Introduction

Creature Paint Kit by Com-Art Colours is a series of acrylic paints and sets marketed by Iwata Medea. This set is for fantasy and sci-fi flesh, created by commercial modeler Steve Riojas.

Com-Art Colours produces an extensive range of paints used in the profession illustrating community. Discovered by hobbyists they have made their way into the model world. Com-Art Colours assembled sets of paints under the banner Real Deal.

Com-Art™ water-based acrylic colours are non-toxic and specifically formulated to be ready-to-use in your airbrush, without the need for thinning, filtering or straining.

This set of Creature Paints is designed for the monster/fantasy fan to help them achieve otherworldly, undead and just plain creepy, skin and body effects. The different flesh colours are meant to be a starting point. The mixing and matching of any or all of the colours is limited only to your imagination! - Airbrushes.com

Let us examine these.

Creature Paint Kit

Ten 1oz. bottles of paint create this set. They are packed in a light clear plastic clam shell box. Box art is a paper label, inside of which is an instruction sheet and Tips and Techniques by Steve Riojas.

The bottles have their own agitators inside to help mix the paint. These paints have very fine pigments suspended in a carrier designed to allow them to blend and work easily, applied with brush or airbrush. This set consists of;

2 107 1 Flesh
2 108 1 Inner Mouth Flesh
2 109 1 Green Flesh
2 110 1 Purple Flesh
2 111 1 Bone White
2 112 1 Vein Blue/Green
2 113 1 Stone Gray
2 114 1 Olive Green
2 115 1 Brown/Black
1 015 1 Opaque Raw Umber

These colors were selected by Mr. Riojas as keys to mixing and blending to achieve delightfully putrid and frightening skin affects.

Tests

Com-Art Colours are described as having varying viscosity.

Opaque colours:
Rich, dense shades that spray smoothly and resist clogging. These colours are heavily pigmented with the finest ground pigments for smooth spraying and accurate four-colour separation.

Transparent colours:
Using the same formulation as the opaque Com-Art colours, the transparents are non-fading, pigmented colours, which can be intermixed with the opaques or sprayed over the top for glazing. - Airbrushes.com

I applied a drop of each onto a white card sheet. Some were happy as a single drop, some required two drops to make the same sized sample. Several settled as raised pools of opaque color. Others immediately absorbed into the cardstock, a couple so "wet" that they left rough edges along the fiber of the card, more like a concentrated artist ink than a paint.

To attempt to show the colors properly in all their gory glory, I show them wet and dry, under light artificial and natural.

I did not try to airbrush these paints. (I will for the next set of railroad colors.) I did apply several colors - straight and blended - to some orcs. These are also demonstrated in natural and artificial light. These paints are very "wet", almost like glazes and washes. Steve Riojas' Tips and Techniques discuss using them in thin layers to affect multi-layered effects. Much like one can see green and blue veins under our translucent exoderm. They can also be used a standalone paints.

Although Com-Art writes that their special formulation allows artists of all genre to manipulate the paints even after they dry, I did not not try to "revive" any. I was concerned that they may be fragile to the touch. Thus is not my experience I am happy to relate.

Conclusion

Creature Paint Kitby Com-Art Colours is an interesting and versatile set of excellent illustration paints. These delightfully disturbing hues allow unique effects on my model freaks and monsters. They hold fast and are easy to blend and apply straight. These larger bottles with agitators make for superior mixing.

I have little to complain about other than varying consistencies of the paints. They are different from most hobby paints familiar to modelers but I think they are very easy to adapt to. Recommended.

Please remember to mention to vendors and retailers that you saw this paint set here - on MODELGEEK.