True-Earth SDW Shading Colours - Acrylic Resin Paints

[Mike]

SDW Shading Colours
True-Earth

I've seldom seen a paint that's made me raise my eyebrows before, but these sets from True-Earth of Italy are such a paint. In fact, they describe the liquid in the bottles as water-based resins, and they have an incredibly fine pigment grind that lends itself to easy spraying with little chance of blockages. They can be used out of the bottle with airbrush or brush, or you can dilute them with water to use them as filters.

Airbrush Use
They can be sprayed without thinning, and as already mentioned can be diluted for a translucent effect, or mixed together to achieve new colours or effects. You can also add a gloss medium to the paint for… well, a glossy finish, would you believe? I've now had a chance to use them through the airbrush extensively, and have been very impressed. I've sprayed them through my 0.2mm H&S Infinity CRPlus at around 15psi, and they spray reliably, with no blockages. You need to be gentle with the application however, because of how easily it sprays which can soon end up with too heavy an application if you are a bit heavy on the the trigger. For my test model I sprayed up a 1:35 Nebelwerfer 42 rocket launcher in a fairly standard green/brown splotches over a dark yellow base. Again, I had a few over-applications of the spots due to my lack of experience with the paint, but as it stays wet longer than your average acrylic paint, clean up of spiders is easy to do.

Brush Painting
Because of the finely ground pigment and the slightly longer drying time compared to standard acrylics, the paint should dry without brush-marks, and like all acrylics the layer will shrink back and thin out during the drying process. The paints also blend incredibly well, lending themselves to figure painting, which is where I first used them, adding weathering to a Star Wars Sand Trooper that I was building a while back. The paints come in 19ml dropper bottles, and have a child-resistant cap to stop your toddler guzzling your precious paints!

A number of sets are available now, but we had the German AFV camo set in for review, although it came in the wrong box! Inside the correct box (as pictured at the top) you will find the following paints:

TESC20 Dark Yellow RAL 7028-1
TESC21 Dull Yellow RAL 7028-2
TESC22 Grey RAL 7028-3
TESC23 Red Brown
TESC24 Olive Green

It's worthwhile also picking up a white, black and maybe a few greys while you're shopping, as they'll be useful if you plan on doing and fading or tonal modulation with your airbrush. They are incredibly fluid and as mentioned, they have a longer drying time that gives you more time to blend and adjust. Once dry they are quite tenacious in gripping a matt/satin surface, but can be removed with IPA if you make a mistake or change your mind about a colour.

I have a JagdPanzer IV stalled in my build queue at the moment, and will report back on the painting, as I plan on using these paints so that I can complete review after more experience using them.

Conclusion
A useful new paint range that could be of interest to airbrush modellers and brush-painters alike. True-Earth are also very forward in explaining how to use their products, and have a free downloadable e-book here that explains their whole weathering and painting ethos, plus online quick guides like the one for the Shading Colours, which you can find here. No books to buy before you can use them! Having now had some experience with the paints through an airbrush, I will definitely be using them again.

Very highly recommended.

See all the sets available plus individual colours here

Review sample courtesy of

[Mike]

Review updated with results of airbrush test.