Warpigs | Weathering Pigments

Reviewed by Erik Lind

The Warpigs is a new weathering pigment aimed at modelers of all kinds, armor, aircraft or figures. What it is? Its finely ground pigments in powder form and comes in 20 different shades and colors. They can be mixed to get different kinds of effects. It's ground to 50 microns size (1 micron = one thousandth of a millimetre).

The Warpigs are sold in Europe by Master Casters and in the US by Modelers Warehouse.

I received the review sample MSTWPG05 Earth. It comes in a clear plastic bottle making it easy to see the color inside. It has a tight snap lid making it safe to tip over (as long as the lid is closed, of course).

I first started by laying everything out as shown. Tools needed: Painted plastic parts, Warpigs, flat tooth pick, dry paint brush and artist mixing tray.

Gear doors are from 21st Century Corsair and the cockpit from Revell 1/32 Corsair.

I added roughly equal amounts of Warpigs to the top row of the tray and then, from left to right, turpentine, alcohol, water on the bottom row.

I started mixing half of the pigments to the water and then added water to the remaining pigments to get a paste. Picture below shows how. The pigments do not dissolve in water, the water is just a carrier for the pigments. As shown below, the pigments behave very well when mixed with water. The paste can be used for creating mud patches and splattering and the wash will be used for washes.

This time I repeated the process with the alcohol. The Warpigs behaved pretty much the same in alcohol as in water. The only main difference is the drying time. In alcohol (because it evaporates quicker than water) you have less time to work with the paste.

Time for Turpentine. OH MY! That did not work out well at all! Seems that the pigments and the turpentine do not like each other at all. The paste came out lumpy, which can be used for good effect for mud, but the wash was a wash (pun intended).

Warpigs claims it can be airbrushed when properly mixed. First try is with the wash from the water tray and my Iwata. Because of the size of the pigments, i had to use a fairly large setting on my brush to get the pigments to flow through the airbrush. Once i found the setting, it sprayed like any other paint. Repeat for alcohol. Wow, that one sprayed even better on the same setting. Lesson learned: When spraying Warpigs, use alcohol.

Water spray. Sorry for bad quality.

Alcohol spray. Sorry for bad quality.

Time for wash test. I used the left and right console on the Revell cockpit for the test. The left console was done with alcohol and Warpigs and the right console for water and Warpigs. After adding a wash, the part was left to dry and then both consoles were wiped with a qtip. As can be seen, the alcohol was completely wiped clean while the water behaved normal. Seems that alcohol does not make the pigments bond to the surface as the water lets it. Could be capillary force from the water or just alcohol preventing the pigment to stick.

Repeated the process on the landing gear doors with same effect. I was hoping that perhaps the console did not have enough detail causing the alcohol/Warpigs not to stick. Used the gear doors to see if it would work better with some really deep recesses.

Warpigs/Alcohol. Wiped clean again.

Warpigs/Water. Worked great!

Now it was time for a test on a full model. For this i picked the Dragon Jagdtiger in 1/72 scale. The model was covered in a medium wash of Warpigs/water and left to dry.

After the model was all dry, i went over it with a moist Qtip and wiped all the Warpigs off, leaving only pigments in recesses and nooks and crannies. It behaved wonderful and left just the right amount of pigment where i wanted it.

One thing not shown in pics is that when i covered the sides of the tank with Warpigs wash, i saw that the water had run down the side and created a realistic effect of rainwater washing away the dirt. I'll use that in the future on some dirty Sherman tank.

Conclusion

Warpigs is a great product for any kind of modeler. Its easy to use, is fine enough to create an excellent wash even on small models. The learning curve for Warpigs is small, and it doesn't take long to figure out how to use it or how to mix and blend. Even if you don't build armor or figures, this product will make your cockpit, wheel wells and other parts stand out and look great with a minimum of effort. It can be mixed with most water or alcohol product in use with making diorama ground work and can be sprayed onto the finished ground as well. With the wide range of colors and shade you can recreate almost anything from the white coral sand in the Pacific to the dark mud on the Russian steppes. I highly recommend this product for anyone who is serious about his models.

No 1/32 scale models were harmed while writing this review.

Warpigs | Weathering Pigments

Reviewed by Erik Lind

Conclusion

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