I ordered some Wicked paints the other day because I needed to try something new (I had been using Auto Air) and I had been hearing great things about the product. I went to Coast Airbrush since I found that they had a pretty good deal on a 5 color set that included the reducer. I went with the 2 oz semi opaque set figuring that I can always reduce it down. The website said that the semi opaque offers .5 micron binder size while the Wicked Detail Colors are sheared to .1 microns. The Wicked Detail Colors were supported by Dru Blair, which meant that they might still have some opaque properties to them, since I knew he was a fan of the opaques. What really interested me was that they were called water bourne rather than water based and have a mild solvent included in it.
When my set arrived it was a few days before I could bust them open, but luckily I had a project that was going to be perfect for trying them out. What I had heard the most about was the white and how it flowed, so I was excited to give that a try on some detailed work. The project was my friends red Harley that was due for some realistic flames and a couple eagle portraits. I started in on the flames with the semi opaque white and yellow in a reduced mixture that was similar to chrome yellow in euros. I was immediately impressed with how the Wicked paints flowed. Though there was some tip dry, it wasn't any thing like that found with the Auto Air paints. The white wasn't as chalky seeming either, leaving a nice smooth finish.
I worked through the flames, using the Wicked over the Auto Air and vice versa. I wouldn't recommend mixing them together, as they sort of gum up and don't flow right, but they seem to be perfectly compatible together.
Rinsing the paint out of my airbrush showed me that the solvent was very much there. Usually a couple dunks in some water, a few back flushes and some cleaner and it's good to go. The water seemed to react different, similar to how uros would, but the cleaner seemed to cut right through it. Once the brush was clean, I put a few drops of the reducer in there to get any of the paint that I may have missed.
It was time to paint the eagle and I was nervous. I had to put my Iwata aside since I had a needle issue to take care of and pulled out my Grex XN. I figured the real test of these whites would be to shoot them through the .2mm nozzle. I thinned the paint 1:2 (one drop white to 2 drops of reducer) and threw in a drop of yellow to cut any blue shift the paint might give me (since I was painting over flames). I had a stencil I'd cut out of paper to give me some proportions and got right to work. After the initial spray I went in for the details in the eye. I notice right away that though there was tip dry, the paint flowed super smooth. I didn't have any issues with the Wicked paints, regardless of the fact that my gun was due for some tune ups, and quickly moved through the portrait.
Now the black. After some Auto Air Root Beer to give the portrait some depth, I came in with some black. I'm not usually a big fan of the blacks, but heavily reduced black can usually give you a nice brown or gray similar to graphite. I reduced the semi-opaque black 1:2 like before. Then, after spraying it and seeing it was still opaque black and I reduced it 1:3. After some spraying, I realized that it was also, again, still opaque. Reduced 1:5. I ran out of room in my cup and gave up. It was just too dense and reducing it just wasn't changing that. That heavy black has it's place, but I'm not a fan. I ended up going with my Auto Air mixture of semi-opaque black, transparent purple, and a drop of root beer. Luckily I was able to mix what the black had done.
Overall, I was pleased. I liked the rich color that the paints gave me, even when they were reduced. The fact I could get the white to spray through my Grex XN has me sold. I have to get used to cleaning the paint with the cleaner rather than just water, but they are still a lot easier to work with than the uros. If I had a seal of approval, I would put it on these paints.
Here is what I was able to do with the Wicked Paints (and a little help of the Auto Air candys):
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