Fluorescent Paints - Brands and OSL.

[Lord Marshal]

So I'm looking at trying out some OSL that really pops and to that end I've been eyeing up some fluorescent paints, but most of the brands (except Army Painter and Citadel outside of the new Gauss paint) seem to do them now. I was wondering if anybody had any experience with these and the main differences between them? I understand Warcolour's are particularly vivid, but being in the UK they're somewhat pricier (though not enough to be totally offputting). Otherwise I've been looking at Vallejo or AK.

 

Any examples or opinions would be appreciated.

Edited August 14, 2020 by Lord Marshal

[Fajita Fan]

I have a few bottles of Golden High Flow orange, blue, green, and pink for high visibility uniforms on GSC. I hope they’ll work for the Indomitus Necrons I’ve got.

[Marshal Vespasian]

I got the scale set to try out some osl and mayne get some more intense highlights going.

Had a look at these 2 videos:

 

https://youtu.be/y6hij7Oqfok

 

Havent used them yet tho

Edited August 15, 2020 by Marshal Vespasian

[Arkhanist]

So I'm looking at trying out some OSL that really pops and to that end I've been eyeing up some fluorescent paints, but most of the brands (except Army Painter and Citadel outside of the new Gauss paint) seem to do them now. I was wondering if anybody had any experience with these and the main differences between them? I understand Warcolour's are particularly vivid, but being in the UK they're somewhat pricier (though not enough to be totally offputting). Otherwise I've been looking at Vallejo or AK.

 

Any examples or opinions would be appreciated.

I have a couple of the vallejo ones, and I've found them very lumpy yet very translucent so very difficult to work with (you end up with little random flecks), no matter how much I mix them. Might be a bad batch or just how they're like, but eh. So I picked up the scale 75 fx set (I paid about £20 I think) and they're a semi-translucent gel, but they are even throughout. So they're not great as a base paint obviously, but for on-model blending they're awesome. I haven't done anything other that a little testing so far, but I'm looking forward to using them on my Escher for a bright blended punk-style when I get to them.

 

I hadn't thought of using them for OSL, but yeah, they'd be very good for that I think. I might have to give it a go on the indomitus necrons! I already had a fair few scale 75 paints as they're easily available in the UK, and some warcolours (thought not the fluor ones). The warcolours are fine, but they are all very gel-like and quite translucent, so I find the scale 75 consistency generally suits my painting style better (they're easier to use like a conventional paint), which is personal taste really.

 

I think both warcolors and scale 75 are good sets, and you probably can't go far wrong with either. From my personal experience with vallejo, avoid them.

 

edit - Marshal Vespasian's 2nd link was one that helped me choose, and I recommend watching it to see how to use the gel paint of either scale 75 or warcolours.

 

Also both my vallejo game colour fluor paints look like this. Good to know they're not supposed to come like that!

Edited August 15, 2020 by Arkhanist

[Firedrake Cordova]

I have a couple of the vallejo ones, and I've found them very lumpy yet very translucent so very difficult to work with (you end up with little random flecks), no matter how much I mix them. Might be a bad batch or just how they're like, but eh. 

That doesn't sound right   Mine have the same consistency as the rest of the Model Colour line, although they are fairly translucent whilst still covering, if that makes sense (they behave like Trovarion's).  At a guess, I'd say the paint had "gone off", or had been allowed to freeze whilst in the warehouse/post. 

 

Also both my vallejo game colour fluor paints look like this. Good to know they're not supposed to come like that!

That looks pretty gross.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[The Mad Hermit]

I've found in the experiments I've done with the Vallejo fluor paints that I get the best results painting them over white/light colors and built up with several layers.

[Bung]

Personly i started to use some airbrush colors for this.

my brand is Createx Classic Flou paint

https://www.airbrush4you.de/farben-lacke/airbrush/farbserien/createx-classic/326/createx-classic-fluoreszierende-serie?number=CR_5403&c=211

 

(Sorry for link into german shop, thats where i buy my airbrush stuff)

 

They are water based acrylics but really thin. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

(Sorry for link into german shop, thats where i buy my airbrush stuff)

Obligatory manufacturer's link showing the full range of 21 colours in (60ml bottles) :)

 

https://createxcolors.com/airbrush-colors/fluorescent-opaque-colors/5201.html

[Magos Takatus]

I went for the Green Stuff World versions and they are a pain to work with. I found they had separated really badly and the pigment had clumped together. Trying to paint them onto a raised surface felt a bit like trying to keep a shade paint on the raised detail on a model. The gimmick that they glow under UV light is nice, but hardly useful 99% of the time. In truth I wish I'd tried out another brand since they are a bit disappointing. I didn't want to keep buying fluorescent paints without finding out which ones would suit my needs most so I've decided to hold fire until I do a bit more research (or until this thread reaches a consensus. :p ). 

[Razblood]

I went for the Green Stuff World versions and they are a pain to work with. I found they had separated really badly and the pigment had clumped together. Trying to paint them onto a raised surface felt a bit like trying to keep a shade paint on the raised detail on a model. The gimmick that they glow under UV light is nice, but hardly useful 99% of the time. In truth I wish I'd tried out another brand since they are a bit disappointing. I didn't want to keep buying fluorescent paints without finding out which ones would suit my needs most so I've decided to hold fire until I do a bit more research (or until this thread reaches a consensus. :p ).

Gsw are doing the fluo pigment powders, just got a couple in asset drop. Initial experimentation with mixing them with white paint and thinner has yielded some nice results, the bonus being you can make the mix as pigment rich as you like to control the intensity.

 

I'll be doing some more experimenting with them and if there's interest I'll put a thread up showing the results.

[Fajita Fan]

I've been really interested in pigment powders lately for acrylic pouring art I do at work.  Getting different brands of different color paints the same consistency to layer in a cup is really challenging so I've thought it might be better to mix one giant tub of paint and use pigment powders to make cups of individual colors.