Introduction

Vallejo have established themselves as a supplier of quality acrylic paints and have recently released their first series of pigments.

Matan recently did a review of
Set No 2- Mud and Sand,

Matt reviewed
Set No 3- Stone and Cement

and I offered the chance to try out their Set No 1- Rust and Oil.

The Set

This comes packed in a clear plastic wallet and contains 4-30ml bottles of pigments consisting of the following:
73106 – Burnt Sienna
73103 – Dark Yellow Ocre
73110 - Burnt Umber
73107 – Dark Red Ocre

The bottles have child proof caps, and the pigments are in fine powder form.
The first series of pictures will give you an idea of the contents and how the pigments look in terms of colour and texture.

My good friend Jon Hayward of Scale Model Medic has a number of ‘How-To' videos on youtube and I’ve put in a link here for information;
Scale Model Medic

I’m going to follow some of Jon’s techniques and try out the pigments on the set of bulk UK jerry cans from Resicast.
The first thing was to clean up the parts and give them a coat of Humbrol Matt 70, letting the paint dry thoroughly. I tested the pigments by adding a little ordinary tap water. What’s obvious is the strength of the pigment, you only need a tiny amount to get quite a strong colour. Then I randomly applied them to a set of cans and the Churchill engine I’m building.

It is probably worth saying that unless you are building a wreck little, if any, rust appears on a functional vehicle, so less is more where in service vehicles are concerned. The photos show the effects of a very diluted application of the pigments, and this also gave me some idea of how they will blend together. If you look at the lower rim of the front plate on the Churchill engine you will see how the four pigments have blended across the plate with a heavier application of rust along the bottom rim.

Next I thought I’d try and rust a complete unit, I choose the exhaust box on the Churchill I was building at the time. Having added a base colour I built up the pigments using some white glue. As this was my first venture into rusting a part completely I’m pretty happy with the result. Trial and error on my part, but I thought the pigments were easy to work with.

I didn’t try an 'Oil' experiment, Burnt Umber being the base for that I would assume. It would have been helpful if Vallejo had included some mixing combinations in a small guide to aid modellers.

Conclusion

These pigments work as well as any I have used, and like all pigments you only need a little as they are very strong colours. Even though the pigments will dry out in your paint tray, just adding a little water brings them to life again and I’ve been using the four colours for about 4/5 weeks from my original very small test mix.

The pigments are finely ground, appear to behave like other pigments I have tried and the mix of colours is good. You could buy a set or buy individual colours to suit your needs, and this range offers a cost effective alternative if you choose to take it. Experimentation is they key, mixing different pigments of differing quantities together until you achieve what you want.
I have not rated this product as I am not expert enough to do that, but I can recommend them, they work as well as anything else I have tried so far.