Here's to Broken Resolutions and a Better New Year

 So as this awful year draws to a close, it's unsurprising that a resolution made as recently as three weeks ago has been unceremoniously broken. I had wanted to get psyched up for future World War 2 Armored Fighting Vehicle (WW2 AFV) scale model kit projects by indulging in digital turn-based wargames via my traditional year-end PC gaming binge. Well, I still pampered myself with some gaming time but with old school Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) instead. The silver lining to this is there's still a link, however tenuous, to the hobby in the form of colors. Here's what I mean ... 

 Arguably, there is no better example of fantastic use of colors in an old school JRPG than The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky by Japan-based Nihon Falcom. At the very least, it was one of the first ones I played which made good use of color combinations on its pixelated characters as well as world. I never finished my original run in my (PlayStation Portable (PSP) before it kaput. Luckily for me, a PC version was released some years ago on my go-to gaming portal i.e. Steam. So now I get to relive the world of Zemuria in glorious high-definition (HD), colors and all. 

Nihon Falcom's The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky

In this make believe world, even the floors have delightful color combos ...

... well, not all floors but the game, more often than not, makes great use of colors

Turn-based combat is a key element in most if not all JRPGs

 One of my most treasured memories of JRPGs was (and still is) Final Fantasy Tactics on the very first PlayStation and subsequently Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions on the PSP. Both titles are sort of a sub-genre of your traditional JRPGs and is classified as tactical role-playing game (TRPG). Such games focus more on the tactical combat aspect than in the role-playing per se. So it was a nice surprise when I stumbled upon Banner Maid which was developed by China-based Azure Flame Studio. This is the closest I have come to in years, in terms of TRPG game-play in a JRPG inspired title. What's even better is the title makes fantastic use of colors (see below).  

Azure Flame Studio's Banner Maid

Apart from the protagonist (which isn't shown here) most of the female characters ...

... found within an alternate world of historical France are fairly voluptuous

Banner Maid is largely a tactical role-playing game ...

... that takes inspiration from the classic Final Fantasy Tactics

The game makes great use of colors for both its 2D anime as well as 3D pixel characters

 Meanwhile, Octopath Traveler is a more recent JRPG title that uses retro character sprites whilst also incorporating polygonal environments and high-definition special effects. If you haven't played old school JRPGs before, then it's quite likely Octopath Traveler would be your first experience of what it's like to role-play chibi-style character sprites in a make believe world. Barely having started a game on this title, I am already impressed with its use of colors. My first impressions are that each character's game world seems to have a color theme of their own. For example, the character Primrose uses warm and earthy hues to reflect her bio and backstory (see below). That's a great way to think of colors and I'm sure it'll translate into future creative endeavors in the hobby.   

Acquire/Square Enix's Octopath Traveler

Primrose is one of eight main characters you can play ingame

And so it begins, Primrose's journey in the land of Orsterra

Octopath Traveler is a role-playing game with "HD-2D" graphics ...

... a style that combines retro-character sprites and textures ...

... with polygonal environments and high-definition effects

 And so the year ends with a broken resolution. Moreover, you would agree it has been a terrible year with the ongoing pandemic. It can only get better, right? So with the new year upon us, I would like to take this opportunity to wish one and all a safe and happy 2021. Cheers!

Going oil crazy

With the local art supply store having a 30% discount on Winsor & Newton products, it was a now or never moment for me to finally stock up on oil paints and add this medium to my painting aresenal. Every other item in my hobby-to-buy-list was put on hold and limited funds were channeled into creating a respectable inventory of oil paints for use in my scale model/miniature art. Because the ringgit is weak, the budget oils paints were unfortunately still quite pricey. But at least the sale puts Winton Oil Colour paints into the 'buyable with some belt tightening' rather than 'oh hell no' category.

Winton Oil Color - Winsor & Newton's more affordable range of oil paints

If I could I actually would've preferred to get paints from the Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Colour range which have a higher proportion of finer pigments. However paints from this range are insanely expensive with certain hues costing up to RM200 per 37 ml tube. That's the price of an average scale model kit and then some. So adding Artists' Oil Colour paints to my collection is a no go, for now.

An excellent medium for oil paints especially for use in scale modelling

Meanwhile, in addition to the Winton oil paints I also bought a one liter tin of Winsor & Newton Artists' White Spirit (see above) which is a medium for oil paints. To give you an idea of the savings involved, the price for this 1000 ml tin - before factoring in the discount - is similar to a 100 ml bottle equivalent being sold under hobby company labels. That's just insanely skewed economics. Anyway, I've used the Artists' White Spirit before for weathering purposes and they seem to work just as fine as the hobby labeled ones if not better. It's a necessary ingredient just like water is to acrylics.         

So many whites and blacks to choose from but only one grey

Variety of yellows is even more impressive ... overkill to all but an avid painter

Going forward it'll be important to know the combination of pigments used for each oil color, red or otherwise

As I rarely see these oil paints on sale in my local art supply store, I went a little bit oil crazy and perhaps purchased more than I may actually need for current projects. Then again, we painters can never have too much colors. While it's good to know how to mix (almost) any hue you want using primary colors, which for Winton oil paints are Cadmium Yellow Hue, French Ultramarine and Permanent Rose, there are times it's far more convenient to just use a per-existing hue. And yet my collection remains incomplete because a lot of blue hues were out of stock during the sale.

Blues in my Winton collection is incomplete as many bluish hues were out of stock during the sale

Winton also has a good range of greens from the natural greens to the turquoise hues

Arguably the most important range of oil colors (apart from blacks, greys and whites) for an AFV modeler

Of course there are oil paints specially formulated for miniature painters and scale modellers such as Abteilung 502. Incidentally I also stocked up on those too quite a while ago when a local hobby store had a clearance sale on all its Abteilung products citing a severe lack of demand. As such I might do a comparison between these oil paints and Winton ones in the future. In terms of hue variety, Winton is better as Abteilung tailors its products primarily to the scale modelling community. In my limited experience of both, I suspect the latter is closer in quality to the Winsor & Newton Artists' Oil Colour range. Regardless, I now have no more excuses to not paint with oil for future projects.

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.