Hello

Could anybody tell me the difference between pigments and pastels and how they are used?? Thank you

Check out this post:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/1221

hmmm, interesting Matt....thank you

but could i do the same with pastels? Im trying to figure out if, when and why to apply pastels.

Essentially, pigments are powdered colour without a binder or carrier. Paints and pastels are bound pigments. Pigments can be used in any way you want: wash, filter, dust, mud and so on. The key thing to remember is that without a binder or fixer, the powder will gradually lift and fade. Gradual can be days or years depending on handling and exposure to elements. If you do a search on the site for pigments, you'll get all the info you'll ever need on how to apply and the different types of applications. There are no hard and fast rules for when to apply. If you want to dust your model without a fixer, then it would be preferable to do it as a last step so you don't rub off any while handling.

Kimmo

Basically, pigments are just that - dry artist pigments that are used usually to formulate custom oil paints and chalk pastels.

Pastels are those same pigments made into a "stick" form usually by adding some gum Arabic and occasionally white chalk (an inexpensive material) as a filler or to change the value of the pigment color to be more "pastel" (where the meaning of the adjective "pastel" comes from). These sticks are used for drawing and can be blended on the paper by "stumping" (with a "stump" or blending stick - again the original artist use of the term now used by modelers to mean "blending" and "fading" with a brush moistened with thinners) or the artist's thumb, etc.

You can use artist pastels that have been ground up or scraped into powder exactly the same as you can use dry pigments. However, pastels also have the advantage that the gum Arabic also acts like a lightweight fixer and makes the pastels stick to the surface better than plain dry pigments. This can be useful for things like black, gray, and brown pastels used for exhaust staining or other colors used for dust streaking.

Such pastels can be applied straight to the model without any other materials (like fixers). But, pastels applied like this will not withstand much handling and can be smeared or wiped off fairly easily.

In most all other respects, the two materials are pretty much the same and can be used the same way. I find pastels to be useful especially for those odd or limited use colors or the occasional pastel stick color that appears particularly appropriate for the weathering pallet that I want.

BTW: you can purchase dry artist pigments in bulk form and mix your own colors rather than buying the proprietary colors sold for "weathering." Again, the same stuff used in the same way.

HTH...

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback

One other very important feature of pastels is that they're a great deal cheaper.

But usually you get what you pay for: not a great range of colors at many "art" stores. Just be cautious about shelling out your $$$ for something that may not do the job.

The "good" thing about hobby pigments is someone else has taken the time and trouble to come up with a color match to whatever you're looking to reproduce. Why spend up to $100-$150 on a kit, AM upgrades, paint and everything to save a few bucks on weathering powders?

Your mileage may vary.

It certainly does. I was in an art supplies shop recently and there must have been a couple of hundred colours of pastel, from at least four different ranges. Alright, there were colours like lime green and fuschia in there, but even confining it to the earth tones, there were far more than I've ever seen available as modelling pigments.

And as for colour matching, while there are interesting packs for things like rust effects, MiG sells something called "European Earth". This is patently meaningless for a continent of three million square miles. It's not the only example, either. I don't believe many pigments are anything like as carefully toned as paint. And the simplest way to get the colour you want, if it can't be found, is to mix.

These are the pigments that I use:

Dick Blick::Dry Pigments::Gamblin Dry Pigments

The 4 oz bottles are a good value and if you can mix paint to a custom color, you can mix dry pigments to any color you want.

This is the brand of soft pastels that I use most often, although I source these from a local art supply store:

Dick Blick::Pastels Open Stock::Rembrandt Soft Pastels

However, I also have a couple of sets of cheap "student" 1/2 stick pastels for those really odd colors that you need just occasionally (blues, reds, yellows, etc). These can be scraped and added to the dry pigments when blending colors or used as is for different effects on bases and ground work. For example, scummy green pigments in the bottom of drainage ditches made from soft pastels are a nice and subtle effect.

Course, it all depends on if you're willing to mix and blend your own colors - a skill that's useful enough to develop for many reasons. There's not much difference in mixing artist oil paints for figure painting and mixing dry pigments for weathering. In fact, if you take a custom mixed pigment color and add acrylic artist matt medium to it, you've just made a perfect acrylic paint match to the dry pigments for use on your base or model.

Happy modeling!

Your exactly right, Bill......good point