Review/Tutorial: AK Interactive Diorama Series

Review/Tutorial: AK Interactive Diorama Series

Introduction:

AK – Interactive – a Spanish company behind a well established series of products for modelers. They managed to become one of the most recognized brands in the modeling world with continuously evolving range of paints, brushes, weathering products and effects.  I have been a fan of their products for years now. Recently I decided to take another step and expand a range of  texture paints at my disposal. Knowing the quality of AK’s products and lured by sweet pricing I went berserk and got a lot of Diorama Series textures. 
Now I’m here to share my impressions. 

Usually I do the entire Quality, Visuals, Functionality thing. This time though I decided to take a different approach and just jump right into testing the actual products, with pictures taken at every step. Consider this to be a Review/Tutorial hybrid. I will share my thoughts in the summary, so no worries 😉

Terrains Asphalt

Very happy with this one. Not too grainy. Perfect coloration. Two steps process with a final touch of white markings airbrushed through a stencil. End result – very satisfactory.

Terrains Dark Earth

Say goodbye to sand on PVA glue! This puppy is now my favorite two-steps basing for fantasy miniatures!

Terrains Dry Ground

Would have never expected to go with such a color, but seeing the end result I’m getting strong Star Wars The Last Jedi / Mad Max Salt Planes vibes… many possibilities! 

Terrains Sandy Desert

No need to explain – just look at this! Two steps and your miniature is based on a desert!

Terrains Concrete

This one didn’t hit the mark for me. I expected a more paste-like, smooth surface. More of a Dark & Dry Crackle end result (below). Either way the product itself is solid, just not what I expected, thus once dried, I didn’t follow up on it. I plan to give it another go on my next project so who knows…

Dark & Dry Crackle Effects

This one required a third step to bring out the cracks as they are super tiny. The end result is very interesting. I’m sure that a mix with Dark Earth will bring magnificent results. Right now it looks like a trampled ground, or a road. Will definitely use.

Wet Crackle Effect

Well… not what I’ve expected. Tried few times, taking different routes. End result is pretty disappointing. So much so that I just skipped further work with this.

Light & Dry Crackle Effects

Now that’s “crackled”! Three steps and it looks great! I bet it would look even better with Terrain Dry Ground. Count me in babe! 

Impressions:

Working with these products was very comfortable. These are definitely high quality and very user friendly. I used a large brush to apply all the effects and simply cannot stress enough how great and easy it was! Growing up on Games Workshop’s products, moving onto these I felt like if I switched a worn out car for a new one, straight out of the factory! No more “fishing” for dry’ish conglomerates of grains to try and smear them onto a base. Nothing of the sort! Smooth. Great to use. Very easy. Zero stress. Just awesome! 
Now Wet Crackle Effect turned out to be a disappointment, but all the rest behaved as they should and brought awesome results. The rest is so good that I’m willing to give Wet Crackle a benefit of a doubt and assume I’ve used it incorrectly. Will go back to it at some point and try to bring forth it’s full potential. 

Other than that – these are pure gold! I love them. I will be working with them from now on and definitely prefer them over other products that I used until now. 

Price:

Price factor is very important, especially with paints. You know how it is – you spill half of it, then use up like a one third and the rest dries out 😛 Just kidding, still I’m sure we can all agree that for many hobbyists pricing matters a lot. Just take a look at this:

• AK Interactive Sandy Desert 250ml = 8,95€ (10ml = 0,36€)
• Vallejo Desert Sand 200ml = 8,5€ (10ml = 0,42€)
• Games Workshop Armageddon Dust 24ml = 6,3€ (10ml = 2,62€)

What else is there to add? 🙂

Summary:

Except for the Wet Crackle, the AK – Interactive’s Terrains series is a solid 10/10. On top of being extremely easy to use and very efficient, the effects look great. Full recommendation on my end. 

I hope you enjoyed this little Review/Tutorial. Share your thoughts in the comments below. Cheers!

 

Where to buy:

You can get these straight from AK’s web store, or if you happen to live in Poland, go to a well equipped Vanaheim online store.