I’ve been an avid minis painter for happening 20+ years. Whereas I don’t have the persistence to create one thing that’s going to win awards, I nonetheless desire to play board video games with painted minis. I imply, even sloppy minis with a splash of coloration are higher than boring grey plastic. And there may be nothing unsuitable with simply capturing for “tabletop high quality” when portray minis. It positively will get the job executed.
That being mentioned, I’ve additionally labored my means by means of a wide range of completely different paint manufacturers over time. I’ve run the complete vary from random acrylic paints I acquired at Passion Foyer all the way in which as much as the expensive Citadel paints. At the moment I primarily use a combination of paints from Military Painter, Reaper, and Video games Workshop (distinction paints). However a brand new model has caught my eye.
With a emblem yanked straight out of the 80s, Turbo Dork has positively found out its model. Not like paints from Reaper or Vallejo, Turbo Dork doesn’t appear to be occupied with changing your daily, general-use paints. They’ve a lane and they’re driving down it with a semi-truck.
Their firm apparently began out in 2018 “as one man’s quest to search out the right metallic purple for his Emperor’s Kids”. And that’s what Turbo Dork paints concentrate on. Metallic colours, and in addition, shifting colours (I could must bust out my Generra Hypercolor t-shirt for the remainder of this assessment) are their bread and butter. So curious as to what these paints had been about, I requested the corporate to ship me a number of samples, and right here’s what I discovered.
The Metallics
I’ve discovered most firms have just some metallics, primarily within the silvers and gold ranges, preferring as an alternative to concentrate on flat colours. Often you’ll discover some main coloration metallics, however nothing within the vary of what Turbo Dork has. I’ve been portray Battletech minis these days, so this timing was additionally fairly good. My King Crab mini was simply begging to be painted in purple (I imply, it’s a crab in any case), so I used their Crimson Rum paint for the primary physique. I primed it black and gave it a easy dry brush with the purple. I used to be fairly happy with the outcomes.
The Coloration Shifts
Searching for a little bit of enjoyable, I made a decision to check out their Miami Sundown paint on my Wolfhound mech. The impact is a bit of arduous to {photograph}, however as you rotate the mini, the colour shift is certainly noticeable. It switches from purple to a little bit of an orange. I really feel like the colour shift paints are going to be considerably case-specific. A flat metallic has lots of makes use of, however a color-changing one in all probability isn’t going to work in as many conditions. Nonetheless, for my scorching shot wolfhound mechwarrior, he was comfortable to bling out his experience.
Testings
I additionally wished to offer the paints a spread of testing choices. First up, let’s speak concerning the undercoats. Like all paints, you’ll wish to prime your minis first. Every bottle of Turbo Dork paint additionally tells you one of the best base coloration to make use of. Spoiler alert: most let you know to make use of black. That being mentioned, some may use a white undercoat. However I wished to check out one on a white base layer that wasn’t speculated to be. I 3d printed a number of minis I downloaded from Loot Studio to get began. Then I grabbed a bottle of their Boullion metallic and gave it an airbrush on each a white and black mini. The bottle clearly says black undercoat, so I used to be curious as to how it might prove. Whereas I in all probability may have gone with one other coat of paint on the white mini, the outcomes had been positively significantly better on the black coat.
Subsequent, I attempted it over a zenithal coating. In the event you don’t know what that’s, be sure you learn my primer right here. However their Bees Knees gold paint says it may be used over a black, white, or zenithal undercoat. Grabbing a random mini I had 3d printed earlier, I gave them every a chief after which utilized a zenithal to considered one of them. Please ignore the damaged sword on one of many minis, I dropped it like a dummy and didn’t really feel like reprinting it. Anyway, the one on the white coat is fairly shiny and labored pretty properly. Nonetheless, the zenithal coating positively helps carry out the main points on the mini higher. The gold is darker general, however it has extra of a “gold statue” really feel to it. It’s much less luminous, however nonetheless fairly shiny.
Lastly, I wished to attempt the distinction between brushwork and airbrushing. For this one, I used a Drone mini. I exploit Silver Fox on the drone and Blue Raspberry on the smokey half under. For the drone bits, I actually can’t inform a lot of a distinction between the brushed on one and the airbrushed. I’ll caveat this by saying that I’m very a lot an airbrush beginner, so please don’t decide me on the standard of my airbrush work. Nonetheless, in relation to the Blue Raspberry smoke half, the distinction is extra noticeable. The airbrushed mannequin has extra of a luster to it, and nearly feels prefer it glows within the mild in comparison with the brushed on one. The brushed one is certainly not dangerous, however airbrushing is certainly a step up within the end high quality (and possibly might be even higher with a extra skilled airbrush consumer).
Last Ideas:
General, I used to be fairly impressed with the standard of the Turbo Dork paints. My solely grievance after utilizing these bottles so much is that they have a tendency to have a little bit of a difficulty with clogging. The corporate helpfully has a shaker ball put in in each bottle, however greater than as soon as I’ve needed to take care of a clogged nozzle. I often simply poke a security pin down the outlet and it clears issues up. I do must warning towards squeezing these bottles too arduous although. I as soon as tried to dislodge a clog by squeezing more durable and the dropper high popped off, spraying globs of paint throughout my pallet.
However exterior of that I actually favored Turbo Dork’s line of paints. To be sincere, nearly any mini painter ought to seize a line of a minimum of the first metallics. Whereas I believe that their use shall be considerably situational, particularly their color-shifting line of paints, they do produce glorious outcomes. However mechs, autos, robots, armor… just about any arduous floor that you just’d prefer to have a bit of little bit of a shiny will look superb with this line of paints. You’ll be able to try their full vary of paints on their web site.
