The Power of the Atom: Marshall Masterclass pt 1

This isn’t really a review. 

Here are the first impressions of the Atom range. Please enjoy my unedited, loose script below. Apologies for all the many, many spelling errors - I wanted to give you the raw material, rather than the polished diamond.

**********************

I want to spend some time with this new paint range. I Don’t want to give into hype, or be taken by any other opinion s that aren’t my own. This is the first project I’ve used the range on, and these are my working impressions. I’m figuring stuff out, trying it. Let’s see what they can do.

Atom 

Dark Green

Turquoise 

Dark Star Metals

Steel

Old Silver

Night shroud 

Murky mire

Final impressions 

Durability - these are great for warming miniatures. I made sure to handle the model roughly to see how the paint would react. It’s tough, doesn’t smudge and has good even coverage with a airbrush and a brush. 

It thins well, no issues with my usual process. At Adepticon we were trialling the at a booth and didn’t have enough thinner to go between us. It seem to work with just water, which is surprising. The white especially has similar properties to kamiya flat white, but without the toxicity. 

Self levelling - I did notice after the initial airbrush layer that the paint shifts. Blotches level out and blend. It has an odd smoothness that I had to work more texture into later on. Again, great for airbrushing and creating those instant smooth transitions. 

Saturation - holy god do these things punch. Why do you want saturated colours? Because you can also ays destatuare them with their compliments or by adding, black white or grey. You can’t desaturate them to their full potency. Coverage is good, even on a black base coat and the turquoise and green really punches. I’ve tried this on an upcoming pollux using yellow and it offers decent coverage. 

Bottle size  - 20ml - great, what more could you want. This set was being sold at adoption for $40 for 12 paints. I hope they keep that pricing structure, because that is incredible value for money for these paints. 

Where do I see them sitting in the market? 

That’s an odd one. Mig are marketing toward military scale modellers, whereas Big Child are marketing toward the more art style painter. These paints have merits in both worlds, but their versitility might make them hard to pitch toward a market already oversaturated with products. 

MY initial snap judgment - I’m fearful whenever a company launches a product off the back of a bunch of influencers and well known artists. It drives up hype. These paints are good. They can live an die by there own merits, so ignore the social media posts, ignore the branding the hype train. It is a good paint, saturated, durable and easy to work with, and if this price persists, is very good value for money. 

I wonder how well they would take to glazing as the paint is very dense and I’ve yet to use it on a project that relies on lots of glazing. 

Will this paint make you a better painter? Will it make your life easier? No - give a slayer sword winner a cheap set of acrylics and a brush make of synthetic hair and they’re still produce wonders. This is a solid paint range entering a competitive market. I’m interested to see how it grows and I’m looking forward to using them in other projects.