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Posted by Bill Oreto on September 4, 2026, 12:32:30, in reply to "Re: Acrylic pens"
Know nothing of AK acrylic paint pens and probably will never will use them. Acrylic paint pens have been around for a while with every color of the rainbow offered with various points. Frequent artist supply stores in your area or Amazon. For really fine work in needing to hi-lite I use Pigma Micron pens they to come in various colors and their points range from fine to very fine .01 to .005 microns. They offer larger points like 1.0 as well. There is also carpenter pens also in various colors. I don’t use them as much.
As for brushes it is never the brushes fault but the paint you use. There are a number brush manufacturers but I prefer ZEM who offer both round and flat square brushes at reasonable prices. One must know what brush to use for what job. Large flat side of hulls or flight deck square brush. Tight spaces, multi part small bulk heads with detail, round brush.
I prefer water based acrylic paints. Work well with brushes. Yes I still use Polly Scale and my bible paint guide are the S&S paint chip cards because of the extraordinary efforts those two gentlemen made to produce them. And let me not forget the efforts of Alan Raven.
While I was being laughed at on this board when Testors and Polly Scale exited the market of military pigments especially naval colors, I said Polly Scale RR pigments which were still being produced at reasonable prices. I found exact matches to the S&S chip cards. Am I crowing a bit …well yes I am. Nothing more crucial to a build of a ship kit but the paint and tools you use.
As for the rest of the acrylics paints out there I find most are made for the airbrush not the brush and some do not interact well with 3D print. 
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In my humble opinion, this isn't just an evolution… but rather a REVOLUTION compared to traditional brushes.
Since AK launched its new line, I’ve bought about forty pens for my ships, airplanes, spacecraft, and vehicles.
My only reservation: most naval colors aren’t available yet, which poses a problem, for example, when painting a US Navy "splotch" camouflage pattern (Measure 12). Perhaps in the future, AK will expand its line to include naval colors.
And I expect more rival brands will enter this business, as the pens are less dangerous than jars for airmail.
On the plus side: in my model-making projects, these tools have almost entirely replaced good old paintbrushes:
- each pen is ready to use in a second;
- no more need to clean paintbrushes;
- no more need to mix paint in a jar beforehand;
- the coats are more even and thinner than those applied with a brush, and very similar to those achieved with an airbrush;
- the paint dries quickly: 5mn in Summer, 10 in Winter on the other side of the Pond. As it dries, surface tension gives it a very even and crisp finish. The result is a coat that resists masking tape and scratches
The available colors are primarily intended for aircraft and armored vehicles, but the range is expanding due to commercial success.
Naturally transparent colors (red, yellow, etc.) look best when applied over a white primer. However, I achieve excellent results by applying four coats with the white pen to surfaces several square centimeters in size (1/144-scale space launchers) directly onto the gray 3D resin.
The fine, flexible tip allows you to paint very small details such as the landing gear shock absorbers on 1:72 and 1:144 scale models—and even the white ailerons on U.S. Navy aircraft at 1:700 scale! (Well, in fact I use to paint the entire aircraft at 1:700 and 1:350)
Admittedly, it can be tricky to get into tight spaces, but a paintbrush presents the same problem.
Finally, this ink works very well with Parafilm masking: it doesn’t bleed through.
In conclusion, since last winter, my paintbrushes have been slowly gathering dust.
HTH
Bruno
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