"A sand dune and the AK Gravel and Sand Fixer" Topic

Hi all,

I bought some AK Interactive Gravel and Sand Fixer lately and did experiment a bit with this product.

You'll find a detailed review with lots of pictures on my blog.

My conclusion:

The AK Interactive Gravel and Sand Fixer is a good product that is not a must buy, but comes in very handy when a matt, natural finish is important and a convenient product, that does not require premixing, is required. The ability to topcoat pieces with an airbrush is an added bonus.

The main advantage lies in the properties of the fixer, that is being absorbed quickly in the sand and fixing it in its current shape. While this is possible with PVA, it is more tedious and requires much more time.

I would thus recommend the fixer to people who work a lot with dry pigments, soils and sand, where preserving the colour and texture is important. At 14.99 NZ Dollars the product is cheap enough to give it a go and I think you won't regret it.

Here a picture of the dune I made using the fixer:

I am not entirely happy with the shape of the lines, but will experiment more and hopefully achieve a look that resembles more the archetypical dunes I have in mind.

I went for a Barchan dune to keep it simple for starters.

Some Numidian elephants pass a water hole:

Very nice dune!

That is spectacular.

Very nice dune!

Impressive!

However, the link to your blog is broken. Please provide a working one.

That is very nicely done work.

There were some extraneous letters and symbols in the original blog link posting:

link

Jim

I've found AK to be a mixed bag. Love the idea of a lot of their acrylic range, but the execution is all over the shop. Their enamels and weathering products are world class, but large chunks of it is more for scale modellers. Try Mighty Ape, they have the range and their Aus prices are very competitive.

Thank you for your comments and pointing out the broken link. Thank you also for posting a working one. I understand I can't change my post anymore after a certain period of time has passed?

So far I only used their pigment fixer and gravel and sand fixer. Both work well. Their pigments are good quality and reasonably priced. Seems they also have now a range of acrylic airbrush colours. Might be worthwhile of checking out.

So far I've found the acrylics disappointing. Great colors, in fact for a WW2 gamer they should be a one stop shop. But it's like the pigment and medium separate after ten minutes of shaking them, and they dry to "gunk your airbrush" level after five minutes in an open cup brush. They will dry slower mixed with at least a third of thinner or distilled water and in a cup with a lid, but still quicker than the vallejo model air and far quicker than tamiya…though that is a lacquer paint to be fair.

Great dunes !