Pastel and flesh lacquer paint sets from Osaka, Japan

So did I travel to Osaka, Japan? Nah, I wish! But my brother-in-law did. And he was kind enough to ask if I wanted anything while he was checking out the multitude of hobby shops in the area. In that moment, I felt like a kid in a candy store without the monies to buy much of anything. There are so many scale model kits, resin figurines and paints in my wish list that even a cargo plane couldn't fit it all. And if you've seen the hobby shops in Osaka, Japan you would know what I mean. So all I dared ask him to get me was a few sets of paints for my resin figurine airbrushing sessions.

From Osaka, Japan .... two boxes each of four different kinds of Mr Color Special Paint Sets

One long standing weakness of mine is the fact that I can never have enough flesh paints be they acrylic, enamel, pastel, oil or lacquer. I tend to collect skin tone hues like how most modellers would collect scale model kits and resin figurines. Another weakness is my love for pastel hues. So when the opportunity came up for me to obtain paints of this nature that are hard to source locally, I pretty much jumped at it. Now, I finally have the specialized flesh color (found locally but it's twice as expensive) and the full pastel set of lacquer paints (couldn't find any locally) from Mr. Hobby.    

Kaiyodo/Mr Hobby Cutie Girls Figure Fresh Color Set for use primarily on anime figurines

Flesh colors in this paint set were developed with input from BOME, a Japanese sculptor/painter

Flesh colors comprise BC01 Pale Orange, BC02 Carrot Orange, BC03 Milky Peach and BC04 Coral Pink

Read enough of my posts and you would've suffered through my constant waxing lyrical over pastel hues. If ever pastel hues make sense for a project then that's my go-to color scheme over any other. There's something about the soft, light hues that's infinitely pleasing and soothing to my eyes. First in the Mr Hobby pastel series is its green set (see below) which comprises Custard Yellow (CP01), Muscat Green (CP02), Mint Green (CP03) and Turquoise Green (CP04). The first two greens have a strong yellow bias in them while the latter two shifts more towards the blue spectrum. 

Mr Hobby Pastel Color Set Green Version

Green Pastel Set comprises first four pastel hues (CP01 to CP04) in the Mr Color pastel wheel

Mr Hobby's Mr Color Green Pastel Set unboxed

Pamphlet showing how the green pastel hues interact with Primary Color Pigments of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow

Opposite side of the pamphlet shows line drawings of an anime character in turquoise green

Green Pastel Set comprises CP01 Custard Yellow, CP02 Muscat Green, CP03 Mint Green and CP04 Turquoise Green

Properties of the latter two hues of the green set transitions Mr Hobby's pastel series nicely into its blue set (see below). So it's no big surprise that the first color in the blue set has a fair amount of green pigments mixed into it namely the Aqua Green (CP05). Next you have a more pure blue Smalt Blue (CP06) followed by Wisteria Blue (CP07) and Cream Orchid (CP08), both of which presumably have had more red pigments added to them in view of their predominantly purplish hues.

Mr Hobby's Mr Color Pastel Color Set Blue Version

Add captionBlue Pastel Set comprises the second series of pastel hues (CP05 to CP08) in the Mr Color pastel wheel

Mr Hobby Blue Pastel Set unboxed

Pamphlet showing how the blue pastel hues interact with Primary Color Pigments of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow

Opposite side of the pamphlet shows line drawings of an anime character in wisteria blue

Blue Pastel Set comprises CP05 Aqua Green, CP06 Smalt Blue, CP07 Wisteria Blue and CP08 Cream Orchid

Third in the series is the red set which starts off with a pinkish Milky Strawberry (CP09) followed by a redder Cherry Red (CP10). Subsequently more yellow pigments seem to have been added to the last two colors Ruby Orange (CP11) and Honey Orange (CP12). As such this brings the Mr Hobby four set series full circle into what closely resembles a color wheel, albeit a pastel one.

Mr Hobby Pastel Color Set Red Version

Red Pastel Set comprises final four pastel hues (CP09 to CP12) in the Mr Color pastel wheel

Mr Hobby's Mr Color Red Pastel Set unboxed

Pamphlet showing how the red pastel hues interact with Primary Color Pigments of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow

Add captionOpposite side of the pamphlet shows line drawings of an anime character in cherry red

Red Pastel Set comprises CP09 Milky Strawberry, CP10 Cherry Red, CP11 Ruby Orange and CP12 Honey Orange

And so this is how the three different versions look like when combined together into a makeshift color wheel (see below). If required more hue variety could be had by mixing existing color options - CP01 to CP12 - but for most, especially anime-type projects, the colors provided should be sufficient.

On display, the complete set of pastel paints from Mr Hobby Mr Color

Mr Hobby's special paint sets opens up a path for me to complete 'anime-influenced pastel and flesh airbrushing projects' within a shorter period of time. They should also work fine for 'realistic' miniature projects, with the requisite subtle color transitions achieved via airbrush techniques instead of numerous half-tones applied via hand brush. More paints is almost always a good thing. The caveat? Using too many straight-from-the-bottle hues may lessen one's understanding of how colors work. Nothing that a good session with primary colors can't fix but that's a story for another day.