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Those look great, man!

 JWMarines wrote:
Those look great, man!

Thanks! Tried your technique using mephiston red on that one purity seal that's almost in his right armpit and noticed that red sorta reacts differently than black does, especially using such tiny dabs of paint. I found the red was a bit less controllable, especially when I would add the water, which made what was supposed be a blood drop into what looks like a red pear. Kinda looks like that Alfred Hitchcock profile silhouette, just in red.

 hybridmoments82 wrote:
[Sharpies] do look different than using a black paint, as they tend to have a tinge of incandescent purple among the black when you beam some light onto it.

Finally, someone else said it! Even if using an 06 (closest to super-fine Sharpie tip size, IIRC), I'd always opt for a Sakura Pigma purely for the fact that it lacks that metallic crimson sort of sheen. It's like the reddish tones you might see on an oil slick whenever there's raking light.

Also, I find that micron pens can be erased rather easily, so long as you don't give them the few minutes they need to dry. They're intended to be used on absorbent materials, like paper - when placed over a coat of acrylic paint, which they can't soak right into, they take a while to dry. During that time, it isn't hard to wipe away errant marks with a paper towel or finger.

I just caught back up with this thread, and didn't really want to argue the fine points of 0.2mm pen tip (which is 1/5 of a millimeter, and not that thin!) versus a brush tip. So, a photo is worth a thousand words. Left: 6/0 Raphael 8404. Right: Sakura Micron 005. Photo taken side-by-side; the Raphael is about 3 months old, the Sakura practically unused.



There is no way anyone can look at those two and say that the Sakura is even remotely close to the 6/0 brush. Forget about the detail you can achieve by just lightly painting with the tip of the brush; even if you press down, or use the top 10% of the brush tip (to draw a line, say), you STILL have a line that's 1/2 the size of the pen. Remember, there are script liner brushes too (the ones with long bristles).

I am not saying the Sakura isn't easier to use. But the skills you need to draw a fine line with a 6/0 are the same skills you use to do lines with all sorts of different paints for your edge highlights, detailing, and everything else, no? Plus, controlling a pen so that the start, middle, and end are consistent and also just the line (no fat dot anywhere) is also a skill requiring practice, much as it is to draw a line with an airbrush.

Also, one could say, since pens are easy to use (if only because we've written with them our whole lives) why not just paint the whole miniature with liquitex acrylic paint pens?

 CptJake wrote:

 melkorthetonedeaf wrote:

I use this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/kuretake-brush-pen/
The ink is water-based, fairly translucent, and has AMAZING control. paint the details, let it dry really good, and then paint a light coat of matte medium over it if you get nervous.

Can you get other than black ink?

Does use on metal/plastic/resin cause the tip to go bad (I assume they designed the pen for writing on paper)?

What size do you use (seems they may come in more than one)?

I don't know which size I use, but it's fairly big, since I bought for illustrationing. The ink comes in little cartridges and I'm pretty sure there are a variety of colors. You can swap out cartridges easily from what I hear, rinse the nib out well and then recharge with the new ink color. Pretty daggone nifty.

As for metal/plastic, I don't use it all the time or even on every model, and always after a fairly well built-up basecoat (which is typically quite smooth).