AKAN Acrylic Maritime Colours

[Shar2]

AKAN Maritime Colours

AKAN

I’ve been trying these paints out now for the last couple of months so thought it was about time I wrote up the review. I won’t reiterate what Mike has already said about AKAN paints HERE but will try to convey how I got on with them. Ville at HPnS kindly sent out their entire maritime range for me to try out, but since I was building a modern Russian ship at the time I have only used the required colours, but I’m sure the experience I had would have been the same no matter which colour I used.

My normal media is enamel so this was going to be pretty much a new experience for me as I had only ever used acrylics on one other model, and that was an AFV. On my first attempt at using the AKAN paints I found them to be rather cloggy and spattered rather than sprayed when using 0.2mm needle in an Iwata airbrush. Once cleaned up and a 0.4mm needle fitted I decided not to be so scientific with the amount of Ultimate Thinners I used and went more by eye, having read Mike’s review, to create the consistency of skimmed milk, as he put it. This worked much better and I was able to get a consistent fine layer of paint over the model. With this success, I refitted the 0.2mm needle and tried a finer spray. With the paint really thinned out I didn’t get any clogging or splattering, yet the coverage was still good, so it goes to show than when it comes to using thinners with AKAN paints, more is more. It was just a shame that the kit defeated me for the time being, but when I get it out again I will add some pictures of the paintwork here.

Detail painting using a brush proved to be a delight. The paint going on well and drying to the same tone as the sprayed paint, which I’ve found is not always the case when using enamels.

The colours currently in their range include:-

Russian/USSR Navy

• 73107 Grey No.34
• 73108 Grey No.29
• 73109 Grey No.32
• 73110 Grey No.31
• 73111 Grey No.30
• 73112 Grey No. 23
• 73113 Grey No.35
• 73114 Green
• 73115 Brown
• 73116 Red
• 73117 Coal Varnish

German WWII

• 71095 RAL 3011 Braurot
• 71096 RAL 7015 Schiefergrau
• 71097 RAL 7038 Achatgrau
• 71098 RAL 7035 Lichtgrau
• 71099 RAL 8012 Rotbraun
• 71100 Dunklegrau 51
• 71101 Hellgrau 50
• 71102 Dunklegrau
• 71103 Schifflobenfarbe

British WWII

• 70048 APC507A Dark Grey
• 70049 APC50B Grey
• 70050 APC507C Light Grey
• 70051 B15 Grey Blue
• 70052 G45 Grey
• 70053 RN White

US WWII

• 72066 5-0 Ocean Grey
• 72067 5-N Navy Blue
• 72068 20B Revised Deck Blue
• 72069 Flight Deck Stain 21

Conclusion
I had heard the hype about AKAN paints, but it’s nice to find that it wasn’t all hype when you actually get to use them. Yes, it has been a bit of a learning curve for me, but that’s what modelling is all about, learning and hopefully improving. When the next ship lands on the modelling desk I will certainly be giving these paints another try and I look forward to seeing AKAN add to the maritime range. Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of Ville at

[bootneck]

I've recently changed over from aircraft to ship models and, being an acrylic user, am very interested in this.

Thanks for the review Dave

Mike