AK Interactive Real color, anyone used them?

[KarlW]

Discovered AK do a lacquer paint, easier for me to get hold of than MRP but a bit more expensive (1/2 price for 1/3 product.)
Their blurb says they can be mixed with other brands lacquers and you can use any of the thinners out there, even marketing their own thinners as "Highly compatable"
And they're sold in the shop.

Anyone used them in anger?

[Nicko]

I used these for the basic grey colours on my Phantom build last year and they were nice to use.

They do need thinning, however, which improves the cost against MRP. I used their own thinners.

I've yet to try MRP, but I found the AK Real Colour much nicer to airbrush than my usual Vallejo Model Air...


Nick

[KarlW]

I used these for the basic grey colours on my Phantom build last year and they were nice to use.

They do need thinning, however, which improves the cost against MRP. I used their own thinners.

I've yet to try MRP, but I found the AK Real Colour much nicer to airbrush than my usual Vallejo Model Air...


Nick

How much thinning do they need?

[Airborne01]

I like them - especially for brush painting! (Use own-brand thinners)
Steve

[Andy the Sheep]

I've been testing some AK real colours recently.
I airbrushed them after thinning to milk consistence and here are the results (model was just a test-bed)

The colours were sprayed over a thin layer of red primer (Titans Hobby, an Italian brand associated to Ammo of Mig). No final coat (no clear or satin gloss or other protective layers).
No problem with my airbrush (a Badger 150, thus siphon fed). The painted surfaces have slightly but naturally satin finish. The use of masking tape (Tamiya and commercial) and white tac during the painting session didn't cause any harm to the underlying layers (no peeling, no graining and no marks) even several days after they were applied.
No problems with decal softening fluids (Humbrol and Tamiya); just some slight halo (see picture nr. 3). Decals were the original ones, very old and a bit on the yellow side in spite of a couple of hours under a UV lamp and an afternoon in the sun. The blue roundels on the upper side of the wings were sprayed with water based artist's acrylics with no problem at all while the red ones are decals from another and more recent kit.
When I tried to use a homemade wash (a mix of enamels from different sources) the AK Real "Sky" reacted as you can see in the second picture.
Then I tested the AK Real "Zinc Chromate Yellow" paint with other paints and thinners I have and here are the results:

The experiment was not conducted under a scientifically approvable protocol, thus take it as it is: a homemade nonprofessional test.
If my explanations are not clear (not a native speaker... :disappointed2 ask without fear: I'll be happy to be clearer.:smiling3:
Hoping to have contributed, splash your models with paints as you like and have fun! :tongue-out3: .

Andrea

[KarlW]

Thank you for that Andy the Sheep
Another range to add to the arsenal.
And I know X-20a curdles lacquers, learnt that the same day I learning not to mix things in the colour cup of the airbrush .....

[stillp]

Thanks Andrea. All is clear except for "Relevant coagulation". Could you explain that please?
Pete

[BattleshipBob]

Thanks Andrea for both carrying out and posting!

[Andy the Sheep]

Thanks Andrea. All is clear except for "Relevant coagulation". Could you explain that please?
Pete

I mean that the coagulation is rather fast and the paint aggregates in several blobs.
I used rapid coagulation with water because the process is immediate and the result is a group of "paint worms" swimming in the water.