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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!
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.
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)
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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
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/05/21 17:01:14
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
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)
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
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!
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/
Charadon Granite and Mechrite Red are both essential colours for my armies. Very happy you keep these colours available for the community!
cheers
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/12/14 11:39:24
"The larger point though, is that as players, we have more control over what the game looks and feels like than most of us are willing to use in order to solve our own problems"
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?
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.
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!
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!
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)
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/01/14 14:46:25
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? :-(
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/01/29 23:40:02
Currently most played: Silent Death, Mars Code Aurora, Battletech, Warcrow and Infinity.
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
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/02/15 13:52:17
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.
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
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.
Currently most played: Silent Death, Mars Code Aurora, Battletech, Warcrow and Infinity.
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.
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