Friday, May 25, 2018

Absolutely Fabulous!


Between my desire to create my own version of the Mig Ammo Oilbrushers and find a better way to store paint than the dreaded dropper bottles, I ended up with this...

During a recent Models Workshop podcast, we did some on air Amazon searches, and determined that nail polish containers might suit the requirements.  That is, a solid container with a brush inside the twist top lid.

Lo and behold, we found this gem for $15!!


Inside were 20 jars, perfectly shaped to not tip over, sitting inside a soft foam strip that kept them firmly in place... so cool!


Better yet, there were stainless steel agitators and even small funnels!  The brush was perfect, since it reached down to the bottom of the container.  It is also very soft, which means it will be easy to brush out the paint onto a palette.  A harder brush might have caused the paint to fly around a bit.


Here is what I am trying to emulate.  I love my Mig Ammo Oilbrushers, since the paint consistency is just like acrylic paint, nice and thin.  Regular oil paint comes out of the tube like peanut butter, and has to be thinned.

It's not a big deal, but I do so much at once, that does start to take extra time.  It would be great to have my own favorite colors in a similar container as well.


Here you have it... some of the new, more intense oil colors along with the original set, and the  high quality White Spirits.  The idea is to mix in the white spirits and get that same miniature paint consistency.


Here you can see what the consistency of the oil paint is out of the tube.  While it is possible to paint the initial layers of a miniature with paint this thick, you would have to work them around the surface, etc., to spread them out.


As you work in those white spirits, you can see how the texture changes, becoming smoother and easier to spread around.


I wasn't really sure just how useful the funnels would be for this part of the experiment, but they did actually work!  Very cool!

They will be even more efficient when I take my favorite dropper bottle paints and transfer them into these.  No more T shaped pins for unclogging the bottles from then on!  Yay!


I put the stainless steel agitator into the bottle, shook it up, and poof!  Instant deep purple OilBrusher bottle.  Speaking of which, a new set of 20 bright colors has arrived, and here is a live session where they were tested out!