introduction

“AK-Interactive is a dynamic Spanish company that was founded in 2010 in the city of Logrono. The history of this company is full of mystery and myths but in reality it only conceals a machine to generate ideas and high quality products of great world acclaim! Like all mysteries, these were created and idealized in the minds of many modelers and clients who, despite everything, have put their trust in us from the beginning and have opted for our originality and quality. That is precisely the key to the success of this company, which has sky-rocketed us to the top of international prestige in creating new ideas and products. But the truth is that the main rocket engine has been Mig Jimenez, who from the beginning provided expertise and knowledge to build the largest weathering products company in the world of miniatures. Now, AK-Interactive is the undisputed leader in this field thanks to all of you who have trusted in the teamwork that makes this a symbol of international modeling. Now AK-Interactive is you!” – Excerpt from AK Interactive’s Website

The Paints

Here is my first look at AK Interactive’s Oil Colors for Modeling Paints. These new oil paints are packaged in individual, clear pop top packages and are 20ml in size. At the present there are six colors available with hopefully more to come soon.

- AK 500 – Light Grey Fading
- AK 501 – Dark Grey Fading
- AK 502 – Shadows for Grey Ships
- AK 503 – Light Rust
- AK 504 – Dark Rust
- AK 505 – Black Smoke

The paints work similar to the ordinary everyday oil paints with the exception of the oil content to the mixture. These paints contain less linseed oil than regular oil paints, which will gives a faster drying time and a flatter dried finish once cured. Great for fading and accenting panels, the AK Interactive Oil Colors are not limited to just that; Pin washes, medium for mixing with pigments, streaking and filters, not to mention you can mix these with other colors of oil paints to give you unique shades for use on your model. Now for a little test drive!

The Test Drive

Sometimes one of the more nerve-wracking things about trying a new product is having a go and not knowing whether you will like the effects after the fact. I always advocate using a test bed for any products, this way you can play around with it and see how things work before you jump right into a model you just spent a couple months on, getting to the point where you needed the product. In this case I actually did the opposite of my own advice. I was in the middle of finishing up one of my latest projects, a Pz IV L/70 (A) and I needed some streaking. What better to try these out on than the big flat panels of the beast?

I started out with some of the Dark Grey Fading to add a bit of contrast and shadow to the rust streaks. Applying a tiny dot of paint where the streaks start, I then pulled down the paint with a flat brush with white spirit on it. The brush was barely damp with thinner; humid with thinner would be more accurate. Slowly working my way around the tank I let this dry for a bit. With normal oils I would plan on waiting days for the paint to cure before going on. In this case I decided to move forward. With a tiny dot of paint again, I now applied some Dark Rust. With the same downward motion and a clean brush, I drew the paint down until I was happy with the finished look. I have to mention here that I did not use a piece of cardboard to wick out the oil from the paint. The paint actually dried to a dead flat appearance. This is due to the smaller amount of oil that is mixed with the paint pigments. You will still have the same control as you would with normal oils but with a flatter finish as well as a faster drying time.

Next I needed to try out all of the colors. I had a paint test card I had made up previously for something else. This was perfect as it was Panzer Grey with a light whitewash on it. Starting with some of the Black Smoke to see how the shade would work, I dabbed a little in various areas and manipulated the paint. I was able to control the paint very well and this color works well on shadows as well as adding some smoky appearance to areas.

Upon using the greys in the collection - Light Grey, Dark Grey and Shadows for Grey Ships - these preformed pretty much how you would expect them too. How heavily these are applied will determine how much fading, darkening and highlighting you will get. The beauty of the oil paints is, as you may know, if you are not happy with the result a brush mildly damp with thinner will remove what you have applied.

The Dark and Light Rust colors work excellently for streaking rust. A small dot is applied where you wish to have the streaking and then using a clean brush humid with white spirit, simply pull the paint lightly in the direction you wish the streaks to go. Too much? Clean the brush on a clean cloth or paper towel and go over to lighten the effect! The light rust works really nice on surrounding surface rusting. Just place a drop of the light rust into a small mixing container and add a few drops of thinner. Apply the light mix in layers, a little at a time. You will see the effect come right out with a translucent-like light rusting effect around the chipped rusty areas.

Finally, I tried mixing the oil paints with pigments using the rust colors and three different rust pigment from AK. Not only can you shift the colors of the rust depending on how much pigments or paints you apply, you can control the graininess of the texture as well as making the oils a great medium for fixing the pigments to the surface of the model. Layer upon layer, these oils worked very well and dried completely flat unlike traditional oil paints.

Conclusion

I found these oil paints to be produced exceptionally well. There is a high content of pigment verses oils in the mixture of each tube. The paints go on smooth and are easily manipulated achieving very nice tones on a number of surfaces. Well worth the $3.95 USD each and are a more than worthwhile investment for anyone’s modeling toolbox.

All these oil paints can be obtained through the AK Interactive USA website, where these paints are reasonably priced at $3.95 USD each.