Having heard a few positive things said about the Stone Texture paste from Acrylicos Vallejo, I ordered a pot of the Dark Earth shade from Minibits.
It was £7 for the tub, a bit more than I am used to paying for my basing material. I normally get a tub of house hold filler from my local Pound Shop and once every five years or so I beg a jar of sand from whichever friend, or neighbour, is having house improvements done.
First impressions are of a well hydrated, gritty 'paste' that is easy to spread out. I wasn't overly fond of the colour, as it doesn't remind me of any soil that I've ever dug (trust me, I taught pedology for twenty years). I'll be painting it when I use it.
The "micro particles", as Vallejo call them, are uniform in size. I would have preferred some variation.
I used it on a bunch of figures on slotta bases. It smoothed out nicely, although the brush I used had to be thoroughly cleaned every four or five figures, as it got clogged with the micro particles and took on an unhelpful shape.
One test that I tried was to see how well it would hide the step caused by a figure base, so I used it on the recently prepped Piggies. Immediately after application I put some grit on to add some variation.
Much as anticipated, the high water content led to quite a bit of shrinkage when it dried. It will need a second application. With my household filler I wouldn't need to do that. Ho hum.
Certainly another case of hardware products doing a better job than modelling products . At a cheaper price . Mind you if I opened a Hobby Supply shop and filled it with Hardware products that do a better job , customers would think I was bat crazy because they couldnt see any Modelling Industry names . Thanks for the review .
ReplyDeleteThanks Rusty. I'm back to using Pound Shop filler. Volume for volume it is 1/15th the cost of the Vallejo product.
ReplyDeleteAnother example. Hobby paint does have some advantages, but I don't think most folk realise that it sells for c.£120 per litre.
Thanks for taking the bullet, Chris. I am a huge fan of Golden Course pumice gel. I have two jars, one mixed with Flat earth and the other with my base green. A bit pricey at the start, but they last me for armies worth of work and Terrain matss/ hills, and look grand.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Ths