense as the old Foundation range,



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/04 12:57:00


Post by: Supershandy


JonWebb

Our paints do have a high pigment count and do drybrush well, but in comparison to the foundation paints, they are not as thick and as you say, we are aiming for more of a rounded paint rather than something specific.

In relation to the colours you have asked for, Caltharn brown and Charadon Granite have already been done (IV-03 and IV-02), Deneb stone will be released next weekend along with Vomit Brown so they are coming out, it’s just taking some time however our focus is going to be shifting more to metallics and the Vintage line as these are proving extremely popular!

Beat place to keep up to date is our Facebook page or Twitter


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/04 15:34:21


Post by: DaveC


Oh Dheneb Stone excellent it's been one of my most used colours and I'm running really low. It's getting to the point where you have enough colours I'm interested in to justify the postage cost.

Any plans to add Macharius Solar Orange? IMO one of the best oranges ever made in fact the whole foundation range was great. Also do you have any plans to sell empty dropper bottles? I could do with a good source for 50 and 100 ml for custom mixes.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/04 20:17:49


Post by: Supershandy


DaveC

We plan to replicate the shades of the entire Foundation Range, but as we’re also getting interest in the crystal hex jar range as well, we’re realeasing one from each range every 1-2 weeks so it’s worth keeping an eye here, on Facebook and Twitter to see what’s coming next

As for empty bottles, we hadn’t considered it but you make an excellent point so we’ll probably look into supplying them at some point!

Thanks for the suggeation, as always we admire the community, their thoughts and ideas as we wouldn’t be around without all of you


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/05 11:04:28


Post by: Mousemuffins


...aaannndd ordered.

I've selected a variety of colours and will be testing them enthusiastically.

Hope they don' take too long to get to Australia..


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/05 12:00:40


Post by: Supershandy


Mousemuffins

We saw the email come through and instantly recognised who it was! Thank you very much

Once shipped it should take between 5-11 days to reach you depending on how long it sits in customs, we usually don’t have any problems though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
We've just gone over the 50 paint colours mark so now we have even more paints to choose from when deciding on your colour schemes.

We did have some question from customers asking about putting the colours in order of shade, it seems our program won't allow us to do that and put's everything in alphabetical order, however, if you look at the left hand side (Or the bottom of the page if you're on mobile) you can filter the shades by their colour so if you select Yellow, you'll just be shown all the yellows only, should make it easier to select high, mid and low tones!

We're also getting more help with the Vintage line as we had an international customer send us a package back containing Vomit Brown that we'd been looking for



We've got a new purple metallic coming as soon as well, perfect for more elaborate and different power weapons or even tiny details such as gemstones as shown here on our Tau Ethereal model



We're still working on the colour flip metallics as well, so far it's promising but we still need to do some work on them.

We also have something secret going on too.....but we'll let you know in good time!





INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/06 02:02:18


Post by: insaniak


 Lance845 wrote:
Don't most people seal with clear coats?

No. There's generally no real need unless you're really rough with your minis, and sealers often mess with colours and highlights, so from my experience most people don't bother.

Shiny washes are irritating, unless it's something that specifically wants a shiny finish.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/06 11:47:16


Post by: Mousemuffins


Oh.

Can you do custom paint colours? Or possibly take suggestions for your range?



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/06 13:44:02


Post by: Supershandy


Mousemuffins

We have thought about it though we’re still figuring out how to charge it be it minimum size and cost or a one off charge.

For suggestions, that’s a little different and we’re always open to them



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/06 13:58:17


Post by: Mymearan


My experience is that everyone I know seals their minis. And when I asked in the P&M forum, 59/95 said they do both plastic and metal. Obviously just anecdotal but that's what I've seen. I would still call a shiny wash irritating though since it'll look bad right up until you varnish it, which is the absolute last step.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/06 15:37:15


Post by: Supershandy


Mymearan

That’s why we abandoned the testing and went back to the drawing board because we knew it wouldn’t be acceptable to the community, if we didn’t like it we’re pretty sure no one else would!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/10 16:15:09


Post by: Supershandy


We just got word of Bournemouth Tabletop Commissions doing another piece using our paints, this time it was a mix across the board of INSTAR and Citadel paint (The most noticeable one is our Dark Purple), just shows how compatible our paints are with major brands.



We're still working on our super secret project too


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/12 15:04:40


Post by: WobblyGoblin


I love the concept but I have tried several times to go and buy some paints (a bit of an impulse purchase) and been put off by the website enough to pass.

You say that there is a way to browse or filter the products but I can't find it on mobile or PC web browser. Is it something that an ad-blocker would remove? I can't be bothered browsing every page and trying to remember what yellows there might be. The only options I can find are to sort by popularity, newness, rating or price which aren't helpful. Maybe a page showing all the shades grouped together? At the very least you need some way of selecting similar colours to compare.

I like the look of the colour shifting paints. If you bring in a pink one for the Slaanesh fans among us then I will need to battle the website and place an order!

I think you are also lacking models that really showcase the paints. Some of the display models seem a little sketchy and don't do the paints justice. On a related note, have you considered sending some samples to a couple of the YouTube painters who also review products (e.g Luke's APS)?

Keep up the good work though. At this rate you will have the most complete line-up out there by Christmas!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/14 18:09:30


Post by: DaveC


That looks like my order in the background (blue tops)

Spoiler:



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/14 18:13:00


Post by: Theophony


Are there any other colors your looking for to match up?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/14 18:15:22


Post by: DaveC


 Theophony wrote:
Are there any other colors your looking for to match up?


Is this list up to date (last edited 4th March)

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/743454.page

I might have some of them somewhere


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/14 19:31:56


Post by: OrlandotheTechnicoloured


I'm sure I've got a fair few of those too


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 13:42:37


Post by: Supershandy


WobblyGoblin

Hi there, we're sorry to hear that you found the website off putting, it wasn't an adblocker that caused it, we had a major issue on our website a few weeks ago and we thought we had everything fixed, but as you pointed out, the search menu had gone.

This has now been fixed and is now available again so you can now filter by colour, we hope that you'll revisit the website again soon

We're looking at new ones as the four that we released have been far more popular than we imagined them to be!

We have considered sending the paints out to some of the youtube channels, but we want the brand to become a bit more established first before we head down that route, thanks for the suggestion though!

Thank you as well for the feedback, it's great to hear and when our secret project is complete, we're sure it will please a lot of painters

DaveC

I believe it could be yes

Theophony[user]

At the moment we are focusing more on the Vintage line at the moment as it is proving extremely popular compared to the others, at the moment we're in the process of adding more from the Foundation Paint line and some from the 1998 era of paints around every two weeks. As mentioned above, we're also looking at other colour shifting metallics as well and we'll probably add some more colours to the flagship line as well in the next couple of months from the Citadel layer Range.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
DaveC wrote:
 Theophony wrote:
Are there any other colors your looking for to match up?


Is this list up to date (last edited 4th March)

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/743454.page

I might have some of them somewhere


OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:I'm sure I've got a fair few of those too


That is the most up to date list at the moment, we're getting through them but it's taking time so it's always worth keeping an eye on here, Facebook and Twitter to see which ones we have released.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 13:47:31


Post by: OrlandotheTechnicoloured


what size of swatch do you need if I've got something to contribute?

and what colour (white/black/grey) would you prefer it to be painted on?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 14:04:14


Post by: Supershandy


 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
what size of swatch do you need if I've got something to contribute?

and what colour (white/black/grey) would you prefer it to be painted on?


At least a 2x2 cm square should suffice with about 4 thick layers of paint, this will ensure there is no leakage from the carrier material when we do our analysis. We normally apply it white card and we’ve never had any problems with it though Plasticard or even A4 paper works, the most important thing is the thickness of the layers, any leakage of the material (you can tell this by shining a single led letting torch under it) will result in a different colour being analysed.

The only other thing is that we would need the name of the paint and which pot it came from I.e crystal hex jar, white hex jar, flip top etc written on the back of the card

If you do have something, send us a PM and we’ll let you know where to send them


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 14:05:05


Post by: Apologist


I placed an order a few weeks ago, and have been trying a few Instar paints out on a recent project:



The dark grey used for the armour here is from Instar's Vintage range; their equivalent to the much-lamented Charadon Granite, one of my favourite paints. In terms of hue, it's not quite identical to the dregs of Charadon Granite I've hoarded in my last pot, but it's much closer in hue than GW's nearest replacement, Skavenblight Dinge.

In terms of coverage, the Vintage range doesn't quite have the body of the Foundations, but on the other hand, requires less dilution; so it's all a bit swings-and-roundabouts on that front.

Overall, I'm very happy with them – Instar have given me back some of my favourite colours! – and am looking forward to their range expanding.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 14:13:18


Post by: DaveC


And just to clarify by crystal jar do you mean the hexagonal pots that were made to look like a bolter shell - as I have 6 of them on your current list.

[Thumb - EE168F38-C9AB-4656-B3C4-84743DF7ED65.jpeg]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 14:28:31


Post by: Supershandy


 DaveC wrote:
And just to clarify by crystal jar do you mean the hexagonal pots that were made to look like a bolter shell - as I have 6 of them on your current list.


They are the exact ones!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Apologist wrote:
I placed an order a few weeks ago, and have been trying a few Instar paints out on a recent project:



The dark grey used for the armour here is from Instar's Vintage range; their equivalent to the much-lamented Charadon Granite, one of my favourite paints. In terms of hue, it's not quite identical to the dregs of Charadon Granite I've hoarded in my last pot, but it's much closer in hue than GW's nearest replacement, Skavenblight Dinge.

In terms of coverage, the Vintage range doesn't quite have the body of the Foundations, but on the other hand, requires less dilution; so it's all a bit swings-and-roundabouts on that front.

Overall, I'm very happy with them – Instar have given me back some of my favourite colours! – and am looking forward to their range expanding.


We still love this picture

Thank you as always for the feedback, we’re always reviewing the colours so we can get them as close as we can to the original shades


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 15:25:22


Post by: RejjeN


How does your Antique Bronze compare to Citadel's Brass Scorpion? I'm using it as the base armour colour for my Minotaurs Space Marines, but as it's a metal colour it's hard to thin enough so it doesn't dry within a few seconds of putting it on a brush...

So your paints being a bit more thinned made me think I might be able to replace some, assuming it's close enough


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/15 15:47:25


Post by: Supershandy


RejjeN wrote:
How does your Antique Bronze compare to Citadel's Brass Scorpion? I'm using it as the base armour colour for my Minotaurs Space Marines, but as it's a metal colour it's hard to thin enough so it doesn't dry within a few seconds of putting it on a brush...

So your paints being a bit more thinned made me think I might be able to replace some, assuming it's close enough


I can have a look later on today and let you know how close it is, but being brass it’s likely that it’s going to be pretty much similar!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/16 08:32:46


Post by: Apologist


I placed a tester order of four colours recently. Having had a chance to try the paints out, I've written a review, which you can read on Death of a Rubricist here.

If you don't fancy going off-site, the long and the short is that aside from a few minor niggles, the paints are good-quality and come recommended. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay Instar is that I'll be placing another order based on the first batch I received!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/16 11:45:34


Post by: Supershandy


RejjeN wrote:
How does your Antique Bronze compare to Citadel's Brass Scorpion? I'm using it as the base armour colour for my Minotaurs Space Marines, but as it's a metal colour it's hard to thin enough so it doesn't dry within a few seconds of putting it on a brush...

So your paints being a bit more thinned made me think I might be able to replace some, assuming it's close enough


Hi there, we took a look and it’s darker being a bronze rather than brass, apologies for that, however we are always adding to the range so it’s worth keeping an eye on us to see when we add our new colours, best places are this thread, our Facebook page or twitter.



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/17 23:25:52


Post by: RejjeN


Well Brass Scorpion used to be called Dwarf Bronze so I'm not sure if it's ACTUALLY brass (If it is it's a very dark brass), which is why I drybrush it with a different lighter metal paint.

Either way, that's a shame. I'll keep an eye on your range though, some interesting things in there that I might look into getting in the future already


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/17 23:49:14


Post by: Samko


Do you have a photo of a mini painted with your metalic red ? I've not yet found one that look red rather than magenta/pinkish.

Generally speaking, I think that it would be better if every color had a photo displaying it on a mini rather that just a digital image.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/18 18:12:46


Post by: Supershandy


RejjeN wrote:Well Brass Scorpion used to be called Dwarf Bronze so I'm not sure if it's ACTUALLY brass (If it is it's a very dark brass), which is why I drybrush it with a different lighter metal paint.

Either way, that's a shame. I'll keep an eye on your range though, some interesting things in there that I might look into getting in the future already


Sorry about that, but thank you for still being interested in the range, means a lot

Samko wrote:Do you have a photo of a mini painted with your metalic red ? I've not yet found one that look red rather than magenta/pinkish.

Generally speaking, I think that it would be better if every color had a photo displaying it on a mini rather that just a digital image.


We wholeheartedly agree and this question has been asked elsewhere, we're currently getting some equipment so that we can record it as we're having trouble capturing it in a still image!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/18 19:33:11


Post by: Lockark


Is their any examples of the Radiant Red? I have not been able to mix a metallic red, and the only way I have achieved the effect is to layer clear paints over golds.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/18 21:28:07


Post by: Supershandy


 Lockark wrote:
Is their any examples of the Radiant Red? I have not been able to mix a metallic red, and the only way I have achieved the effect is to layer clear paints over golds.


This was a quick test shot we did for someone who was interested, it was done over a white basecoat and took about 4 passes to get the coverage




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hi Everyone,

We were made aware yesterday of an issue with our site showing pop up ads on mobile devices.

We can 100% confirm that we run no adverts on our page and it was linked to some malicious code that managed to get itself injected into our site that we discovered after trawling through the code.

We have taken measures to prevent further intrusions to our code and we hope we’ve fixed the problem.

To anyone who was affected we deeply apologise and we hope you’ll revisit the site again

The INSTAR team


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/22 10:32:14


Post by: DaveC


I received my order yesterday and while I won’t get a chance to use them for a week or 2 I did a quick comparison test.

First thing to note is don’t judge the colours in their wet state, I was concerned about the colour matching while they are wet the red brown in particular was no where near Mournfang brown but having dried overnight it’s now very close so don’t worry if the colour looks off straight out of the pot.

Cool Grey/Celestra Grey - very good match this was clear even when wet, as near as makes no difference.

IV06/Dheneb Stone this is the one I really wanted it gets used for lots of different things, when wet IV06 looks a bit greyer but dried it’s very close maybe a tiny bit lighter but I was using the dregs of a pot of Dheneb stone so it might just be that. Good replacement colour.

IV02/Charonite Granite again very close granite might just have a hint more brown.

IV03/Calthan Brown again a personal favourite colour I use a lot as I don’t like how a lot of other browns tend more towards the red end. IV03 looked lighter when wet but dried it’s a hint darker it’s very close though.

Red Brown/Mournfang brown as mentioned looks wrong when wet brighter and redder but dried very close.

Steel Grey/Mechanicus Standard Grey again close but Steel Grey looks a hint more blue.

Chocolate Brown/Rhinox Hide only one I’d say I’m disappointed with the colour is off Chocolate Brown is more muted and on the greyer side whilst Rhinox Hide has a richer brown, chocolate brown is more burnt chocolate.

Mud Brown/Steel Legion Drab - turns out my Steel Legion Drab has dried out so I can’t compare

The consistency and texture of the paint is good and I’m happy with it, I always thin foundation paints anyway so prethinned is good for me.

The child safe bottle tops take a little getting used too but the small nozzle is great for getting small amounts out. I’d agree with the previous reviewer re the labels they are too big to make eye balling a paint by colour easy.

Overall I’m very happy with what I got these are by far the best replacements for foundation paints on the market I know Vallejo tried to replicate them but didn’t really get close. Probably best to focus on the vintage range for now (please add Solar Macharius Orange soon )

I’ll be ordering more when the range increases.

PS I haven’t sent the paints yet not been near a post office hopefully by the weekend

[Thumb - C00B629E-7811-480F-A428-118790443FAB.jpeg]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/25 18:52:30


Post by: DaveC


Well I guess now that you added Macharius Solar Orange it would be rude of me not to order some

New additions today

IV-13 - Goblin Green 1998 Version
IV-14 - Vermin Brown 1998 Version
IV-15 - Dark Angels Green 1998 Version
IV-16 - Iyanden Darksun (Foundation)
IV-17 - Macharius Solar Orange (Foundation)


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/03/28 11:32:27


Post by: Supershandy


 DaveC wrote:
Well I guess now that you added Macharius Solar Orange it would be rude of me not to order some

New additions today

IV-13 - Goblin Green 1998 Version
IV-14 - Vermin Brown 1998 Version
IV-15 - Dark Angels Green 1998 Version
IV-16 - Iyanden Darksun (Foundation)
IV-17 - Macharius Solar Orange (Foundation)


Haha, you managed to get this up before i’d even mentioned anything!

Thank you for the order, love to see the model when it’s done


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 15:02:37


Post by: Supershandy


Hi everyone,

Just want to get the thoughts of the community on this but what if we supplied more than just paint but everything you need for miniature modelling I.e glue, brushes, cleaners etc?

Would this be of any interest?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 15:17:49


Post by: OrlandotheTechnicoloured


Probably not glue (stuff from the pound shop works fine and while it may not keep as well as other brands the price is unbeatable)

Brushes, maybe? I tend to buy Roesemary & Co at the moment which gives me the best balance between quality and price but if I was putting in a paint order I'd give a kolinsky sable brush at a cheaper price a try

as for anything else, I might add to a paint order so it would be worth having the stuff there for folks


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 15:40:43


Post by: ced1106


Competition is pretty tough, and I imagine experienced painters would already have and know where to get these materials.

Myself, I'd like to have more colored primers for the fantasy hobby market. Vallejo has several colored primers, but they're targeted towards the historical model market.

EDIT: Maybe painting figure holders with the arch, although GW's figure holders are cheap from the FLGS.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 15:44:45


Post by: Apologist


Glue seems like a natural addition to your line, and I certainly wouldn't object to the others unless they impact on your speed/postage etc. I don't think it'd make a huge difference to whether I'd place an order or not, but might encourage me to make an impulse addition to a purchase.

(While I'm writing, I don't think the links in your signature work, Supershandy. They highlight when hovered over, but nothing happens when I click them...)


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 15:59:55


Post by: Theophony


How about brush cleaner soap? I’ve never tried any before, but I hear people have started to use it more, so might be an idea.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 17:40:46


Post by: Lockark


 Theophony wrote:
How about brush cleaner soap? I’ve never tried any before, but I hear people have started to use it more, so might be an idea.


TBH it's so much cheaper to get the soaps in bulk or in small amounts from any art supply store. "The Masters' Brush cleaner and preserver" is my preferred choice, and I can even order containers of it off amazon if I was to lazy to leave my house to get it. But I suely buy it from michaels Arts and crafts when I get a 40% off one item coupon.

I don't think it's a smart route to go down for them, when you have loss leaders in the market already selling the exact same product.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 18:39:23


Post by: Azreal13


WRT soaps, I've got the smallest one that Masters do, and I fully expect it to outlive me. So unless you feel there's a market sufficiently large enough of people who haven't bought any before, want some and won't ever need to buy it again, it probably isn't worthwhile unless the markup is huge and the minimum order is relatively small.

With the Forgeworld paints going offline though, there's a whole new avenue opened up...


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/06 18:47:27


Post by: Supershandy


 Azreal13 wrote:
With the Forgeworld paints going offline though, there's a whole new avenue opened up...


I think we’ll have to check this one out, might have to wait a while for the dust to settle but it could be!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/07 22:00:17


Post by: Azreal13


There's quite possibly room for improvement too. My experience with the range is limited, but the opacity of the ones I do have is terrible.

I appreciate they're intended for airbrush, and that's how I use them 95% of the time, but needing to apply multiple coats to correct even the tiniest bit of overspray is a PITA.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/08 11:20:50


Post by: Supershandy


So we've finally managed to recreate the shades of all 18 colours of the Foundation range, though it has taken a while we're really proud that we've reached this milestone and it now allows us to focus on the 3rd,4th,5th and 6th edition range of paints.

We've received so much support and help with the Vintage project and we cannot thank everyone enough for all the donations they have sent us.

A bundle pack will be available soon of the entire range of recreated foundation paints.

In other news, we also have an orange and green metallic coming as well to extend the selection of colours on our Metallic line and allows for more interesting colour schemes for your armies!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/14 07:08:29


Post by: Supershandy


So we've finally managed to recreate the shades of all 18 colours of the Foundation range, though it has taken a while we're really proud that we've reached this milestone and it now allows us to focus on the 3rd,4th,5th and 6th edition range of paints.

We've received so much support and help with the Vintage project and we cannot thank everyone enough for all the donations they have sent us.

A bundle pack will be available soon of the entire range of recreated foundation paints.

In other news, we also have an orange and green metallic coming as well to extend the selection of colours on our Metallic line and allows for more interesting colour schemes for your armies!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/14 07:59:14


Post by: ced1106


Nice!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/14 23:46:27


Post by: angel of death 007


I have a question, do your paints have actuators inside them? I hate GW paint pots and as such have bought a lot of Reaper paints and reaper triads. The actuators help a lot in getting consistent color and texture. I have a lot of really old projects so having an option for these paint matches would be great. Since I live in the US I will be holding off until your range expands a bit more before placing an order but it looks really good and the colors you offer so far have been great.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/15 06:07:52


Post by: Supershandy


angel of death 007 wrote:
I have a question, do your paints have actuators inside them? I hate GW paint pots and as such have bought a lot of Reaper paints and reaper triads. The actuators help a lot in getting consistent color and texture. I have a lot of really old projects so having an option for these paint matches would be great. Since I live in the US I will be holding off until your range expands a bit more before placing an order but it looks really good and the colors you offer so far have been great.


Did you mean agitations? If so we’re asked this ages ago and it’s something we’re going to look into, the only concern we have is that it might block the nozzle but then again we could be wrong

We’ll get some ordered soon and add it to our own collection and see what effect it has!

Thank you for the interest, we’re planning another expansion next week (We make the Tau look like their standing still! )


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/15 17:12:44


Post by: ced1106


I think paint clogs the nozzle more than agitators?

Here's how Reaper does it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrR5h-4hDBk

That's one advantage of GW pots -- cut a piece of sprue, drop it into the pot, there's your agitator!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/16 04:30:38


Post by: angel of death 007


ced1106 wrote:
I think paint clogs the nozzle more than agitators?

Here's how Reaper does it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrR5h-4hDBk

That's one advantage of GW pots -- cut a piece of sprue, drop it into the pot, there's your agitator!


Agreed I have never had one block due to that,dried paint is the main thing. It does make the paint a lot easier to work with though.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/16 08:14:45


Post by: Supershandy


angel of death 007 wrote:
ced1106 wrote:
I think paint clogs the nozzle more than agitators?

Here's how Reaper does it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrR5h-4hDBk

That's one advantage of GW pots -- cut a piece of sprue, drop it into the pot, there's your agitator!


Agreed I have never had one block due to that,dried paint is the main thing. It does make the paint a lot easier to work with though.


We just watched the video and weirdly this is how we see our production in the future, though that's still a way off yet

We've just got some beads on order to do some tests.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/16 13:16:20


Post by: Ragsta


Thank you for starting your paint business in the first place - I’ve only picked up four of them so far but happy I can get some of the old reliables back! I’ve switched to Vallejo and army painter from GW but now I’ll be adding you chaps to my list too.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/17 11:08:41


Post by: Supershandy


Our pleasure, we’re happy that we’ll be slotting in amongst your other products!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/21 12:32:01


Post by: Supershandy


We received a rather large parcel in the post last week and we cannot thank this person enough!







There are a number of colours that are all dried up but this should make it easier to replicate these shades for the INSTAR Vintage line, there's even some there from the 2nd edition period. However since this find, we've had more and more people offering to send us samples of old paint to the point where someone contacted us with at least half of the original paints from the Rogue Trader era.

We're really excited with how things have been going recently and we will endeavour to get these paints replicated as quickly as we can!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/21 12:40:48


Post by: OrlandotheTechnicoloured


Fantastic news there


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/21 13:51:01


Post by: ced1106


You accept DRIED GW paints?? You should have let your UK customers know that! You would have gotten TONS of paint samples!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/21 19:05:56


Post by: SeanDrake


ced1106 wrote:
You accept DRIED GW paints?? You should have let your UK customers know that! You would have gotten TONS of paint samples!


Yeah but they don't need the current range


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/22 06:53:02


Post by: Necro


Your metal paint range looks nice. I've placed an order so that I can try them out.

Always great to see a new paint range on the market


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/28 13:19:15


Post by: Dr_Keenbean


Saw your paints reviewed (glowingly) on Tale of Painters! Congrats!

EDIT: Here's a link


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/28 14:00:39


Post by: anyname121


I've recently put in a little test order, came very quickly with everything I asked for. Really awesome stuff!

Need to do a little more testing of colours but it's all very good so far. Keep up the great work!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/28 16:31:05


Post by: ced1106


If you picked up the metallics, try undercoating them with a similar matte color, or even ink!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/04/28 17:07:26


Post by: Supershandy


Hi Everyone!

Thank you for all the comments, sorry we haven't been around to answer them all as we've been quite busy recently, but what a day we've had today!



Not only did we get a rave review from Garfy at Tale of Painters Tale of Painters review of INSTAR but we've also had an order to appear in next months Hobby Hoard box, though it's their last one for the moment while they set up for a relaunch, we're delighted that we got recommended to them, there's also whispers that we might be appearing in another box as well soon!

Jewelknightjess Mini Painting also did a Dark Angels Intercessor in their own style too, the finished result was fantastic and really hard to distinguish from a standard GW Painted model.



(In case you're wondering which is which, The GW one is on the right, ours is on the left)

We couldn't be happier at the moment!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/05/03 01:37:53


Post by: ced1106


Found these guys buried with my 30-year old GW Genestealers, so painted them up with some INSTAR paint’s metallics.

The red and blue metallics needed an undercoat. Base coat and a highlight *before* painting the metallic.

Metallics (red, blue, green-gold flip) : https://shop.instarpaint.com/product-category/instar-metallic/



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/05/06 00:25:19


Post by: ced1106


Need a flesh color? How about... Mud Brown?

Mud Brown is a very good general purpose brown. I also used Steel Gray for the vest.

This figure is from the Savage World's Sixth Gun miniatures set. : https://www.peginc.com/store/the-sixth-gun-rpg-miniatures-set-of-8/

BTW, The Savage Worlds Lankhmar Setting KS is live and will have miniatures as well!



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/05/08 18:06:54


Post by: ced1106


I'd like to see some colored primers. I can't find a light brown for painting wooden objects (eg. barrels, crates), and would like an ochre one for sacks as well. For GW players, a blue primer for Ultramarines would be a color.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/05/19 07:31:56


Post by: ced1106


Mud brown used again for this Savage Worlds Giant Prairie Tick!

EDIT: Also gave a plug on BGG's monthly painting contest. : https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/241797/item/6177806#item6177806



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/06/11 00:00:17


Post by: John Prins


I started painting my Tau Droneport with INSTAR paints (for now, just the Obsidian Black Matte as a primer and Moon Grey Matte). Some comments:

First, I found the paint slightly thicker than the GW counterparts, even after a good shaking. I had to water it down quite a bit to get it to work well with an airbrush - about the same as a Vajello primer, really. OTOH, for whatever reason, cleaning the airbrush afterwards was way easier than any other primer or non-airbrush dedicated paint I've used, way easier than regular GW, Vajello or Reaper paints. Probably because it seems to dry a bit slower than those brands overall, as most of the time paint is dry very shortly after being airbrushed on. With INSTAR, I had to walk away for a few minutes after laying down a coat. This is both good and bad, but it's something to be aware of.

Second, I bought 100ml bottles of each because I prime black and basecoat in grey, and I don't know about the other sizes, but these are some good bottles. They have sort of a child safety cap (push down then screw off) which should prevent accidental de-capping, and the nozzle is long and thin, which really helps putting down precise amounts of paint, and you can easily wipe the nozzle without worrying about overflow. I don't know if clogging is going to be a problem in the future, but the design seems to suck the leftovers back down the nozzle pretty effectively.

Finally, the Moon Grey is a pretty good match for Codex Grey/Dawnstone. Not 100%, but I literally have to hold it against models painted in the other colors to really notice a difference. Considering it's about 1/2 the price of GW paint even after considering the cost of shipping from England to Canada, I'm very happy with it.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/06/11 10:27:12


Post by: Maledrakh


Hello Instar,
I bought the flip paints, but there seems to be a trick to using them that I don't know, as they are not especially flippy even after several coats.

Could you give some info on how these are best used to get the flip-effect? Or point us to tutorials etc that might be online and applicable?

Thanks in advance!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/06/11 12:11:42


Post by: jeff white


Best paints. Cover so well. Must be substantially thinned always.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/06/11 12:31:48


Post by: Supershandy


 Maledrakh wrote:
Hello Instar,
I bought the flip paints, but there seems to be a trick to using them that I don't know, as they are not especially flippy even after several coats.

Could you give some info on how these are best used to get the flip-effect? Or point us to tutorials etc that might be online and applicable?

Thanks in advance!


Hi there,

Was it a particular one you were having an issue with or all of them?

Part of the trick is the base coat that you use and the way the name is put is also a subtle clue as to what will happen.

A white base coat will show the first colour of the paint with the last colour becoming the secondary flip colour, a black undercoat will give the reverse so without sounding to cliche, it really comes down the shade of grey you use.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/06/14 22:55:12


Post by: John Prins


Finished my Droneport with INSTAR Moon Grey. Included Pathfinders for comparison (painted with GW Dawnstone).


I'm hard pressed to see the difference unless I paint both greys on the same miniature. Props to INSTAR for color matching.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/06/16 07:34:48


Post by: Supershandy


We've been a little quiet recently and we do apologise, we've been having a very busy month with the website, a couple of breakdowns and supplier issues, but we have been working hard on increasing the colour range to all the paint lines and we have some new additons coming including more vintage colours!

Also, our wash project is now out of the experimental stage and the first colour will be up in the store soon, unlike traditional washes, ours comes in two flavours being heavy and soft and if you accidently knock it over, you just pick it up again, our bottle designs mean no more accidents!

Heavy will usually allow you to make just one pass to get a nice, rich shade, the soft version is better for subtle approaches like shadows. We are also working on reintroducing inks as well, this will take a little longer but we're excited to bring this out to you guys

John Prins

That looks incredible and thank you very much for the kudos!

I like how you've done the same thing on your firewarrior as I did with ours with the binoculars, you'rs looks a little more dynamic though

Look forward to seeing more of your work, maybe even seeing the droneport in use on the tabletop



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/06/27 12:48:43


Post by: ced1106


A few INSTAR paint samples of a WIP Adventurescapes tavern I'm painting.

The jars were primed in white. The metallics were painted over a bright matte color.

The versatile mud brown makes another appearance and I'm impressed at IV-05's "frost" color.

The fireplace itself was painted gray then washed with Secret Weapon Stone wash.

Spoiler:




EDIT: Gave a shoutout on a BGG painting contest thread. : https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/243023/item/6238859#item6238859


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/07/30 16:39:18


Post by: Supershandy


Hi Everyone!

Hope you're all well!

Well, what a day we've had today!



Not only did we get a rave review from Garfy at Tale of Painters Tale of Painters review of INSTAR but we've also had an order to appear in next months Hobby Hoard box, though it's their last one for the moment while they set up for a relaunch, we're delighted that we got recommended to them, there's also whispers that we might be appearing in another box as well soon!

No paint releases to mention this week as we have been very busy as of late, but we do have some more coming next week

If you've bought the paint and like it, we'd really love to hear your feedback on it and see pictures of the models you've painted with INSTAR, drop us a PM

We'll have more updates soon!

INSTAR Homepage

INSTAR Paint Store

INSTAR Vintage Store

INSTAR Metallic Store


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/07/30 17:41:29


Post by: ced1106


Nice!

The pots are painted from the colors I have from INSTAR, with a fireplace from the Forge Prints Kitchen Tavern set:

IV-05 makes a *great* frost color.





INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/08/31 10:28:33


Post by: Supershandy


It's been a while but don't worry, we have been very busy, not only with orders but with some new releases coming soon as well as new projects in the pipeline!

The wash project is nearing completion and will be previewing in the next Asset Drop box so for those of you who are subscribers, you're going to be in for a nice treat!

We also have been doing some more colour matching on the vintage line, so much so that we did a recreation of a 3rd Edition Ultramarine.that you can see here.



Please don't mention anything about paint thinning for two reasons

1. The old GW paint that we had available was in quite a sorry state and really difficult to get thinned down properly, so in the interest of fairness we decided not to overly thin alot of our paint either
2. The guide that we used was actually from the 3rd edition manual and absolutely nowhere in the guide did it say to thin the paint....so we didn't!

Full breakdown can been seen on our Facebook and Instagram page.

And lastly we have this very special project we're working on after a friend of ours wanted something special for runes, but then we realised it could be used for other things as the GIF below will show you! (Just click on the picture to see it in action - will take you to the imgur website)



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/08/31 10:44:00


Post by: Theophony


What sort of light are you hitting the paint with?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/08/31 15:44:21


Post by: Supershandy


Theophony

It’s a standard UV/Blacklight torch, under normal light it looks like a darker version of our Sapphire Blue, but once it gets near a UV source it glows like crazy.

For special effect dioramas it’s great, for normal wargaming either you’d have to take a torch with you, construct a UV light table or build some terrain pieces with UV lights in them.

Ultimately the effect is awesome and lasts for a very long time, even shining a light on it now still produces a fantastic glow!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/02 14:51:16


Post by: jeff white


Dayam mayan!
That glow paint is balllllz!
I wonder if under a blue LED similar though more subdued effects don't present?
I am sure that they do.

One thing about INSTAR paints obvious from the posts above is that the colors really pop.
Coverage is one-coat and done.
Seriously great stuff, quality through the roof.

Glad to see that INSTAR is on the move.
Great work.

Moving t the Netherlands in two weeks for a new job.
All the other paints are staying, but the INSTAR is coming with.



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/02 17:14:08


Post by: Charax


wierd - greenstuffworld have literally just brought out a set of high-pigment UV-reactive paints too


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/08 19:08:06


Post by: ced1106


A few Hand of Glory KS WIP figures painted with:
* Pine Green
* Mud Brown
* Radiant Red: Red metallic over red matte paint

HoG figures let you "hot swap" hands and miniatures with magnets. Sculpts have built-in cavities for magnets included in the kit. Only three figures and 140+ hands and weapons to go!



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/11 07:14:07


Post by: Supershandy


Thanks for the comments on the UV paint!

Charax It's strange that Green World have released some, makes you wonder who came up with it first

jeff white Good to see you again and thanks for the kind comments! Glad to hear you're still enjoying the paints after almost a full year

ced1106 Good work as usual!



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/11 23:24:05


Post by: ecurtz


 jeff white wrote:

I wonder if under a blue LED similar though more subdued effects don't present?
I am sure that they do.

You can get UV LEDs in all the standard sizes as normal visible spectrum ones.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/12 05:27:47


Post by: Supershandy


ecurtz Do you have any links to share at all?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/12 06:09:16


Post by: Charax


I got a sample set of INSTAR paints and I've had a chance to test them out a bit - they're definitely worth the (low) cost. Not wanting to go all-in, I got a few 2ml samplesand a couple of small 5ml bottles, came to about £10 for 7 paints + postage

the flip paints are great - I have a set of greenstuffworld's colourshift paints and I love them, but they require several coats to see the effect properly. One coat of the Instar flip paint and the effect was immediately visible. I will definitely be buying more of these

the heavy black wash is very strong - as you'd expect. Very good for picking out details, I bought a 5ml bottle of this and I suspect I'll be using it a lot, it's a great way to get a dirty look on my death guard.

I bought a sample of the silver wash out of curiosity - I've never seen a metallic wash before. Haven't tried it out yet, does anyone have any examples of it? I might just prime a bolter black and see what the wash does on it.

The Antique Bronze is a very nice colour, great for adding some nice stand-out flair to metallic areas, and ages well when used with the heavy black wash.

Overall very impressed so far, and I'll be making a larger order at some point. Id I can source some UV LEDs then those reactive paints might be fun on larger models.

If you're at all curious, do what I did - pick up the paints you're interested in or think you'll use in sample sizes and give them a try.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/12 07:14:47


Post by: Samko


@Charax Can you show us what you painted with the flip paints ?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/12 07:28:28


Post by: Charax


sure. I'm probably the worst painter in the world but this is a test piece I did - black primer, P3 Cryx Bane Base, INSTAR Brown/Green flip on the belly plate, I made a gif to show off the effect (one undiluted coat)

https://imgur.com/J38C97m


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/12 15:06:55


Post by: ecurtz


 Supershandy wrote:
ecurtz Do you have any links to share at all?

I'm not sure who the big UK parts dealers are, but here's a Mouser UK link: https://www.mouser.co.uk/Optoelectronics/LED-Lighting/LED-Emitters/_/N-8usfd?P=1y962eg&Keyword=uv+led&FS=True
You should also be able to get a bunch of Chinese exporters just searching on eBay for "UV LED".


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/12 18:40:57


Post by: Samko


Charax wrote:
sure. I'm probably the worst painter in the world but this is a test piece I did - black primer, P3 Cryx Bane Base, INSTAR Brown/Green flip on the belly plate, I made a gif to show off the effect (one undiluted coat)

https://imgur.com/J38C97m
Thanks


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/16 08:51:24


Post by: Supershandy


Our washes are finally available to buy!

After many months of testing and feedback we've made them available to buy in the store, we're getting more pictures up as we go along but we have some unique metallic washes on the way too.

At the moment there is just a silver metallic wash available (as well as the other colours we do)

Those who subscribe with Asset Drop will have already received their black and brown washes with one subscriber coming back to Asset Drop saying our Heavy Black wash was the "Nuln Oil Slayer", Asset Drop themselves saying they are really enjoying the new washes

If that doesn't convince you I don't know what will

Just to put an image up too, this was a white primed Tau Fire Warrior with Heavy Black wash put all over it.



We do have some other things on the horizon too so it's worth following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as we also lurk around there as well at different times


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/21 14:42:44


Post by: Supershandy


Something different from us today, While we love everything warhammer, we felt like branching out a little. A visit to a charity shop had a nice looking historical knight model and for a few pounds we couldn't argue against getting it and putting it together.



It's taking time and we're working on it in our spare time but it's a good piece to show off some of our upcoming metallics on the raised areas, the basecoat is Obsidian Black Sheen and then washed with our Heavy Black to give it a nice shine, originally the guide said to use a high gloss black but we felt that would be too much.



Also, we're working in conjunction with local commission painter Freya's Warforge who are doing this for us in a paint scheme we chose, we look forward to seeing the finished results



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/21 17:20:21


Post by: Theophony


I didn’t see a Reikland fleshshade equivalent, is there one on the way someday soonish? I’m making a board and it uses that and a texture from Vallejo as the main base.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/22 06:29:43


Post by: Supershandy


 Theophony wrote:
I didn’t see a Reikland fleshshade equivalent, is there one on the way someday soonish? I’m making a board and it uses that and a texture from Vallejo as the main base.


We do have some new colours coming soon, I would say within 1 to 2 weeks and the new ones will be added (including the Reikland Fleshshade equilvilent )


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/22 12:59:42


Post by: Theophony


 Supershandy wrote:
 Theophony wrote:
I didn’t see a Reikland fleshshade equivalent, is there one on the way someday soonish? I’m making a board and it uses that and a texture from Vallejo as the main base.


We do have some new colours coming soon, I would say within 1 to 2 weeks and the new ones will be added (including the Reikland Fleshshade equilvilent )


I see order happening in the near future.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/25 11:05:12


Post by: ced1106


Mud Brown on brown primer
Rich Blue on white primer

Miniature by Hand of Glory.







INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/27 14:27:32


Post by: Matzen


Hi ya paintboys.
Looking for some advice with your flip paint range.

I want to paint my rubric marines with the “Blue-Purple Flip Paint” but I'm still pretty newbie when it comes to painting minis. (I know my basics).

So what are the different steps I should take? Some people seem to use varnish after the base coat then ably the flip paint.
How many coats should I ably?
Any advice, tips, tricks? ty


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/09/30 08:28:31


Post by: Supershandy


Hi Matzen

Happy to help

With our paint it's all down to the base colour you use, the naming convention of the paint is quite clever as a white base paint will bring out the first name of the paint as it's primary colour and the second part of the name will be the secondary colour.

A black base coat will do the reverse. There's not need to do a varnish first, out paint's can just be painted straight over the top of the base colour, due to the nature of them they might take 2 or 3 coats to get a good covergae but you can apply as many as you wish, the more you do, the more opaque it becomes.

I've attached a couple of pictures (Not the greatest quality but you get the idea), the bluer one is on a grey base coat, the more purple one is on a black base coat



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/05 11:53:43


Post by: Supershandy


With the success of our washes being released, we have received positive reviews across the board including how nice they smell

However, we are always trying to improve our lines wherever we can and we've started work on improving these washes even more, more matt finishing, better coverage, better penetration etc.

So far we've only been experimenting with blacks and browns since they are the most used washes in anyone's arsenal and so far the results have been very positive as you can see on these fire warriors below (I know it seems like we love Tau but that's because we do and also it's our current army )



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/05 21:48:26


Post by: ced1106


Good work! I'm actually looking for a flesh tone that doesn't look like someone slopped red-brown onto someone's face. Cheers!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/11 09:40:05


Post by: Supershandy


A few people have been asking for actual pictures of the paints colours we release, it's something we're working on and we're trying to figure out the best way of taking pictures of them (Especially the colour shifting ones) but just to show you that we are working on it and also what some of the new colours look like, here's a nice picture of them (including a nice sneak peek into some of our new metallic colours!)

All on a Grey Base Coat for neutrality, though we will also include White and Black base coats too.



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/19 12:03:43


Post by: ced1106


WIP Hand of Glory miniature, with the red gem painted with red metallic Radiant Red.

Haven't done anything fancy with the gem yet, just applied a first coat.



[Thumb - IMG_3074.JPG]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/19 13:32:43


Post by: Supershandy


ced1106 wrote:
WIP Hand of Glory miniature, with the red gem painted with red metallic Radiant Red.

Haven't done anything fancy with the gem yet, just applied a first coat.




Looking good, i'm liking these characters

The Gem looks fantastic and ultimately why the coloured metallics were designed in the first place to bring these kind of pieces to life


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/21 16:23:42


Post by: Supershandy


We're now on the Dakka compatibility chart, so not only can you find the conversion chart on our website, you can also check the compatibility chart here as well


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/26 12:52:38


Post by: Supershandy


We've updated the store with new items!

If you like the Citadel Dry colours but wished you could paint with them, well now you can, or at least two of them....Light Tan which is our equivalent to Elf Flesh and the aptly named Havoc Pink (In honour of the Lonely Havoc) which is our match for Changling Pink, we did think about putting an advisory notice on the bottle because of it's brightness



We've also matched up some of the flesh range too with Amber, Caramel and Golden Sand making an appearance which are our matches for Ungor Flesh, Kislev Flesh and Flayed One Flesh



We've also made some additions to the Vintage line, as you may recall a few months ago, we repainted an old 3rd edition Ultramarine using colours we had converted, we're pleased to announce that these are now on sale too, with Blood Red, Ultramarines Blue, Sunburst Yellow and Snakebite Leather making a reapperance under the names IV-27, IV-28, IV-29 and IV-31



Why is there no IV-30? Well that was an admin error by us, but don't worry, we'll fill that gap soon!

We're also going to be putting our empty bottles on sale soon as well, not only will you get that, but you'll also get the dropper spout, lid and a glass agitator for those of you who love to mix paint, we'll have a way for you to store your recipes in a larger format! If you make something you think we would like as well as other miniature painters, you can always send the bottle or a swatch into us and we'll get it recreated.

There is now a reviews section too under the "About" Menu, from here you can read and watch companies and individuals who have tried out our paint


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/10/31 08:16:51


Post by: Supershandy


Hi!

We've matched 5 more colours to the vintage range and should be released sometime in the next couple of weeks.

ALSO

For those of you who get a subscription from Model Box, you will have gotten a preview of our new metallic colours that will be available soon, we'd love to see what you do with them and what you think of them

ALSO

If you subscribe to Asset Drop, there will be a preview in the re of our upcoming "Extreme" paints, these are almost similar in consistency to the Foundation range and provide a great level of coverage similar to the foundation range


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/01 08:03:18


Post by: Supershandy


We finally decided on a name for our new range coming out soon, it was quite difficult to do without causing a lawsuit because we couldn't use words like Foundation, Base etc since these were already being used.

Also words like Mighty were just silly

So we finally settled on Alpha to create the INSTAR Alpha Range.

These paints will be are pretty close in terms of consistency to the Old Foundation Range, but we'll be releasing these in our own colour versions (There will still be some pretty vibrant and rich ones!)

Thoughts on the name?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/01 11:35:36


Post by: Theophony


As long as you don’t release a whole legion of colors I think your good

Could go the whole Genesisi line route though.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/08 07:59:55


Post by: Kdash


Just placed an order for a couple of metallics and a colour flip to test out. Pretty interesting to see how it goes!

I've seen people say you need to highlight the basecoat prior to applying the metallics. Does anyone know how this affects the colour flip paints, or am i best just sticking to a flat gloss white undercoat for it and then just stick with washes and highlights for standard metallics?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/08 10:01:25


Post by: Apologist


 Supershandy wrote:

So we finally settled on Alpha to create the INSTAR Alpha Range. These paints will be are pretty close in terms of consistency to the Old Foundation Range, but we'll be releasing these in our own colour versions (There will still be some pretty vibrant and rich ones!)

Thoughts on the name?


Works for me, though a descriptive name – like 'high coverage', 'groundwork' or 'underpainting' – would be more likely to gather traffic and help distinguish these colours from your other ranges.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/08 14:25:58


Post by: Supershandy


 Apologist wrote:
 Supershandy wrote:

So we finally settled on Alpha to create the INSTAR Alpha Range. These paints will be are pretty close in terms of consistency to the Old Foundation Range, but we'll be releasing these in our own colour versions (There will still be some pretty vibrant and rich ones!)

Thoughts on the name?


Works for me, though a descriptive name – like 'high coverage', 'groundwork' or 'underpainting' – would be more likely to gather traffic and help distinguish these colours from your other ranges.


We did try to think of some descriptive names, unfortunately we also had to find something that would fit on the label as well (Especially for the smaller bottles!)

We were also trying to avoid a possible lawsuit from GW too with the name, so we decided to see what we could use that was the same wording but in another language (Much like our company name is Latin), however they were either completely unpronounceable or they would have lead to the line being called something else that wasn't intended

So that's why we settled on Alpha, being the first coat on and the strongest coverage we can cram in it fit perfectly....as well as on the labels too

These won't be ready for release until early next year though and we're hoping to have at least 6 colours ready


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Kdash wrote:
Just placed an order for a couple of metallics and a colour flip to test out. Pretty interesting to see how it goes!

I've seen people say you need to highlight the basecoat prior to applying the metallics. Does anyone know how this affects the colour flip paints, or am i best just sticking to a flat gloss white undercoat for it and then just stick with washes and highlights for standard metallics?


You won't need to use a gloss basecoat with these

Basically a black coat works best for standard metallics, however for the colourflip metallics is where it gets interesting

For the colourshifting material, it's all to do with the shade of grey that you use will determine the effect you get, for instance if you used the Brown Green Flip, a white or light white coat will be brown on application with a green reflection, if you use a black base coat is will be the reverse (Which is why we named the colours as we did ), a grey base coat will give you a balance between the two.

With a white basecoat though you'll need more thin layers though to avoid streaking and build it up slowly, on a black basecoat you can normally get away with one or two layers and see an immediate effect.

The rough example below shows the effect of the different basecoat colours on the Green Gold Flip (Black on the Left, White on the Right, Grey in the middle)





INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/08 15:12:00


Post by: Kdash


 Supershandy wrote:
Spoiler:
 Apologist wrote:
 Supershandy wrote:

So we finally settled on Alpha to create the INSTAR Alpha Range. These paints will be are pretty close in terms of consistency to the Old Foundation Range, but we'll be releasing these in our own colour versions (There will still be some pretty vibrant and rich ones!)

Thoughts on the name?


Works for me, though a descriptive name – like 'high coverage', 'groundwork' or 'underpainting' – would be more likely to gather traffic and help distinguish these colours from your other ranges.


We did try to think of some descriptive names, unfortunately we also had to find something that would fit on the label as well (Especially for the smaller bottles!)

We were also trying to avoid a possible lawsuit from GW too with the name, so we decided to see what we could use that was the same wording but in another language (Much like our company name is Latin), however they were either completely unpronounceable or they would have lead to the line being called something else that wasn't intended

So that's why we settled on Alpha, being the first coat on and the strongest coverage we can cram in it fit perfectly....as well as on the labels too

These won't be ready for release until early next year though and we're hoping to have at least 6 colours ready


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Kdash wrote:
Just placed an order for a couple of metallics and a colour flip to test out. Pretty interesting to see how it goes!

I've seen people say you need to highlight the basecoat prior to applying the metallics. Does anyone know how this affects the colour flip paints, or am i best just sticking to a flat gloss white undercoat for it and then just stick with washes and highlights for standard metallics?


You won't need to use a gloss basecoat with these

Basically a black coat works best for standard metallics, however for the colourflip metallics is where it gets interesting

For the colourshifting material, it's all to do with the shade of grey that you use will determine the effect you get, for instance if you used the Brown Green Flip, a white or light white coat will be brown on application with a green reflection, if you use a black base coat is will be the reverse (Which is why we named the colours as we did ), a grey base coat will give you a balance between the two.

With a white basecoat though you'll need more thin layers though to avoid streaking and build it up slowly, on a black basecoat you can normally get away with one or two layers and see an immediate effect.

The rough example below shows the effect of the different basecoat colours on the Green Gold Flip (Black on the Left, White on the Right, Grey in the middle)





Fantastic, thanks!
Might have to have a play with a grey basecoat for the flip as well – brought the red-blue flip as a test for some Thousand Sons. I love the metallic red of 30k Thousand Sons, and I think the colour flip could be amazing as an idea to show the “transition” from the old red to the new blue.

Highlight and shade wise, what would your suggested method be, or, is it generally just not needed?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/08 17:11:34


Post by: Supershandy


Kdash wrote:
 Supershandy wrote:
Spoiler:
 Apologist wrote:
 Supershandy wrote:

So we finally settled on Alpha to create the INSTAR Alpha Range. These paints will be are pretty close in terms of consistency to the Old Foundation Range, but we'll be releasing these in our own colour versions (There will still be some pretty vibrant and rich ones!)

Thoughts on the name?


Works for me, though a descriptive name – like 'high coverage', 'groundwork' or 'underpainting' – would be more likely to gather traffic and help distinguish these colours from your other ranges.


We did try to think of some descriptive names, unfortunately we also had to find something that would fit on the label as well (Especially for the smaller bottles!)

We were also trying to avoid a possible lawsuit from GW too with the name, so we decided to see what we could use that was the same wording but in another language (Much like our company name is Latin), however they were either completely unpronounceable or they would have lead to the line being called something else that wasn't intended

So that's why we settled on Alpha, being the first coat on and the strongest coverage we can cram in it fit perfectly....as well as on the labels too

These won't be ready for release until early next year though and we're hoping to have at least 6 colours ready


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Kdash wrote:
Just placed an order for a couple of metallics and a colour flip to test out. Pretty interesting to see how it goes!

I've seen people say you need to highlight the basecoat prior to applying the metallics. Does anyone know how this affects the colour flip paints, or am i best just sticking to a flat gloss white undercoat for it and then just stick with washes and highlights for standard metallics?


You won't need to use a gloss basecoat with these

Basically a black coat works best for standard metallics, however for the colourflip metallics is where it gets interesting

For the colourshifting material, it's all to do with the shade of grey that you use will determine the effect you get, for instance if you used the Brown Green Flip, a white or light white coat will be brown on application with a green reflection, if you use a black base coat is will be the reverse (Which is why we named the colours as we did ), a grey base coat will give you a balance between the two.

With a white basecoat though you'll need more thin layers though to avoid streaking and build it up slowly, on a black basecoat you can normally get away with one or two layers and see an immediate effect.

The rough example below shows the effect of the different basecoat colours on the Green Gold Flip (Black on the Left, White on the Right, Grey in the middle)





Fantastic, thanks!
Might have to have a play with a grey basecoat for the flip as well – brought the red-blue flip as a test for some Thousand Sons. I love the metallic red of 30k Thousand Sons, and I think the colour flip could be amazing as an idea to show the “transition” from the old red to the new blue.

Highlight and shade wise, what would your suggested method be, or, is it generally just not needed?


Highlighting generally won’t be needed as you’d end up with clashes, shade wise you’’d be safe with black or brown shades as coloured ones might wash out the effect too much.

Will be great to see the transistion marines!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/11/21 09:07:56


Post by: Supershandy


We're now featuring in PaintRack!



Massive thanks to the guys over there

To celebrate, all this week until Sunday 25 November 2018, you can use the code paintrack10 to get 10% off your order



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/12/12 08:26:52


Post by: ced1106


A few more WIP's with INSTAR paints!

First miniature is from Galladoria Game's 2018 Mimic Collectible. https://galladoria.com/products/2018-christmas-mimic-collectible
Last two are Reaper Bones.

[Thumb - IMG_3112.JPG]
[Thumb - IMG_3102.JPG]
[Thumb - IMG_3090.JPG]
[Thumb - IMG_3088.JPG]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/12/15 05:25:09


Post by: ced1106


As a frost paint, IV-05 makes an excellent undercoat for snow bases!

More comments about INSTAR and painting the miniature on Reaper's WIP forum: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/84097-galladoria-games-2018-christmas-mimic/



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/12/17 09:58:26


Post by: Kdash


So, a little bit of feedback from my experiments so far. Note that these have been done with a brush, and I’ll be revisiting once I have an airbrush back up and running (current one died after a rather intense week).

Red-Blue colour flip.
Bit disappointed with this so far, in terms of brush application. The colour is more of a peachy pink than red or the crimson colour I was hoping for. I’ve also found that it is incredibly thin and, when using a brush, really struggles to cover over a white basecoat even with several coats.
On the flip side, the blue is really visible in light over the black basecoat and is a really nice colour.

Radiant Red.
I like this colour and it has been pretty easy to use so far with a brush. In regards to the colour, in light it can also feel like it is more on the pink side of red, rather than the crimson side but its good for getting some effects. However, if you are looking to use this as a potential alternative to clear colours, then I would say that it doesn’t provide the same effect and will be noticeably different to any previous models painted using the clear.

I also have a metallic gold, which I’ve not yet tested – but will be soon. Again, it appears to be a little on the thin side, so I’m waiting purely for my new airbrush to arrive before committing to any serious test models.

In regards to the bottles, they are generally very good and easy to use. That said, if you’re doing a large batch of painting with one of the colours, beware of potential nozzle blocking, as it did happen to me once. The nozzles are very thin so you might have a bit of difficulty clearing the block unless you can find something to fit inside.

Looking forward to testing with the airbrush to see what differences it makes!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2018/12/18 07:39:57


Post by: Supershandy


Kdash wrote:
So, a little bit of feedback from my experiments so far. Note that these have been done with a brush, and I’ll be revisiting once I have an airbrush back up and running (current one died after a rather intense week).

Red-Blue colour flip.
Bit disappointed with this so far, in terms of brush application. The colour is more of a peachy pink than red or the crimson colour I was hoping for. I’ve also found that it is incredibly thin and, when using a brush, really struggles to cover over a white basecoat even with several coats.
On the flip side, the blue is really visible in light over the black basecoat and is a really nice colour.

Radiant Red.
I like this colour and it has been pretty easy to use so far with a brush. In regards to the colour, in light it can also feel like it is more on the pink side of red, rather than the crimson side but its good for getting some effects. However, if you are looking to use this as a potential alternative to clear colours, then I would say that it doesn’t provide the same effect and will be noticeably different to any previous models painted using the clear.

I also have a metallic gold, which I’ve not yet tested – but will be soon. Again, it appears to be a little on the thin side, so I’m waiting purely for my new airbrush to arrive before committing to any serious test models.

In regards to the bottles, they are generally very good and easy to use. That said, if you’re doing a large batch of painting with one of the colours, beware of potential nozzle blocking, as it did happen to me once. The nozzles are very thin so you might have a bit of difficulty clearing the block unless you can find something to fit inside.

Looking forward to testing with the airbrush to see what differences it makes!


Hi there,

Thank you for the feedback!

In regards to the Red Blue, It is a little more on the pinkish hue than a red, we are looking into alternatives for this next year. As for the the large number of coat required on white, this is true of any colourshifting paint and is usually better on a grey or black basecoat.

However you can get a decent coat over white but it will require a large number of layers.

All our metallics have been formulated on the thinner side for ease of use, for further thinning they only require a very tiny amount of water so it can be very easy to over thin them this will be especially true in an airbrush, in fact, you may only need a drop of thinner to get it to go through the airbrush.

As for blockages, this is an unfortunate side effect of more control but a simple unfolded paperclip (just the first part) will quickly and easily remove any blockage



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/06 22:28:52


Post by: Vorian


This seems like a long shot, but have you any plans for equivalents of Lupercal / Sons of Horus green?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/09 13:08:29


Post by: StygianBeach


I will have to test the Mecharite Red equivalent sometime, and probably the scab red.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/10 18:26:08


Post by: Supershandy


Vorian wrote:
This seems like a long shot, but have you any plans for equivalents of Lupercal / Sons of Horus green?


Not at the moment no, The collapse of the Forge World paints caught us a bit by surprise so we were unable to get hold of any before they went.

However, that's not to say we're not trying to get hold of them as they did have some really unique colours, it might be worth following us so that when it does become available you'll know straight away


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 StygianBeach wrote:
I will have to test the Mecharite Red equivalent sometime, and probably the scab red.


You won't be disappointed!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/10 18:55:35


Post by: dyndraig


Any hints on when the new Alpha range will be available?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/11 10:51:24


Post by: Kdash


 Supershandy wrote:
Vorian wrote:
This seems like a long shot, but have you any plans for equivalents of Lupercal / Sons of Horus green?


Not at the moment no, The collapse of the Forge World paints caught us a bit by surprise so we were unable to get hold of any before they went.

However, that's not to say we're not trying to get hold of them as they did have some really unique colours, it might be worth following us so that when it does become available you'll know straight away


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 StygianBeach wrote:
I will have to test the Mecharite Red equivalent sometime, and probably the scab red.


You won't be disappointed!


If it’s any help I could prob send samples of some of the FW clear paint colours to you. I won’t be the full clear range but, a start if you wanted to go down that route.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/11 16:51:52


Post by: Supershandy


Kdash wrote:
 Supershandy wrote:
Vorian wrote:
This seems like a long shot, but have you any plans for equivalents of Lupercal / Sons of Horus green?


Not at the moment no, The collapse of the Forge World paints caught us a bit by surprise so we were unable to get hold of any before they went.

However, that's not to say we're not trying to get hold of them as they did have some really unique colours, it might be worth following us so that when it does become available you'll know straight away


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 StygianBeach wrote:
I will have to test the Mecharite Red equivalent sometime, and probably the scab red.


You won't be disappointed!


If it’s any help I could prob send samples of some of the FW clear paint colours to you. I won’t be the full clear range but, a start if you wanted to go down that route.


That's very kind of you but we're not exploring the clear paint route yet, if we do we'll be sure to give you a shout

But again, thank you for the kind offer, it really means a lot


Automatically Appended Next Post:
dyndraig wrote:
Any hints on when the new Alpha range will be available?


At the moment it's planned for the end of the month, but it might be pushed back a bit as we're waiting on a part for our machine to make the whole thing work.

Until that arrives we're a little stuck.....


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/12 15:25:27


Post by: Vorian


Well now I don't know if I should wait for you to duplicate the FW paint or try the annoying mixing 4 paints together version!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/12 15:50:20


Post by: OrlockJuve


Vorian wrote:
Well now I don't know if I should wait for you to duplicate the FW paint or try the annoying mixing 4 paints together version!


As an alternative to the previous Forgeworld recipe, you might find this guide helpful inspiration. It looks at 3 alternatives to the Forgeworld colours in Vallejo, Scale75 and regular Games Workshop paint ranges. IMO the guy who put it together has some of the best looking Sons of Horus out there.

https://dornsarrow.blogspot.com/2019/01/sons-of-horus-painting-tutorial.html


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/12 16:16:48


Post by: Vorian


Well that's very useful, thanks for that


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/12 18:26:48


Post by: Supershandy


Vorian wrote:
Well now I don't know if I should wait for you to duplicate the FW paint or try the annoying mixing 4 paints together version!


I’m sorry we couldn’t be more help, we really are and it’s a shame really.

However with the amount of work we have going on at the moment with new lines and getting the Vintage lines complete it’s going to be a little while before we start looking at matching other shades as well as creating more of our own unique ones.

Hopefully the guide that was shared will be useful


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/01/12 19:00:56


Post by: Vorian


No problem at all, I knew it would be unlikely with all the other colours you have to be getting on with!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/01 06:59:07


Post by: ced1106


Some pics of INSTAR paints with Tiny Furniture miniatures!

Tavern sets WIP











Reaper Bones Pathfinder goblins WIP



RAFM Cthulhu ritual stones WIP





INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/01 11:00:14


Post by: Ragnar69


I have bit the bullet of the high postage and ordered a few INSTAR colors.

I'm all in favor of small companies putting passion in a product so I hate to say that I'm not very happy.

Grey Blue is supposed to match GWs The Fang but it really doesn't and is thus not usable for my Space Wolves. Furthermore it has the same issue as all Vallejo colors I tried: I need at least 2 or 3 additional coats to get the same coverage as a GW base color.

So for me it seems I have to swallow GWs price increase :(


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/01 11:59:06


Post by: dyndraig


I ran into the same problem. Unfortunately the majority of paint companies seems to cater more to "figure painters" rather then "army painters", painting 3-4 layers for every colour is not feasible when you are painting 200+ miniatures

Thats why I'm optimistic about Instars Alpha range, it blows my mind that it's only really GW that has a base/foundation colour range. You would expect that at least Army painter would have done something along those lines considering their name


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/01 14:12:22


Post by: Quasistellar


I've had similar results with GW paints. I don't like their pots (pots as a concept I don't mind--P3 pots actually work very well), but some of their colors are just excellent. VERY dense pigment and excellent coverage on some colors that normally have issues like red (mephiston and khorne are great) and grey (celestra grey covers amazingly well). Paying the premium for a paint that I'll actually end up using less of and cause less frustration just makes good sense for me. They obviously do have some duds in their range, though.

I just recently got some samples of Instar and for the most part I like them. Their khorne red equivalent didn't quite match well enough to replace it, but its actual properties as a paint were nice. I also liked their bright silver color (forget what it's called). Did some highlighting with it so far and it's got a really nice almost platinum-like quality.

Need to do some more testing, but so far Instar is finding a way into my paint collection. No "duds" so far in the ones I've tested. I also really like their dropper bottles and the ability to order different bottle sizes.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/01 17:32:30


Post by: Supershandy


Ragnar69 wrote:
I have bit the bullet of the high postage and ordered a few INSTAR colors.

I'm all in favor of small companies putting passion in a product so I hate to say that I'm not very happy.

Grey Blue is supposed to match GWs The Fang but it really doesn't and is thus not usable for my Space Wolves. Furthermore it has the same issue as all Vallejo colors I tried: I need at least 2 or 3 additional coats to get the same coverage as a GW base color.

So for me it seems I have to swallow GWs price increase :(


I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like our product, It's very strange that you had to use 2-3 coats to get some really good coverage as these paints have quite a high opacity.

We aim to get as close as we can with our colours but as with anything we can't always get 100% matches (It's actually impossible for our equipment to do this, the closest we've ever gotten was 99.5%).

But again, it's really sad to hear that you weren't happy with the product, we can only hope that you would consider some of our other lines which are getting highly positive reviews.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
dyndraig wrote:
I ran into the same problem. Unfortunately the majority of paint companies seems to cater more to "figure painters" rather then "army painters", painting 3-4 layers for every colour is not feasible when you are painting 200+ miniatures

Thats why I'm optimistic about Instars Alpha range, it blows my mind that it's only really GW that has a base/foundation colour range. You would expect that at least Army painter would have done something along those lines considering their name


The Alpha line should make army painting a breeze by reducing the amount of time spent basecoating with its high opacity and coverage, even over dark colours, but it's sad to hear that you weren't impressed by our main range as well, but as I said in the last comment, I hope you might consider some of our other lines that are getting highly positive reviews.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
ced1106 wrote:
Some pics of INSTAR paints with Tiny Furniture miniatures!

Medieval Bath and Tavern sets WIP













Reaper Bones Pathfinder goblins WIP



RAFM Cthulhu ritual stones WIP





Some awesome work here! Thank you for sharing


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/01 21:08:20


Post by: OrlandotheTechnicoloured


If you're just used to GW paints you may be tempted not to shake other brands like these enough,

which might explain having to use multiple coats as not all the pigment has been resuspended (I can't say for sure about Instar but I've a few Vallejo and Armypainter colours like that)

GW uses a very gummy mix, especially for layers;/foundations which makes them less likely to separate but means they're harder to do some blending techniques etc with


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/03 15:22:14


Post by: Ragnar69


 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
If you're just used to GW paints you may be tempted not to shake other brands like these enough,

which might explain having to use multiple coats as not all the pigment has been resuspended (I can't say for sure about Instar but I've a few Vallejo and Armypainter colours like that)

GW uses a very gummy mix, especially for layers;/foundations which makes them less likely to separate but means they're harder to do some blending techniques etc with

Though I shook the paints way more vigorously than I ever shake GW paints, I gave it another try. This time I shook them so long, it bordered on a workout

This indeed improved the coverage and I now only needed 1 extra layer compared to GW base colour. It also now matched the GW colour better, the difference is now only minimal. So the paints are better than my first impression was, but GW still wins on convenience IMHO.

Maybe there should be a "shake like crazy" instruction on the bottles


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/03 18:06:31


Post by: John Prins


Shake it like it owes you money.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/04 21:12:59


Post by: Supershandy


Without starting to sing OutKast.....

We have begun to add new type of agitators to our bottles which perform and mix better than standard ball bearing types by having a greater surface area but also dispersing the pigment better throughout the bottle.

This should avoid having to have a workout!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/02/27 13:33:46


Post by: Supershandy


Hi Everyone,

Hope you're all keeping well!

We have two very exciting announcements to make

First off, we will be phasing out our Colourshift line to make way for the new INSTAR Spectrum line, this line will consist of what we are calling "Shift" paints, these work in the same way as colourshifting paints but dry clear leaving only the shifting element behind, this means you can create your own colourshifting materials by mixing them into any metallic colour you like to any strength level you like.

Want a Silver with a hint of blue, mix in a tiny amount of Blue Shift and you'll get a small blue reflection, want a heavy blue shimmer effect, add in more.

Want to make a Gold and Purple colourshift colour, no problem, just mix Purple Shift in with Gehanna's Gold for example

We have 6 colours we plan to release meaning that with just our portfolio of metallic colours, you can mix around 472 different variations, add in other lines and that number grows even more!

And that's not all, you can also paint these on top of normal paint and still get the same result, we did this with an Assault Marine in Alpha Legion style colours by doing a basecoat of IV-08, layered with Grey Blue and then Green Shift painted over the top (It was a quick one hour speed job so apologies on the quality, tabletop wise it's awesome looking!)



Video of Assault Marine - Assault Marine painted with INSTAR Spectrum Green Shift

We don't have a release date yet but it's very very soon, we'll announce it here and across social media so if you're not following us, just follow the links in our signature

Then secondly, we have something very very special, our release of INSTAR Water+



This is a very special product from our Provectus line and the first to be released, Water+ is a painting aid that is used to thin down paints as normal, but unlike using traditional thinners, Water+ acts differently by crosslinking the pigment particles in the solution giving a much more even distribution both on the palette and brush.



This is especially important when it comes to painting as this even distribution means that you get more even coats per brush stroke thanks to the cross linking process, rather than the pigment level being highly concentrated at the start and end of the brush stroke thanks to the effects of water tension, the cross linking effect created by Water+ means the pigment leaves the brush in an orderly fashion ensuring that the same amount of pigment is dispensed from the brush onto the miniature every time, this avoids the problem of tidemarks and uneven coats showing more of the previous layer in models when taking photographs



You can clearly see the improved effect of Water+ when the samples dried out clearly showing the tidemarks created with plain distilled water compared to the even dispersion of Water+



All of our testers so far have fallen in love very quickly with this revolutionary new product, any orders placed through our store will automatically recieve a free 5ml sample of Water+ to try for themselves.

Release date is the 31st March 2019.

If you wish to see Water+ in action, MonkeysWithFire have been testing it over on their channel, for his thoughts on it, check on the stream this Thursday!

MonkeysWithFire Twitch Stream

Also, if you do check out the show, don't forget to use the command !discount, this will give you a code to 10% off anything in our store

We'll update again soon!

INSTAR Homepage

INSTAR Paint Store

INSTAR Vintage Store

INSTAR Metallic Store

INSTAR Wash Store


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/03/11 05:25:55


Post by: ced1106


Further proof medieval everything was brown, they ate brown, and everything was covered with mud. Or at least INSTAR's Mud Brown, with a side of Dust Brown and Dull Pewter.

Miniatures are Tiny Furniture's "Tavern with Drinks". Review on RPG.net. : https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/17/17966.phtml











INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/03/11 08:14:14


Post by: Albertorius


Those look pretty great. I have to get me some paints to test them out.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/03/11 12:39:52


Post by: Apologist


For what it's worth, I think they're well worth the punt, Albertorius.

Supershandy – The 'Water+' medium sounds interesting. Is it similar to any existing mediums? Just wondering if the effect is similar to flow enhancer or something. The smooth effect looks very useful – I can see it coming in handy for a lot of people.

It also got me thinking. Recently I've been playing around with granulation medium, and trying to force tidemarks/backruns to create texture on a miniature scale. Any market for a medium that would do that, or paints that create a sooty, grainy feel? I want to convey grime and muck without literally texturing the model.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/03/12 06:55:42


Post by: Supershandy


 Apologist wrote:
For what it's worth, I think they're well worth the punt, Albertorius.

Supershandy – The 'Water+' medium sounds interesting. Is it similar to any existing mediums? Just wondering if the effect is similar to flow enhancer or something. The smooth effect looks very useful – I can see it coming in handy for a lot of people.

It also got me thinking. Recently I've been playing around with granulation medium, and trying to force tidemarks/backruns to create texture on a miniature scale. Any market for a medium that would do that, or paints that create a sooty, grainy feel? I want to convey grime and muck without literally texturing the model.


Thanks for the kind words

On the subject of Water+, it's unlike anything else on the market considering the fact it can also be used as a brush cleaner and airbrush thinner too, as an airbrush thinner it's better, we think, than current existing ones in the fact that the pigment is bound in the droplet means that smooth coats are translated onto the model rather than a random mix of water vapour/alcohol and paint depending on how it's dispersed in the airbrush cup.

The crosslinking effect means that as a brush cleaner it's super effective as well at really getting your brush clean by clinging onto the particles in the brush head and removing them gently leading to cleaner brushes and less damage to brush heads

I can see where you're going with the dirt and grime effect, there is an effect call the Dot matrix effect that you can do with white and black paint?

It seems a little difficult to pull off but once it does it leaves a very nice streaking effect, the person talking about it said that for miniatures it would replicate rain effects where the dirt would be washed off. As for a wash...it could be possible with a non-soluble particulate, perhaps a silicon type granule? (Not sand...)


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/01 06:20:42


Post by: Supershandy


Good Morning Everyone,

We've finally released our much coveted "Water+" (Yesterday, not today....it's not a wind up )



The ultimate product in paint thinning, INSTAR Water+ is a unique creation and only available through INSTAR.

Unlike typical mediums such as distilled water or Acrylic bases for thinning paints, Water+ acts differently by crosslinking the paint and pigment particles in the solution, evenly distributing them compared to typical water based mediums which attract pigment particles to the centre due to surface tension leaving unsightly tide marks.



This allows for much smoother coats per brush stroke since the pigment is evenly dispersed throughout the head of the brush and leaves the brush in an even manner in comparison to other mediums which retain most of the pigment in the brush head until the end of the brush stroke where the pigment concentration will be higher.



Using Water+ is no different from the way you use other mediums, just mix into paint to the consistency you require and Water+ will do the rest, It can also be used with wet palettes too (performance will be reduced slightly due to an increase in dilution)

Check out the Twitch streams from Grey Paladin Arts and Monkeys With Fire to see Water+ in action and see their reactions to using it!

Some lucky Model Box subscribers will have received a sample bottle in their medieval pack while Asset Drop customers will be receiving a 20ml bottle in the latest Discovery box!

Here's what Asset Drop had to say about it

"Thinning your paints is arguably one of the most important aspects of miniature painting. How thin your paints are will change how they act on the miniature; from how well they cover to the uniformity of the end result. It also opens up different techniques like glazing and washing.

Because thinning is so important, it’s no surprise that there are a variety of products which can help you with it; from distilled water to flow improver to acrylic thinners, all from a number of different manufactures. For most painting applications, I’d recommend a high quality thinner over water, as good thinners change the base properties of the paint much less than water will.

How do you pick the best acrylic thinner though?

This is fairly subjective as different people will want different things from their thinner, in a thinner, and why amongst the ranks of other thinning products, Water+ really stands out. For me, there are four key attributes a thinner should have to make it excellent. Water+ has all of these!

Low Viscosity

I personally prefer my paints to be thin, with lots of flow, for as smooth application off the brush. Having a thinner which isn’t too thick (or too thin for that matter) is a great start.

High Transparency

As well as looking for a thinner with the ideal viscosity, I also look for thinners which won’t alter the opacity of my paint during application. Good thinners won’t make your paint more opaque when dry, but thinners which come out of the bottle milky will make your paint look more opaque when it’s
being applied, and may even alter the colour tone during application. I find this undesirable as it’s harder to judge the end result of your painting this way.

High Compatibility

Although it’s uncommon, I have experienced thinners that don’t behave well with some paint brands. I like to keep painting as straightforward as possible and not have to worry about how my thinner will react with new paints.

Great Value

Finally, being good value for money is the final hurdle. I get through plenty of thinner so being able to buy it in larger bottles is a must.

Water+ has all of these attributes exactly right, while also providing two further outstanding features!

Pigment Suspension:

With Water+, INSTAR have managed to engineer a formula which provides pigment binding properties. What I mean by this is that your paint will no longer separate as readily on the palette! This is an issue which can arise with other thinners, especially water. Now when your paint dries, it will give you a very smooth and solid coverage, even when using thin paints, or paints with larger pigment particles. This is an impressive property of Water+!

Finally, the high precision bottle INSTAR have used for their Water+ has a super fine nib. This helps you to get exactly the right amount of thinner, exactly where you need it. Ideal for keeping waste and mess to a minimum, and getting the correct thinning ratios."

Water+ is available from our store under its own tab on the menu bar!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/02 11:22:35


Post by: ced1106


NIce -- tidemarks, eh? (: How well would it work as a wash with inks? Paints?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/02 14:23:59


Post by: Supershandy


ced1106 wrote:
NIce -- tidemarks, eh? (: How well would it work as a wash with inks? Paints?


Very well, it thins them down nicely improving the flow, but because of the cross linking effect it distributes the pigment more evenly rather than pooling so it increases the level of control when using washes and inks

All they really need is a drop and that's about it


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/15 08:06:21


Post by: Supershandy


We've released new colours this week!

Two new wash shades



You can see these shades in effect on this model



Heavy flesh was used on the skin tones (Funnily enough!) over the top of our Sunburnt flesh to give a smoother transistion blend, the Purple was used to enhance the leather look on the shield

Next up we have two new colours to add to the paint line, Mucus Green should come with a free set of nuclear goggles!



And three new editions to the Vintage line and a welcome return to some much missed colours, Graveyard Earth (IV-36), Scorched Brown (IV-37) and Bleached Bone (IV-38)



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/15 14:25:45


Post by: jeff white


Ragnar69 wrote:
 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
If you're just used to GW paints you may be tempted not to shake other brands like these enough,

which might explain having to use multiple coats as not all the pigment has been resuspended (I can't say for sure about Instar but I've a few Vallejo and Armypainter colours like that)

GW uses a very gummy mix, especially for layers;/foundations which makes them less likely to separate but means they're harder to do some blending techniques etc with

Though I shook the paints way more vigorously than I ever shake GW paints, I gave it another try. This time I shook them so long, it bordered on a workout

This indeed improved the coverage and I now only needed 1 extra layer compared to GW base colour. It also now matched the GW colour better, the difference is now only minimal. So the paints are better than my first impression was, but GW still wins on convenience IMHO.

Maybe there should be a "shake like crazy" instruction on the bottles


I added a little pebble or ball bearing (didn't have enough ball bearings) to my dropper bottles.
That shakes them thoroughly without trouble.
I actually have to water down the INSTAR paints quite a lot as they cover so well, in my experience.
they are thicker than GW paints, from what I recall of GW paints, and most importantly for me they provide a solid vehicle for tints and other additives...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Supershandy wrote:
ced1106 wrote:
NIce -- tidemarks, eh? (: How well would it work as a wash with inks? Paints?


Very well, it thins them down nicely improving the flow, but because of the cross linking effect it distributes the pigment more evenly rather than pooling so it increases the level of control when using washes and inks

All they really need is a drop and that's about it


Water sounds interesting indeed!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/15 15:29:02


Post by: Supershandy


 jeff white wrote:
Ragnar69 wrote:
 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
If you're just used to GW paints you may be tempted not to shake other brands like these enough,

which might explain having to use multiple coats as not all the pigment has been resuspended (I can't say for sure about Instar but I've a few Vallejo and Armypainter colours like that)

GW uses a very gummy mix, especially for layers;/foundations which makes them less likely to separate but means they're harder to do some blending techniques etc with

Though I shook the paints way more vigorously than I ever shake GW paints, I gave it another try. This time I shook them so long, it bordered on a workout

This indeed improved the coverage and I now only needed 1 extra layer compared to GW base colour. It also now matched the GW colour better, the difference is now only minimal. So the paints are better than my first impression was, but GW still wins on convenience IMHO.

Maybe there should be a "shake like crazy" instruction on the bottles


I added a little pebble or ball bearing (didn't have enough ball bearings) to my dropper bottles.
That shakes them thoroughly without trouble.
I actually have to water down the INSTAR paints quite a lot as they cover so well, in my experience.
they are thicker than GW paints, from what I recall of GW paints, and most importantly for me they provide a solid vehicle for tints and other additives...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Supershandy wrote:
ced1106 wrote:
NIce -- tidemarks, eh? (: How well would it work as a wash with inks? Paints?


Very well, it thins them down nicely improving the flow, but because of the cross linking effect it distributes the pigment more evenly rather than pooling so it increases the level of control when using washes and inks

All they really need is a drop and that's about it


Water sounds interesting indeed!


We're adding agitators to all new batches we produce so this problem has now been resolved, also they're pretty good agitators we use and mix the paints better and faster than traditional ball bearings (And they don't rust either which is a plus!)

And yeah, the Water+ is getting lots of really good feedback, most people will tell you it's a gimmick though they haven't tried it, but once you've smelt it, tasted it and used it, you'll know it's not just distilled water and quite possibly, as one twitter user put it, the wonder product of 2019


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/15 15:44:49


Post by: OrlandotheTechnicoloured


That scorched brown alternative is just in time as my last pot is almost gone, and i'll give the water+ a try too


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/25 14:24:12


Post by: Supershandy


So GW have a supposedly new product coming out that has gotten people thinking they have come up with something new that people haven't thought of.

Well, we'd already beaten them to the punch on that one

Our Water+ is unlike anything else on the market and in fact cannot be found anywhere else on the market, with a heavily modified solution, our Water+ allows you to create smooth, seamless blends, make other paint brands more useable (Such as Army painter and Scale75 being the most prominent ones), keeps your brush tip sharp....

You can't improve washes by helping them flow into recesses better with no loss in pigmentation, you can glaze faster and smoother

You can keep your brush nice and clean, it'll extend the life of your brush, it will give even tiny 10/0 brushes something of a reservoir so you can paint longer, neater and faster

You can use it as an airbrush thinner to keep a high pigmentation level through your airbrush

The list of what this stuff can do just seems to grow as people use it more and more!

Why not check it out for yourself, any order placed with us gets a free sample bottle to try out


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/25 16:09:52


Post by: The Phazer


I might give the Water+ stuff a try. Does it slow down trying as well like a Liquidex slo-dri stuff? Or can it be mixed with a product like that?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/25 17:08:58


Post by: JonWebb


Is Water+ safe to eat?

As a brush licker/two brush blender I’m interested to hear.

Also, does it contain animal byproduct as a vegetarian...

I’m using your foundation range for my bases and they do the job well replacing colours I used to use, this product has piqued my interest but (without you giving the game away) I need to know if I can use it or not.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/25 20:13:18


Post by: Supershandy


 The Phazer wrote:
I might give the Water+ stuff a try. Does it slow down trying as well like a Liquidex slo-dri stuff? Or can it be mixed with a product like that?


Quite the opposite, it actually speeds up drying time a little faster than standard water, but it levels out as if you are using a slow drying retarder so you can get the same results and paint quicker

We haven't tried mixing it, but I can't see why it wouldn't work to slow the drying time


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 JonWebb wrote:
Is Water+ safe to eat?

As a brush licker/two brush blender I’m interested to hear.

Also, does it contain animal byproduct as a vegetarian...

I’m using your foundation range for my bases and they do the job well replacing colours I used to use, this product has piqued my interest but (without you giving the game away) I need to know if I can use it or not.


While we don't recommend it, it's perfectly safe to lick your brush using this stuff

And it contains no animal byproducts whatsoever, in fact, it's completely vegan friendly and yes, it not only works with our paints, but other brands too so it's not a one trick pony so to speak


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/25 20:55:52


Post by: vitki


Do you have a US distributor, or is it order from your webstore only right now?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/25 21:18:51


Post by: JonWebb


 Supershandy wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:
 JonWebb wrote:
Is Water+ safe to eat?

As a brush licker/two brush blender I’m interested to hear.

Also, does it contain animal byproduct as a vegetarian...

I’m using your foundation range for my bases and they do the job well replacing colours I used to use, this product has piqued my interest but (without you giving the game away) I need to know if I can use it or not.


While we don't recommend it, it's perfectly safe to lick your brush using this stuff

And it contains no animal byproducts whatsoever, in fact, it's completely vegan friendly and yes, it not only works with our paints, but other brands too so it's not a one trick pony so to speak


Good to know, cheers

I’ll grab some to try next time I need a top up.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/26 05:21:16


Post by: Supershandy


 vitki wrote:
Do you have a US distributor, or is it order from your webstore only right now?


Good Morning,

We don't have a distributor in the US yet though it is something we are continually looking at so for the moment it's only available through our store


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/27 00:30:41


Post by: angel of death 007


Is there any chance you are doing a Bestial Brown. I am getting low on this color and could really use it. All the GW replacements are not close to the correct color.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/04/27 07:40:48


Post by: Supershandy


angel of death 007 wrote:
Is there any chance you are doing a Bestial Brown. I am getting low on this color and could really use it. All the GW replacements are not close to the correct color.


Not yet, but we can bump it up the list

Follow us on our social media and you'll find out as soon as it launches!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/02 23:52:58


Post by: ced1106


Looking good!

More Tiny Furniture! More INSTAR Mud Brown (and Dust Brown)!

I'm pretty sure this WIP is a Mud Brown basecoat with an Army Painter Strong Tone ink, with a rough drybrush of Dust Brown on the edges.

This TF model is their Medieval Bath. Here's a WIP. The final pics and review are on RPG.net. : https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/18/18067.phtml





INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/03 00:01:07


Post by: ced1106


Some Advanced HeroQuest WIP miniatures that have taken me only thirty years to get around to painting.

Skaven: Gray IV-24, Cool Grey, metallic black Dull Pewter, and good ol' MUD BROWN!!

Doors: Mud Brown followed by Army Painter brown Strong Tone Ink.

Brown and black brush-on primers.




[Thumb - IMG_3317.JPG]
[Thumb - IMG_3313.JPG]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/06 05:52:20


Post by: Supershandy


ced1106 wrote:
Some Advanced HeroQuest WIP miniatures that have taken me only thirty years to get around to painting.

Skaven: Gray IV-24, Cool Grey, metallic black Dull Pewter, and good ol' MUD BROWN!!

Doors: Mud Brown followed by Army Painter brown Strong Tone Ink.

Brown and black brush-on primers.





Awesome work as always, always love seeing your pieces come together


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/12 05:37:12


Post by: ced1106


[Thanks -- did some more work, but the pictures didn't turn out well.

Anyway, I'd like to see some brush-on colored primers. I know you're going for the display-level audience, but, for tabletop, I find colored primers make painting faster.

I often use brown. Black is for metal undercoats, but I see Vallejo makes a metal primer. Other colors I would like use are green (orc skin), flesh (human), red, blue, and yellow.

And here's a picture of a skaven firethrower (?) team, base coated with Dust Brown and Cool Grey before washing. :


[Thumb - IMG_3336.JPG]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/16 00:07:42


Post by: ced1106


Basecoat of purple IV-26.


[Thumb - IMG_3335.JPG]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/16 05:39:12


Post by: Supershandy


ced1106 wrote:
[Thanks -- did some more work, but the pictures didn't turn out well.

Anyway, I'd like to see some brush-on colored primers. I know you're going for the display-level audience, but, for tabletop, I find colored primers make painting faster.

I often use brown. Black is for metal undercoats, but I see Vallejo makes a metal primer. Other colors I would like use are green (orc skin), flesh (human), red, blue, and yellow.

And here's a picture of a skaven firethrower (?) team, base coated with Dust Brown and Cool Grey before washing. :



Oh we have no particular audience, we love all the miniatures we see painted with our products

We are looking at brush on primers, though coloured ones are a little way off at the moment, at the moment we're still working on our one-coat system!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/20 13:34:04


Post by: dyndraig


Any news on the Alpha range?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/20 23:53:03


Post by: Ashaar


Looking forward to seeing the Spectrum line, the example looks great.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/21 03:29:08


Post by: FabricatorGeneralMike


Hello there I just placed a order with you guys for the first time for iv-02 aka chardinate granite as mine gave up the ghost a while ago and finding a replacement is a pain in the ass. I just wanted to know if you are still offering the free 5ml water+ sample as it looks rather interesting. As a first time customer if you are offering it will it up the shipping cost? I live in canada and as awesome as your products look the exchange rate and shipping costs just nuke me everytime.

Thank you and i can't wait to see how the paints work out.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/21 16:57:32


Post by: Supershandy


dyndraig wrote:
Any news on the Alpha range?


Hi there,

Well....sort of.....

The original idea had to be shelved as one of the supplier of the raw material folded on us which meant the whole project took a set back. However we haven't given up on it though it might be turning in a new direction so watch this space (That is providing the idea actually work....)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ashaar wrote:
Looking forward to seeing the Spectrum line, the example looks great.


Thank you!

There will be samples of this heading out with orders soon much the same way Water+ has, the only difference is it will be a random colour.

We're aiming for full release end of May - mid June (Due to the move, the launch date had to be pushed back a bit)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
Hello there I just placed a order with you guys for the first time for iv-02 aka chardinate granite as mine gave up the ghost a while ago and finding a replacement is a pain in the ass. I just wanted to know if you are still offering the free 5ml water+ sample as it looks rather interesting. As a first time customer if you are offering it will it up the shipping cost? I live in canada and as awesome as your products look the exchange rate and shipping costs just nuke me everytime.

Thank you and i can't wait to see how the paints work out.


We saw, thank you very much!

Yes it will come with a free sample of Water+ but given that our shipping cost is based on weight, a small 5ml sample won't push it over, and even if it did, we won't charge you the extra for it.

We're nice like that



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/05/21 19:13:06


Post by: FabricatorGeneralMike


 Supershandy wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:
 FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
Hello there I just placed a order with you guys for the first time for iv-02 aka chardinate granite as mine gave up the ghost a while ago and finding a replacement is a pain in the ass. I just wanted to know if you are still offering the free 5ml water+ sample as it looks rather interesting. As a first time customer if you are offering it will it up the shipping cost? I live in canada and as awesome as your products look the exchange rate and shipping costs just nuke me everytime.

Thank you and i can't wait to see how the paints work out.


We saw, thank you very much!

Yes it will come with a free sample of Water+ but given that our shipping cost is based on weight, a small 5ml sample won't push it over, and even if it did, we won't charge you the extra for it.

We're nice like that



Awesome, thank you very much I can't wait to try it out. If it's as good as I think it will be, I'll be asking The Boss ( aka she who must be obeyed, aka the wifey) if I can make a few more orders. I really hope you guys are working on a North American distributor. I miss the old foundation line when I worked at GW those where the hot new paints so I used them a lot teaching screaming kids how to WAGGGGHHHHHH and how to slap on some thick blue paint for their Ultrablingers


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/09/18 19:19:20


Post by: Supershandy


We've released new colours this week!

Two new wash shades



You can see these shades in effect on this model



Heavy flesh was used on the skin tones (Funnily enough!) over the top of our Sunburnt flesh to give a smoother transistion blend, the Purple was used to enhance the leather look on the shield

Next up we have two new colours to add to the paint line, Mucus Green should come with a free set of nuclear goggles!



And three new editions to the Vintage line and a welcome return to some much missed colours, Graveyard Earth (IV-36), Scorched Brown (IV-37) and Bleached Bone (IV-38)



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/11/04 15:08:11


Post by: Supershandy


Afternoon!

Our new Alpha line is already making huge waves in the community with large numbers of positive reviews

Ultra Thin like a wash, Highly Opaque like the old Foundation paints designed to get your models tabletop ready fast while giving a high quality tabletop finish!



The "Pure" Colours in the range can be likened to Kimera Paints, but much thinner, the rest of the range are premixed colours ready to go straight from the bottle, onto your pallete and onto your miniature with no additional thinning required



By adding a tiny brushful of thinner you can turn these from hihly opaque paints to a layer type paint, add a drop of thinner, you get a Contrast style paijt, Add two drops of thinner, get a glaze and add three drops of thinner, get a Wash.



They are also freezable too meaning shipping is now no longer an issue, once defrosted the paints make an excellent drybrush or sculptable terrain paint and after a full day the paint reverts back to it's original state ready to be painted onto a miniature...you'll know when it's ready because you'll hear the agitator!



Use alongside our new Matte+ and Gloss+ additives to really enhance these paints further and unlock new methods



Great quality off the brush or through an airbrush with no extra thinner required straight from the bottle

Brush ready, airbrush ready.....are you ready?

All through November we have an early bird discount code, just use at the checkout at our store - ALPHA5


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/11/05 01:37:10


Post by: ced1106


Nice! Been loving my INSTAR paints. Mud Brown is great for wood and as a general-purpose brown!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/11/05 09:30:10


Post by: Supershandy


 ced1106 wrote:
Nice! Been loving my INSTAR paints. Mud Brown is great for wood and as a general-purpose brown!


If you loved the original line, you're going to adore the new Alpha line!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/11/05 09:50:56


Post by: jeff white


geez wow you have really come a LONG ways!


I am gonna be at your webstore just now though to check these out!

Wow!
Pricing is awesome!

I am getting the airbrush out of storage today,
and see if I can make some room for a few 100ml bottles of these Alphas.
Just awesome!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/11/05 15:18:14


Post by: dyndraig


When will the Alpha paints start shipping?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2019/11/05 19:29:44


Post by: Supershandy


jeff white wrote:geez wow you have really come a LONG ways!


I am gonna be at your webstore just now though to check these out!

Wow!
Pricing is awesome!

I am getting the airbrush out of storage today,
and see if I can make some room for a few 100ml bottles of these Alphas.
Just awesome!


Thank you, it's been a hell of a year but it's all been worth it!

Thank you for being one of the first to ever use our product!

dyndraig wrote:When will the Alpha paints start shipping?


Official shipping starts on the 7th December, but you can pre order your paints now all this month while we finalise the production, you'll also get a discount, just use the code alpha5 at the checkout



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Morning,

If anyone's interested tonight, MonkeysWithFire will be showcasing the new Alpha line on his channel tonight (7PM GMT), he has the full selection including our coveted Water+ and the new Matte+ and Gloss+ additives



Get to see the paint in action as well as asking us and the Simian Collective (Pascal, Edo, Sarah and Snik) who will also be there any questions about the range, they've had the set for several weeks now and had plenty of time to play with it!

We look forward to seeing you there!

MonkeysWithFire Twitch Channel


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/03/30 11:17:30


Post by: ced1106


Hope you guys are doing okay in the UK. I'm painting mini's here in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, one of the hardest hit areas of the country from the virus.

Dark Pewter is a nice black metallic that you can paint over black primer for armor, etc. I used it on Vlad from The Assault Group (another UK company!)'s Vlad Drakul, Bride and Boyar set. Still have further painting to do.
https://theassaultgroup.co.uk/product/vlad-drakul-bride-and-boyar/


[Thumb - DSC03318.JPG]


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/12/14 08:26:42


Post by: Supershandy


Morning Folks, been a while since we've been here!

Tis the season to be jolly after how this year has been!

Until Monday 21st December, enjoy 10% off using the code "xmas10" at the checkout!



(P.S, because there's no naughty list this year, the code will stack with other codes if you have them)



Now that's a reason to be more jolly!

INSTAR Homepage


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/12/14 11:39:12


Post by: tauist


Instar has Charadon Granite?! BOUGHT!

Charadon Granite and Mechrite Red are both essential colours for my armies. Very happy you keep these colours available for the community!

cheers


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/12/14 12:05:08


Post by: Slipstream


Hi Instar,
I was wondering if you could give me some guidelines for one of your metallics?
I have Cabarnet red (good colour) I've used it but I've never felt that I got the best out of it or used it in the right way.
It turns out a little grainy and really needs a few coats. I tried painting over a light gold basecoat to no avail.
Any suggestions?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/12/14 12:21:13


Post by: Supershandy


Slipstream wrote:
Hi Instar,
I was wondering if you could give me some guidelines for one of your metallics?
I have Cabarnet red (good colour) I've used it but I've never felt that I got the best out of it or used it in the right way.
It turns out a little grainy and really needs a few coats. I tried painting over a light gold basecoat to no avail.
Any suggestions?


Hello, unfortunately Cabernet Red suffers from the same problems as any red, except because it's a metallic it's a little more extreme since the particles are reflective and not transparent, meaning that the light can't pass through it twice (Once on the way to the surface and secondly on reflection).

It is just an unfortunate case of layering though a grey basecoat might work better than a black (Which absorbs more light) or White (Which will wash it out)

We do however have a much improved system called Metal+ - https://shop.instarpaint.com/product/metal/ which can turn any paint into a metallic simply by adding it, you can see the swatches here where we've used our Pure Colours with an addition of Metal+ - https://shop.instarpaint.com/swatch-cards/, there is an improvement coming to the system next year to make it even more powerful.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/12/15 12:19:05


Post by: Slipstream


Hi Instar, thanks for the reply, you've gave me some ideas which I will try today.
I tend to use very opaque paints as colour undercoats when I'm painting red. If I need a bright finish I use a sand paint(more yellow than tan), if I need a darker finish I use a dark pink colour. I think the dark pink will work better with the metallic red. Failing that, I'll try drybrushing!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/12/15 18:37:42


Post by: Supershandy


Slipstream wrote:
Hi Instar, thanks for the reply, you've gave me some ideas which I will try today.
I tend to use very opaque paints as colour undercoats when I'm painting red. If I need a bright finish I use a sand paint(more yellow than tan), if I need a darker finish I use a dark pink colour. I think the dark pink will work better with the metallic red. Failing that, I'll try drybrushing!


No problem at all, glad to be of help!


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2020/12/24 14:44:39


Post by: Supershandy




As we shut down for a couple of days, we’d like to thank all our customers old and new for their business this year!

As a thank you, we’ll open the door a bit on our highly coveted Water+

https://youtu.be/foW_4cJLSQQ


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/01/14 14:44:09


Post by: Supershandy


We've got new products in store and if we're honest, painters haven't had this much power at their disposal!

To start with, we have three new single pigments to add to the Alpha line. While we're moving into just a single pigment range, we're also providing guides to help painters along, we're not leaving anyone in the dark



Pure Oxide Black is a more natural form of Black, you can see this as it's more Brown hued than Pure Black which is Blue hued, this gives different variations of grey as well as creating a superb wash for metals when combined with our Water+ product



Pure Warm Blue is a more gentle version of Pure Blue so can provide more subtle colour changes, it is however slightly more opaque than Pure Blue



Pure Warm Red is a richer version of Pure Red with more body, great for blood and flesh effects

This currently gives us the largest single pigment range on the market right now and we have plans this year to add even more to give even more options when it comes to creating your own colours!

Which moves us onto the next items in the list



Our Bundle packs have relaunched and are the perfect introduction to both the Alpha Range and Colour Mixing, each sets colours are specifically chosen to provide the widest range of colours possible in a recognisable format. Each one has its own set of colour wheels (If you saw our video short on colour wheel evolution, this will make sense now) and mixing guide that will allow you to create almost any colour you can think of extremely easily.

And that leads on to the biggest thing of 2021 so far



This is currently the crown jewel in our store, making colours on a palette is one thing, but what if you want to do a whole army in the colours you mixed?

Well now you can, this kit contains everything you need to get you started on making your own paint set, instead of a limited closed system of pre mixed colours, you can create anything you want to make, by using the printable swatch cards available on the website, all you do is simply record the recipe in droplets, use the conversion calculator and use the syringes (with plastic tips ) to put the raw colours into the bottle, then simply shake it up and voila, we should note that all the stuff in the box can be purchased separately (Including the bottles!)

This video will explain more (We are planning to do an updated version of this) (The video is disabled for embedding on purpose)




INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/01/23 17:28:53


Post by: Gimgamgoo


I was just putting an order through but the main paint I was after has vanished...

Alpha range - Camo Brown. I thought this was a new range?
I was about to order either a 100ml or a couple of 50ml bottles. (My last 50ml and 20ml bottle ran out today). I've been using it as the base coat for my army's sanded bases and movement trays. It is a perfect consistency for painting over the sanded bases, seeping into all the gaps, never bubbling and only ever needing one coat.

Is it discontinued or just out of stock?
The Alpha page only shows 2 browns, neither are camo brown.

Typically, I get half way through an army and the paint vanishes. I thought I'd done away with that problem by stopping using GW and their ever changing names and slight shade alterations.

EDIT: I found the camo brown in the clearance sale. Does this mean you're dropping the Alpha paints barring the ones for your mixing kits? :-(


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/15 13:51:41


Post by: Supershandy


 Gimgamgoo wrote:
I was just putting an order through but the main paint I was after has vanished...

Alpha range - Camo Brown. I thought this was a new range?
I was about to order either a 100ml or a couple of 50ml bottles. (My last 50ml and 20ml bottle ran out today). I've been using it as the base coat for my army's sanded bases and movement trays. It is a perfect consistency for painting over the sanded bases, seeping into all the gaps, never bubbling and only ever needing one coat.

Is it discontinued or just out of stock?
The Alpha page only shows 2 browns, neither are camo brown.

Typically, I get half way through an army and the paint vanishes. I thought I'd done away with that problem by stopping using GW and their ever changing names and slight shade alterations.

EDIT: I found the camo brown in the clearance sale. Does this mean you're dropping the Alpha paints barring the ones for your mixing kits? :-(


Hello!

Kind of a 50/50...

The Alpha range hasn’t “gone” as such, the colour can still be made even with the use of the dropper bottles, it’s more of a streamlined product line now to be able to cater for everyone (mostly because we were always getting requests for new colours).

The Camo brown is one of the simpler recipes that can be made and can be found in the mixing formulas https://shop.instarpaint.com/product-category/alphasimplecolours/, but don’t think that it’s a lot of paint to make a colour, 10 drops is a very small amount considering that a standard 20ml size holds around 1000 drops of paint.

So yeah, no need to worry about colours changing, the colours are still there and will be the same everytime you make it, we put a lot of thought into it before we made the change


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/16 00:50:53


Post by: angel of death 007


Mixing paints... ugh. Not the way i would ever want to go. If anything that is kinda a step backwards in my opinion.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/16 12:48:42


Post by: Crispy78


angel of death 007 wrote:
Mixing paints... ugh. Not the way i would ever want to go. If anything that is kinda a step backwards in my opinion.


Yeah, same. This has pretty much killed any interest I had.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/16 15:05:32


Post by: Supershandy


That's unfortunate as we put an awful lot of thought into the system and don't feel it's a step backwards, unlike Kimera or Scale75 Artist who largely leave you in the dark or require you to have a degree in art (for lack of a better term), we actively encourage it, but provide a big helping hand along the way by providing a massive database of colours with dropper recipes to recreate them every time, that way you can always get the colour you want/need with the same consistency without having to resort to another paint brand, with a different formula paint requiring you to adjust your approach.

How does the INSTAR colour system work?

But we do have good reasons for the change

One - to provide a much more accessible product since we realised that the words "Paint" and "Mixing" tends to instill fear in most painters (even some of our sponsored painters at first we're afraid until they realised how easy it was), but is actually one of the most basic skills we learn at a very early age, you don't need to have a grounding in colour theory and mixing with the system we've developed.

Two - Reduce the amount of paint you actually need, no point buying a colour that you'll only use ONCE if you can just mix it on the palette in a matter of seconds using the dropper bottles and counting the drops

Three - Easy to scale up, if you find yourself using a colour an awful lot, it's very quick to convert a dropper recipe to a ml recipe to create a bottle of the exact colour that you mix on the palette, we did this exact system with our NMM steel colours so we didn't have to keep mixing all the time, now all we do is just reach for the mixed colours. One of our sponsored painters did this for his skintones and made his own collection using our system



Four - Access to more colours then you can shake a stick at, most of the colours you buy in a triad are just the same colour with Grey or White added to it, so you could make your own triads out of just one colour from a possible two billion base colours, this marine here is the same purple colour base all the way through, all we did was add a drop of a lighter or darker grey to adjust the saturation.....the principle remained the same for all the other colours from the guns to the purity seal.



As for the number of colours you need...you can easily make any colour you want using just the Primaries pack which we have available as a bundle pack or you could get the colours individually for less than £15 for the 20ml sizes, plus access to a free, pigment specific colour wheel that's dead easy to follow and will recreate the colour you see on screen

Primaries Bundle Pack



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/16 19:58:54


Post by: Gimgamgoo


I must admit, although I've loved the quality of the alpha paint range. Mixing isn't for me either.
Your £140 paint mixing kit gets you to put the paint in stubby jam jars. We know the paint will separate and require mixing. (See pic below of alpha paint). So, it will need shaking up. A GW pot is nasty enough for the mess around the rim and lid, but I imagine a screw top jar with a large surface area lid will require a lot of cleaning to keep from crusting up.



Also, syringes. No. I tried syringes to get GWs Air range out of their pots. What an unpleasant experience. Since then, I pour GW pots into dripper bottles avoiding the mess of syringes. Finally, even if I went to the trouble of buying the 2 sets of mixing tubs in 20ml bottles, making up paints with recipes like:
Flame red.
To make 10ml
Pure Oxide Yellow – 2.58ml
Pure Oxide Red – 1.41ml
Pure White – 0.30ml
Pure Red – 5.71ml

There's no way I could consistently measure amounts like that.

I understand there's no way you could keep every colour from old GW ranges, other old company ranges and your own in stock, so I imagine that's why the colour mixing came in. The problem is, most of us hobbyists are lazy bastards and are less likely to mix every colour we want from a base of 12.

I do hope you can keep a good selection of alpha range paints in stock as they are seriously the best paints I've used and as my other brand paints run out, I was hoping to slowly replace them with alpha paints.



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/16 21:13:28


Post by: Supershandy


 Gimgamgoo wrote:
I must admit, although I've loved the quality of the alpha paint range. Mixing isn't for me either.
Your £140 paint mixing kit gets you to put the paint in stubby jam jars. We know the paint will separate and require mixing. (See pic below of alpha paint). So, it will need shaking up. A GW pot is nasty enough for the mess around the rim and lid, but I imagine a screw top jar with a large surface area lid will require a lot of cleaning to keep from crusting up.


While i'm not going to try to sell you on the mixing kit, the tubs were something we put thought into as well, since they are just they for storage and not continual opening and closing, when you shake it, the paint doesn't run into the threads although if it did, it's quite easy to clean with a simple kitchen towel, but on the whole you don't run the risk of crusting up the threads, also with the syringes that is also something we thought about.

Because the paint is very thin naturally, it's much easier to dispense then you think and we specifically supply plastic syringe tips that are the right size to ensure easy dispensing and to get the correct amounts, though the example you gave from the RAL database for the Flame red will require the use of the syringes and tips to reproduce the exact colour, that's something that's totally unavoidable since they are a Standard Colour, but it does also mean that if you saw that colour in real life and thought "That would make a good colour for *insert model here*, you could make it and it would be the same, if not as close as possible to that colour.

However you can round it it to get a close approximation, but even a small amount of paint can make a huge difference, But that's also the reason why we began a seperate database (which is growing all the time) that has formulas that are just in whole numbers so they can be dispensed straight from the pure bottles in a droplet format...essentialy the formulas are just ratios so even if you managed to get hold of saucepan sized amounts of Alpha and mixed it altogether, you'd still end up with the same colour regardless.....

But it wasn't as if we made the desicion lightly and we knew it would ruffle some feathers, we'd spent the best part of a year devising a system that was simple to use, easy to follow, most importantly repeatable and would be able to cater for every painters needs since every painter is different and has different tastes, some people like a thicker paint, others just want a contrast style paint etc.....we opened it up in a way so people could create the paints THEY wanted.

But it's not just having to buy the kit, If you onyl have a set number of colours you use day in, day out, you could order just the refill size bottles and syringes, a bottle pack and optionally the storage containers, the idea behind it is to reduce the amount of waste that we, as a community generate...when we have an empty pot of paint, we just throw in the bin, but it can't be recycled with dried paint in it, it just goes to landfill...and then we just buy another pot and the cycle repeats. The idea with this system is that once the paint has been used, you can look up the recipe and refill it again and since you're just buying refill bottles (Which can be easily cleaned out and recycled) the cost of your paint drops by quite a significant margin and at the same time, being kinder to the environment too.



INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/17 13:22:30


Post by: Supershandy


New article on why we made the change to a single pigment range

Why we made the change to a single pigment range

And a few other goodies

INSTAR Cheat Book

Using Alpha Paint

The Science of Colour


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/24 08:40:46


Post by: Supershandy


Masters ain't got nothing on our new product!



Full use and review





INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/24 09:13:24


Post by: Azazelx


The brush-cleaning stuff looks good. I'd pick it up if it was a realistic purchase, but the postage sadly prevents that.
As for the paint system, not for me, I'm afraid. I mix sub-colours all the time, but I'm not intertested in needing to use pipettes and so forth when I need a very small amount of a specific colour, and I like being able to eyeball what I'll get by mixing Warpaints Tanned Flesh with VMA Rose Brown, and then varying it by adding a drop (or less) of Panzer Aces Light Rust, and doing so to paint the flesh on 6 models.
If someone was using very few colours to do an army with a limited palette, then sure, but I like to be able to eyeball a lot of different shades and tones and then vary or play with them on the fly.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/24 09:38:35


Post by: Supershandy


 Azazelx wrote:
The brush-cleaning stuff looks good. I'd pick it up if it was a realistic purchase, but the postage sadly prevents that.
As for the paint system, not for me, I'm afraid. I mix sub-colours all the time, but I'm not intertested in needing to use pipettes and so forth when I need a very small amount of a specific colour, and I like being able to eyeball what I'll get by mixing Warpaints Tanned Flesh with VMA Rose Brown, and then varying it by adding a drop (or less) of Panzer Aces Light Rust, and doing so to paint the flesh on 6 models.
If someone was using very few colours to do an army with a limited palette, then sure, but I like to be able to eyeball a lot of different shades and tones and then vary or play with them on the fly.


Ahhh, the syringes are only really needed if you're mixing from the RAL database to create full bottle of colour or creating a full bottle of colour from one of the mixing formulas, other than that you can just use drops from the dropper bottles much as you would using normal paints in place of the millilitres, the system is there to cater for everyone. It just generates much less waste and if you only need a very small amount, you can easily eyeball it if you count a single drop as "1" and then roughly guage what you need to remove so 0.4ml would be just under half a drop, 0.7ml would be just over.

The idea behind it was repeatability as that's one of the things that puts people off colour mixing completely, but you're doing exactly what the system was designed for by mixing paints anyway, just we offer it as a single pigment line rather than mixing pre mixed colours which can have a big level of unpredicatbility since you won't know what pigments are in the colour (Unless of course they list them...which most companies don't), but if you prefer mixing premixed colours, you can create your own specific flesh tones and bottle them up easily, then adjust them on the fly as needed.

It's pretty much how we're painting now, a select number colours that we use day to day and then adjust them with various levels of greys, yellow, reds and blues.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/02/26 15:14:18


Post by: Supershandy


New video up on our Youtube Channel, How to paint Onyx Skin




Also a free, updated guide on how to use our Alpha paints as well as how to mix colours using three different methods, The INSTAR system way, the traditional way and the bulk way

Using Alpha


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/04/07 16:12:30


Post by: Fifty


A friend just posted about the changes to your range on our club's painting page, and I am intrigued, to say the least.

I think the Alpha range might be risky for you, judging by the number of people here who seem reluctant to mix their own colours, but I am very, very interested in the idea. Before I next buy any new colours, I need to at least try this out. I am not as good as I should be when it comes to sustainability, but I am at least conscious of it and this seems like something that deserves a try. The level of flexibility certainly appeals as well.

(I wonder if some people who are reluctant to mix colours because they might not quite get a perfect match also over-estimate their own ability to paint well enought to exactly match previous models anyway!)

I am curious, how well would a paint mixed from your Alpha range mix with a regular acrylic from GW or Vallejo?


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/04/12 08:27:41


Post by: Supershandy


 Fifty wrote:
A friend just posted about the changes to your range on our club's painting page, and I am intrigued, to say the least.

I think the Alpha range might be risky for you, judging by the number of people here who seem reluctant to mix their own colours, but I am very, very interested in the idea. Before I next buy any new colours, I need to at least try this out. I am not as good as I should be when it comes to sustainability, but I am at least conscious of it and this seems like something that deserves a try. The level of flexibility certainly appeals as well.

(I wonder if some people who are reluctant to mix colours because they might not quite get a perfect match also over-estimate their own ability to paint well enought to exactly match previous models anyway!)

I am curious, how well would a paint mixed from your Alpha range mix with a regular acrylic from GW or Vallejo?


Weirdly the take up for the new system of the Alpha range has been pretty positive so far, probably due to the fact that we've stated that you can make the majority of the premixed Alpha range just through droplets alone, but the idea came about from seeing loads of forum posts where it starts with "I'm trying to find this colour" or "I want a specific colour but no range has it". We're also working on a system of painting that helps massively, rather than a how to guide tellign you step by step which colours to use, we leave that door open to the painter to decide on their colours and instead provide them with a guide on how to choose the colours to get the best effect possible for what they want, we're currently in the final stages of it.

Rather than going down the Kimera or Scale75 Artist range where you tend to put a big blob on the palette and then take a bit from each and mix somewhere else which does put people off, we decided to keep it simple and straightforward. Since every drop out of our bottles is pretty much uniform, regardless of the colour, it was easy to make recipes that just said "Mix 2 drops of this, 1 drop of that and 4 drops of this and you'll get this colour". Put that alongside easy to follow colour wheels and an ever increasing database of colours means that it's easy to find the colour you want and due to the way we've done it, what you see on the screen, 99% of the time will be what you get, but because every monitor setup is different it's difficult to get it to 100%.

Then we have swatch recording cards where, if you make a colour you like or paint an army up in a specific scheme using specific colour mixes, you can paint a swatch on the card and write down the recipe to make it, then, because of the uniformity of the droplets, means that you'll make that same colour every single time. Which comes round to the point about armies, because of the way the system works, there's no fear in trying to match the same colour to keep it consistent, so long as you write down what the formula was, you can repeat it all the time consistently and repeatedly. In our "Using Alpha" guide under the "Free Stuff" tab, we show three ways you can mix colours.

With your point about reluctance to mixing, We're not sure if it's because people might recognise that the colour they've used is not exact (Which if you get it close is going to pretty hard to spot anyway unless you paint side by side on the same model) or because they feel it's beyond their skill level which we feel is wrong, as we've pointed out, if we can do it starting entirely from scratch on an industrial level, so can everyone on a hobby scale ,though if more people come forward to say why they are reluctant to colour mixing, we can then improve the system to make it more accessible. At the moment we feel we've done a lot to make it easy from providing empty bottles, syringes, storage containers, recipes, colour wheels, some of our sponsored painters are doing paint alongs etc

Given that the Alpha range can be turned into washes and glazes easily using Water+ means that you have an incredible toolkit at your disposal to make the colours you want to make.

I'm not sure on the last question though....I know some people have added the Pure White to Corax White to make a super luminescent white so they do mix in well with other ranges meaning you can adjust them accordingly.


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/09/29 16:05:03


Post by: Supershandy


We have a community gallery that we have been keeping updated over the year and we've just added some more pieces from some talented painters!

Why not check it out

INSTAR Community Gallery


INSTAR Paint - News and updates @ 2021/12/30 11:07:28


Post by: Supershandy


Our latest article in "The Science of Colour" takes a look at the world of pigments.

Pigments Unwrapped