Hello everyone...something I have wondered for quite a while..are the pigments that you buy in the jars from various model companies pretty much the same as ground up pastel chalk...just mixed together to get the various "colors"?

Thank you,
Eric

Pigments don't contain the binders that pastel chalk does. I don't really remember why (it's been decades) but if you do go the chalk route oilless is preferred. I used to use them quite a bit for model railroading. Just grind them up in a mortar and pestle.

There was a local art store I bought just pigments from, also over two decades ago, and let me tell you they are far cheaper than what model oriented pigments go for. Additionally, you can buy it by the pound at places like Home Depot in the concrete section. Colors are a bit more limited but you could supply your whole club for the next fifty years for a few bucks. I've got a metric assload of black, white, and rest rust color that'll never run out.

Pastel chalks and colored charcoals are typically low-intensity color dry / oil-free materials that behave like non-sticky dust.

There are oily art pastels and pigment sticks and then there are the various pigment powders sold as scale hobby materials. These latter materials tend to be more intensely tinted, and some are very fine-grained and tend to adhere to paint jobs better then do most ground-up pastel chalks.

I pretty much always use ground-up art chalks - never "hobby pigments" - for all dusting on builds. (I don't use the pigments simply because I have lots of cheap chalks and they work fine for me, so I am not looking for another product - the pigments appear to serve folks quite well.) The chalk dust looks real, it's easy to manipulate and work with, it's cheap, and it's easily removed from the build if you want to do something different. Chalks do, however, freely fall off the build, and your build can lose some of its chalk weathering and dirt with handling (or even from air currents and losses due to whatever brushing you might do to fend off the non-desired dust in your display). But it's also very easy to "freshen up" the chalk dirt by simply brushing on more.

The more-intense hobbyist pigments may be more "durable" on a build. They generally cost more, and seem to be available mostly via scale hobby stores and web-sites, whereas chalks can be easily purchased at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Ben Franklin, and about every art-supply and general hobby store.

Both chalks and pigments may be combined with other stuff to make mud and such. And both apply well over the range of finishes seen on builds.

There are other pigments available - concrete and tile-grout pigments, etc. These "construction-grade" materials behave a lot like colored chalks, and may or may not be fine enough in grain-size for your needs.

My suggestion is to try out different types of stuff and discover what does your jobs best!

That's my take on it, for what little it may be worth!

Cheers! Bob

Thanks..good answers.

chalk pastels can be had at any local art store.

Pastel chalk tends to disappear somewhat when over coated with varnish and
sometimes need to be reapplied to come back and look like the original
application.
Not so much the case with pigments.
Pigments if over applied are harder to remove as they really stick to the paint.
I prefer to work with pastel chalks.
Cheers,

Thank you for your replies.

Seems I need some better pigments. I have a couple of bottles of AK pigments that seem to have some funk in them. Although they are dark brown (a couple of different shades) when I start to work them in I see they have some fairly bright orange that appears in places. Are there relatively better brands of hobby pigments?

Hobby pigments are mixtures of colors, and sometimes the mix is incomplete. If you use Mineral Spirits (white spirits in Europe), you can mix the colors more consistently and they will dry with a consistent color.

That's why I suggested purchasing pigments at an art store early in the thread. And I don't necessarily mean a Michael's type "art" store. Not do disparage Michael's as they may well have it. I got my own from a place in Ft. Worth, TX named Asel Art. I don 't even know if they're still in business as it was over twenty years ago. But they had actual pigments, not just chalk. I guess real artists (unlike myself who just glues plastic together) actually can make their own paints from this, and it is very pure.

Yeah, I have often wondered about mixing thinner with real pigment for weathering - whether one shouldn't just buy the same color of oil or enamel paint and save yourself a step.

I was looking at pigments at an art store (Blick's online actually) and thinking about that. I would get a lot more for my money, but it would cost more overall because of needing more pigments to do some mixing. I might go that route, but if I could get a couple of good quality hobby pigments that might be easier.

On the other hand mixing might be fun. I have quite a bit of fun mixing up oils when I use them.

It all depends on what you are looking for from your modeling. Some guys like DIY Zimmerit, some guys are just cheap. For me, life is too short and I have too many cool model kits to waste (for me) my time on DIY projects like this.

The hobby pigments are made in the "correct" colors and function well with mineral spirits, so I'm a contented customer. Your mileage may vary.