Posca Paint Pens

 I was recently admiring the serial numbers on Tims 54mm Lonestar Bren carriers and he mentioned that he'd done them with Posca paint pens. I'm always on the hunt for a decent paint pen, and I easily found a set on Amazon, although for those less impatient I gather cheaper sources are available (I think they even sell them in Rymans).

The standard set are 0.7mm nibs in a range of colours from black through to white, although some of them are a bit pastel for wargaming use. I'll mainly end up using the white, and maybe the red, yellow and blue for British tank squadron markings as well as sorting out unit labels.

I had some lorries which needed the windscreens highlighting, so I tried the white pen. It tooks lots of shaking and nib depression to get going, but once it was primed it worked fine with a nice even flow, certainly more even than my efforts with a brush.

tbh on 15mm stuff, 0.7mm is a bit on the thick side, but OK. I can paint smaller with a brush, but this is so much easier.

I had a go at an Afrika Korps symbol on the side of the truck. Again, it is OK but a bit on the thick side for finely detailed formation signs. It worked fine for doing the background of number plates though, and for turret and aircraft markings it will also be fine.

Where it really shines is unit labels. For reference the squares of magnabase are 8mm x 8mm, and the text of unit type is generally how large I do them with a brush (so 3-4mm lettering).

I also tried it for German two colour style turret numbers. The width is v ery consistent, so the red paint pen obliterated then white background. However, a 07mm paint pen white background with my black 0.3mm lining pen was perfect.

So, on balance a reasonable addition to my modelling supplies. I expect I'll mainly be using the white pen, so I'll see how feasible it is to get single replacements in due course. The silver and gold pens have much thicker nibs, so more useful for headlamps, MG ammo belts etc.