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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi guys, welcome back to Fauxhammer Videos. So today I'm having a look at the Pro Acral range
0:05
and paint reviews, well let's be honest, really really boring. After all watching a video where
0:10
somebody sticks an absolute ton of paint down on some flat surface going, oh yeah they're really
0:15
smooth. Yeah that's that's as fun to watch as watching paint dry. In fact it is watching paint
0:20
dry. So just to make things a little bit more interesting, instead of painting some flat surface
0:25
randomly, I've decided to paint an actual model. So at least then you put something interesting to
0:29
look at while I tell you about the paints, how they work, the bottles and all that fun
0:33
And this gives us a practical way of showing techniques like airbrushing, drybrushing
0:37
base coats and layering. So without further ado, let's pop some of these into an airbrush
0:46
Now I'm already partial to these paints because I've reviewed them back in 2019, 2020, something
0:52
like that. So I know how they operate. In fact, I use them all the time. Airbrushing, super simple
0:58
just put a few drops of thinner into your cup and then once you've done that you can pretty much add
1:01
any amount of paint that you want now the great thing about ProAquil through an airbrush is it
1:06
thins down really really well so you only actually need a couple of drops to quite a bit of thinner
1:11
and you'll still have a pretty opaque paint and now's probably a good time to talk about the
1:15
bottles see I'm already mixing in some boring review stuff with some exciting painting techniques
1:20
so first off all standard ProAquil paints come in 22 milliliter bottles which is well above the
1:25
average when it comes to miniature paints. The bottles also come sealed so you don't need to
1:29
worry about the fact that they may have dried out whilst being sat on a shelf in a warehouse for
1:32
months. Just remember to keep the foam o-ring because this is what keeps a liquid type seal
1:37
around the thread on the cap. The most unique part of the Proacral paint bottles is the lid itself
1:42
and whilst this looks cool and functional on the surface, honestly it's a bit of a double-edged
1:46
sword. For those who don't know, you don't actually remove the lid on these to get paint out, you just
1:51
twist it and the end of the cap actually opens up and then you just pour your paint from there
1:55
however it's very easy to put that paint down and forget that you haven't closed
1:58
the cap and when you do close the cap it will splurge a bit of paint out onto the
2:02
end of the nozzle on one hand that's useful because if you keep your paint in a box when you look down at the top of them then you can see what color each
2:09
bottle is or on the other hand it also builds up a load of crud on the end of
2:12
the bottle which can end up going into your paint mixers and especially your airbrush make sure you remember to pick off that crud before putting it into your
2:19
airbrush monument hobbies do offer alternate caps and as cool as these are
2:23
I honestly just wish that they do that as standard because these are more of a hindrance than a help
2:29
So back to airbrushing and like I said earlier the coverage with these paints is absolutely
2:33
incredible. One of the things you'll notice is just how matte these paints are and it doesn't
2:38
matter how you apply them whether it is an airbrush dry brush glaze or wash they are really
2:43
really matte in their finish which again in its own right is another double-edged sword. You see
2:49
the thing with matte paints that people don't tend to realize is just how good the adhesion is
2:53
on your next layer. You see a matte layer will create a microscopic grain of texture along the
2:58
surface which is brilliant for your next layer to bite onto. However when you're using things like
3:03
washes you don't want that to bite onto the surface you want it only to run into the recesses
3:08
So things like this grain will actually cause staining along the surface as opposed to it
3:13
ignoring that surface and being a bit more hydrophobic and running into the recesses. So
3:17
that's just something you need to be aware of with the properties of this paint. So anyway I'm just
3:22
priming this red because obviously I'm going to be painting it as an ultramarine and the reason
3:27
I'm painting it red first when it's going to be blue well I've started doing this little trick
3:31
lately that you can try applying to your miniatures it's a little bit of color theory
3:35
cheating that I thought I'd have a go at so first off I've got blue as my base color and then I'm
3:39
going to be thinking of my highlights well my highlights it's going to be in sunlight so those
3:43
highlights are generally going to be yellow so if I look at a color wheel yellow is four colors away
3:49
from blue. So if my highlights are going to be four colors away from blue and they're going to be
3:52
yellow, four colors in the other direction is going to be red and therefore I'm putting red in the
3:59
shadows. So like I say, it's a trick I've started playing with. It adds a lot more color contrast to
4:03
the model. We're also going to change this with the tonal contrast because this is going to be a dark
4:07
red working up through a medium blue and then to a light yellow, but try it, apply it for yourself
4:13
I've done it on a few models now and it seems to make the models pop. So I was talking about
4:17
coverage and with this test model i've decided to put the best coverage test straight in we're
4:22
going from black to neat white and we're going to see how long it takes us so with proacryl you can
4:27
do this so easily with just two thin coats yes haha two thin coats but in all honesty most colors
4:34
need three four thin coats if you want a smooth layer but with proacryl it genuinely is two thin
4:39
coats and these are really thin coats too you can put a ton of water into this paint and it'll still
4:44
dry really opaque. When testing this against another brand where, well, the white isn't even
4:49
a true white, we actually need four or five thin coats in order to get something similar. And even
4:54
then, you've got to wait every time for the paint to fully cure so that you don't get lumps and
4:58
bumps in the surface. And if you still don't believe me that the coverage of these is excellent
5:02
let's take their brightest yellow and apply that straight over black. And this only took three thin
5:08
coats and once again, the finish is super smooth. Honestly, this stuff is like hobby cheating
5:14
so back to airbrushing and the thing that we want to make sure that the airbrush does here
5:20
is not create speckling now with some paints especially matte paints you do get quite a bit
5:25
of speckling across the surface of the model and with an airbrush what you want to achieve really
5:30
is smooth transitions not speckly transitions and i'm pleased to say thanks to the ultra fine
5:36
pigment that you get in these paints with a good chunk of thinner in here you can get a really
5:41
smooth transition without any stress at all once again hobby cheating so airbrush done yeah
5:47
definitely perfect paint to go through an airbrush so dry brushing now when it comes to dry brushing
5:54
i think we can all agree by now that the best of dry brushing technique is the one employed by
5:58
artist opus because they can achieve almost airbrush like blends with the paints they use
6:03
on the surface of the model and it also gives you the benefit of edge highlighting and thankfully
6:08
I've actually had a chance to sit down with Byron and physically go through these techniques
6:12
so that I can learn how to achieve those blends myself. But when pushing these techniques with the peracral colours, unfortunately this is where
6:20
the mattness of the medium kinda doesn lend itself as well to a smooth blend You see like the matte we talked about earlier because of that ultra fine grain that you have on the surface what you end up with
6:32
is it just builds up more and more texture. So because these paints are matte and because they're
6:37
going down on a matte surface you've got grain going on grain going on grain so what you end up
6:42
with is a very mottled surface as opposed to an actual smooth transition blend style thing that
6:49
you would get from an airbrush try to think of this as less of a limitation and more of a feature
6:55
of the matte elements of the paint see it's not something that bothers me particularly because i
7:00
favor the airbrush i've created or at least developed a method of painting that lets me
7:05
go through techniques like airbrushing dry brushing base coats oil wash and done that is my painting
7:10
approach and i do that so that i can knock reviews out and actually get hands on with the paints as
7:15
fast as possible but because of the matte properties of this paint what I tend to do is just limit
7:20
myself to only doing the edge highlighting with a dry brush as opposed to actually trying to create
7:25
blends on the surface. I have done it before so where this would work good is on things like the
7:30
cloak where you actually want a grainy texture to make it look like a material this is really good
7:36
for that but on power armor specifically you don't want to do that because you don't want it to have
7:40
a mottled look it should look smooth and clean except for any weathered areas unless of course
7:45
that is a texture you're trying to achieve on power armor you know it's your hobby you do you
7:49
but this is just the way i tend to think about it just back to the painting now i'm using some
7:55
yellow and letting this mix in with the blue so like where i started with the red and went through
7:59
red to blue i'm now going from blue through to yellow and letting that mix in so you've got a
8:04
transition from blue through green to yellow and then to finish it off i'm also going to use some
8:09
white to mix that in not of true white i'll let it mix in with the yellow a bit to really pop those
8:15
highlights on the further most extremities of this miniature if you want to see a full painting guide
8:21
on this please check out our patreon channel as we'll have it up on there first
8:25
so first off onto the base coating and i'm starting with this uchabti bone color and the
8:33
reason why i'm using this is twofold one it's one of the colors from the expansion set four which is
8:38
actually the product that inspired me making this video but also it's an excellent substitute for
8:43
Ushabti Bone which is a brilliant color for painting the base layers of purity seals
8:48
As you'll see with this like any of the other colors I use like the gray for the cloak and the
8:52
red for the cloak these are one coat paints and they will when you water them down you can water
8:58
them down a little you can water them down a lot unlike things like Citadel or Vallejo you'll find
9:03
that it's very consistent between all the colors when you water them down you will get very
9:08
consistent results across the entire range as opposed to those other brands where you'll find
9:13
that actually this needs a little bit of water this needs a lot of water this needs one coat
9:17
this needs 10 coats with this it's so simple the paints will either need one coat or at max three
9:23
coats and to tell the difference the general rules of paint apply here if it's anything like a yellow
9:29
or orange or anything in the warm spectrum around those kind of go out from yellow and orange you'll
9:34
find that it needs more coats if it's anything on the cool spectrum so blue and outwards from those
9:40
it'll probably only need one coat sometimes you've got your gray ones but a lot of the time your gray
9:45
ones generally tend to be a lot more chalky and those here even still need one coat in fact if you
9:52
watch this review and don't want to buy any of these paints i implore you please go and at least
9:57
buy their titanium white and once you've used that you'll figure out just how much you want to spend
10:03
on the rest of the range this is a product range where it's the only product range where when they
10:08
announce new colors i get excited for a few new colors and they do like eight to ten at a time
10:14
so please just yeah check these out one coat paints hobby cheating i know i've said it twice
10:19
already but i cannot say it enough in this video if you struggle with your base layers getting a
10:24
smooth coat, smooth transition, these are the paints you want to start with because it makes
10:28
everything so easy for you. Just a little bit of water or a lot of water, it really doesn't matter
10:34
You'll find very, very shortly that these paints cover so fluid, so smooth, and they dry so flat
10:41
that you will wish you'd been using them since the beginning of your painting career
10:48
Now, when it comes to layering, I have to make an admission here, and that admission is I'm not
10:52
very good at layering and lighting it's just not something i've ever trained my brain to do because
10:57
i tend to review more paints than actually use them it's rare that i can teach myself actual
11:03
painting techniques i know how to layer what i can't do is get the lighting correct so as you
11:09
watch this part of the video you'll see that yeah okay it's layering fine and i've thinned this down
11:14
really really well and as you'll see the color itself has stayed very very consistent across the
11:20
surface so i haven't got weird globules of peaks and troughs what i also don't have is like areas
11:27
where it goes all mottled and dry so what you'll find when you thinner paint is it tends to break
11:32
apart and you end up with a lot of areas that just kind of look smoky and faded out and bitty
11:37
as opposed to having a consistent color but you'll see as this dries i do get one consistent color
11:43
per layer where i'm not good as i said is doing the actual layering part of it so getting my
11:49
lighting in the right place but as you can see here regardless of my limited ability the color
11:55
is still drying really really quickly and i can go in with that second layer transition
11:59
and it's drying consistently across the surface of the model so if you're wanting to blend or do
12:06
anything like that with these paints you can actually do it really well and this is true for
12:10
whatever blending technique you you prefer here now i know a lot of people like to wet blend i
12:16
know a lot of people like to glaze in layer transitions personally i've tried both here
12:21
both work fine if you are good at it so i can easily transition from one layer to the next
12:27
without any hassle just by wet blending or by layering i can get a smooth transition in both
12:33
because the color stays so opaque and that matte texture also gives me that little bit of extra bite
12:39
which also once again unlike other brands makes it a lot easier to achieve
12:43
so i actually use the making of this video as a bit of a learning opportunity for myself first off yeah i did that whole color theory thing back at the beginning which this was the
12:57
first time i'd applied it and i'm quite happy with how the results have turned out but also i wanted
13:02
to improve my ability to highlight and shade models so that i could get smooth transitions
13:08
and try and understand lighting a bit better so in order to do that i got my phone put the model
13:13
under one light and took a photo of it so that I could then use that as a reference picture to see
13:19
where the natural highlights and shadows would go. I was taught this technique a long while ago so
13:23
what I decided to do was take the picture and then drop down the saturation so it was black and white
13:28
and really push the contrast so that the shadows and the highlights were very very clear what the
13:34
difference was and then I could apply that to the model itself. Starting with the red base tone I
13:38
then used purple in the shadows so that i could actually have more contrast in them rather than
13:44
just have tonal contrast dark red to light red i also had a bit more color contrast similar to what
13:49
i've done on the armor but it turns out look i'm just not good at this technique and i will keep
13:54
practicing until i nail it but i just don't seem to have the eye to pick out highlights on 3d models
14:02
and actually show them like they're meant to be seen so maybe that's just me maybe it's a skill
14:07
I'll never have but I'm going to keep practicing it anyway but by the end I just wasn't happy with
14:15
my approach and I still wanted a half decent looking model at the end of it so I decided to
14:20
paint it all over again and then just dry brush it because that's what I'm used to and I know how
14:25
to get decent looking results with that but this has actually really shown us even after three
14:31
different attempts of layering this cape we've still managed to get a smooth transition and I
14:36
wasn't even trying to do that that's how good this paint is at being smooth drying smooth again it's
14:43
just like hobby cheating so if nothing else in this video shows you just how good this paint is
14:48
at getting an easy smooth surface this failed technique should show that better than anything
14:55
else so again if i haven't highlighted it enough they say don't don't tell people show people so
15:00
i've just shown you that even though i've failed three times i still managed to get a decent
15:04
transition and a smooth surface on this cape at the end of it so there you go this paint absolutely
15:10
knocks it out of the park when it comes to painting base layers when it comes to painting fine details like eyes and things like that i do find one of the things
15:21
that helps is a decent kalinsky sable brush and one of the you know i've pushed it plenty of times
15:26
yes i use the artist opus brushes we have our own artist brush set but i'm not here to sell those
15:32
What I do find about Kalinsky Sable Brushes is it really helps with paint flow
15:36
So the paint will leave your brush much better than it will anything else, giving you a lot more control on your model
15:42
Where this paint really helps is because you can wash it down so thin and still have it opaque, you'll find that with a lot of other brands, you tend to need to still do three or four coats
15:52
Now, that can be quite nerve-wracking in really fine detail areas. But with things like this, I can do the eyes super easily because I can thin the paint down to almost watery
16:01
And then I only need to touch it to the surface and it'll flow into those recesses for me
16:06
Essentially, the model paints itself. It's almost like blocking it in. If you've ever used MS Paint, Microsoft Paint, and used the paint bucket tool and then you kind of draw a shape and fill that shape
16:18
it's almost like that when it comes to using this paint with a decent brush
16:22
So this is one of the reasons why I always go to it. painting in and blocking in areas is so super simple. So on to metallics and well there's a
16:34
few interesting things to say. First I just want to get this out of the way. They do a metallic medium which you can mix in with any color. Essentially this is almost like white silver
16:42
so you can use it on its own to really push the highlights on a true metallic metal silver if you
16:47
want to. But here I've mixed it in with some red and what I found with this is it really really
16:52
desaturates the red so instead of ending up with a metallic red i end up with a metallic pink
16:57
and in all honesty the coverage of it is a bit rubbish it's going to need three or four coats of
17:02
this if i wanted a metallic pink which i really don't so if you've got a specific use for making
17:09
your own watered down color metallics then yeah give this a try it's got the same properties of
17:15
all the rest of the product or paints when it comes to adhesion and things like you know how
17:20
smooth the final layer is but i honestly can't think of an application for it so yeah i don't
17:26
even know where i got it from as for the rest of the metallics well again they do have some of the
17:31
properties of the pro-acryl paints in again coverage and adhesion but they also bear some
17:37
of the properties of typical metallic paints so unlike the rest of the series they are a bit more
17:42
gloopy and could do with a bit more watering down in order to get a smooth layer but in saying that
17:48
I have seen a massive improvement from them. I have been buying Paraquil paint since their first generation
17:54
And those first generation paints, the metallics especially, had a very, very matte finish
17:58
So when you've got a metallic, you almost want it to be shiny
18:02
And therefore, the finish should have a bit of a shiny quality. These are on the matte side and are still on the matte side
18:09
But the first ones I had dried really, really matte. So it really dulled down the reflective properties of that paint
18:16
these ones are much more balanced they're not quite as shiny or as reflective as something like
18:21
scale or citadel but regardless of that they are still a perfect blend of smooth metallic along with
18:30
having some of those gloopy properties they are easier to use but you will need a couple of coats
18:36
in most cases to get them on the models you can go a bit thicker which i've done here but it's
18:42
completely up to you how you want to apply them i want one coat coverage these kind of do that but
18:47
they won't sway me away from scale 75 or dark star metallics anytime soon they're they're good
18:55
they're definitely on the better side of metallic paints but they're not my favorite i'd still as i
19:02
said highly recommend scale 75 dark star metallics or vallejo metal color range which are the really
19:09
fluid ones but they quite limited in colors and then finally the washes so pro aqual don really do washes but what they do is a series of transparent paints in your typical colors they got black brown and then a few different hues Now I started trying to apply things like purple into the recesses
19:26
I have given this a gloss wash because that becomes a lot more hydrophobic
19:29
and therefore, whatever I apply to it should run more into the recesses naturally
19:35
And again, I was just playing with color here to see if this would enhance the blue
19:39
but because I'd already put red on the surface, it just didn't work
19:43
it didn't work at all they are good paints uh they're good transparent paints uh but i wouldn't
19:48
recommend them for washes they they are probably a bit too hydrophobic if you're glazing a color
19:54
that's good because you're already most of the way to where you want to be in having the fluidity
20:00
of these paints so what i mean by that is if you've got something where you want to shade it down to
20:06
brown then this is a good way to do that you don't need to thin down a paint it is a better way to
20:12
create the transition because you've got the liquid pigments in there you can thin this down
20:16
and then glaze it much more easily than you can a standard color because you've already got those
20:22
transparent properties of it which is what you want when glazing and bringing it up
20:27
personally i don't tend to use acrylic washers so it didn't really suit my painting style
20:33
again i've gone in here it will flow into the recesses nicely it will create a strong transition
20:39
but where I found a wash would naturally fade out into its most opaque
20:47
and then fade out into the natural color of the model where I've left it
20:51
These were very, how do I say it, direct. So where I would put a purple, it would stay purple and there would be no fade
21:00
So by the time it dried, I just had a quite obvious purple line in that area
21:05
which I could have painted on. There was no real fade to it. So if you're glazing with it, yeah, fine
21:11
But as for actually using this as a recess shade, not really where I would go with it
21:16
Maybe I'm using it wrong. If you've got any better tips or advice, then yeah, go for it
21:20
Another place I would use this is if you're priming a model, let's say black and then doing a pre-shade in white
21:27
then you could also use this transparent, kind of like a contrast paint
21:31
and just spray the entire model and build up color that way so that you've essentially you've created
21:37
your tonal value in the black and white initial airbrush stage and then you've given it a purple
21:45
or a blue or whatever transparent color you've got that's another way to use this paint but
21:49
as for using it as a wash i wouldn't really go this way to be honest but to finish off the model
21:55
nothing to do with pro acryl but i just defaulted back to my tried and tested favorites oil washers
22:01
and then once that was done i added a little bit more contrast to the power sword glazing in or
22:05
layering in if you prefer some of the metallic colors on the silver and then putting a bit of
22:10
glow with again with the pro acryl paint around the the little power power conduits on the power
22:16
sword itself again a full painting guide is up on my patreon channel if you want to see how to
22:22
paint this model yourself but I just want to do a quick summary in regards to the practical paints
22:26
if I haven't made it clear they are absolutely absolutely incredible colors if you want one coat
22:32
coverage that's made simple made easy like these are the paints that Citadel's base colors wish
22:39
they were and with any color you've got in here it makes it so simple to get it on there again if
22:45
you haven't got an airbrush you can just go in and paint your base colors straight off if you don't
22:50
do dry brushing then well they're not the best for dry brush anyway as we pointed out but it will
22:55
pick up the edges much easier because of that grit and grain in the matte texture but personally
23:01
i will always unless i'm reviewing another another brand of paint or i'm using specific colors for a
23:08
particular reason like a lot of my horus heresy guys i use the citadel colors but that's mainly
23:13
for the color purists out there who want to use the citadel colors and get like a blood angel in
23:19
in the exact red mephiston red or such that everybody else is using but if i am painting
23:25
a base layer of any kind and be that the first initial layer or be it a base color on a particular
23:32
area of a model i will always always go to pro aqual paints because they are one coat coverage
23:38
and they make everything so easy for me i don't need to worry about brush lines i don't need to
23:44
worry about marks or anything like that yes they do have a matte finish which as i've said is not
23:49
really a limitation it's just something that you need to be aware of on the actual in the properties
23:55
of the paint itself otherwise you will you know you'll end up struggling against it don't fight
24:01
against it work with what it does it's grainy but that's really good because it helps picking up
24:06
the next layer of paint so when you're doing transitions and things yep it can take a bit
24:11
longer as you're learning how to to work with a matte paint and get them to blend smooth but once
24:20
you've learned it it's just the same as learning it with any other paint the benefits of this
24:24
completely completely outweigh any of the negatives that it's got so if you're thinking of getting any
24:31
paints or trying out any new series of paints try out pro acryl i have told so many people about
24:36
these and the messages i've got back they've been like yep you're right thank you really
24:41
appreciate it that saved me so much time and effort so if you're painting an army yep get in
24:46
there get yourself some pro aqual paints if i haven't convinced you to get something like base
24:50
set one fine just start off with titanium white and then once you've used that once you will
24:56
realize that you should have bought base set one and then like me be excited every time they announce
25:02
a new round of paints whether that's one new paint or 10 new paints i am genuinely excited
25:07
every time a new paint comes out anyway just want to do a quick shout out and thanks to our patrons
25:12
so cheers for that please don't forget to like comment subscribe and again leave a comment in
25:18
the video what's your favorite range of paints what what gave you that wow aha moment i should
25:23
have been using these since day dot so let me know down in the comments and that's it that's
25:29
all from me thanks for your time please keep watching faux hammer out
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