Acrylic Color SUN-BLEACHED BONE

Bone dried out by the sun, not white

Bone bleached by the sun is a long way from white: it is yellowed, slightly toward gray and above all it does not glow. Sun-Bleached Bone follows that property, so it becomes a practical substitute for white everywhere a pure white would look like plastic. Skulls on bases, horns, tusks, bones in the desert, the bleached wood of wrecks and twigs in nests, all of that is its field.

The second role is one of the palette. It serves as a brightener: mixed into a brown, a khaki or a flesh color it raises the lightness without cooling the tone, which pure white will never manage. A modeler thus builds the transition from the shadow to the highest point without a jump into a chalky impression.

Recommended procedure

• on a brown base pull out the edges and projections with a dry brush
• underpaint the deeper cracks with a thin brown shade
• on a large area lay two thin coats instead of one heavy one
• shake the bottle before work, the ball inside disperses the pigment

The dried surface is matte and dry to look at, which with bones decides more than the accuracy of the shade. Glossy bone looks like porcelain, matte bone like something found in the soil. If the model is given a final protective coat, choose the matte variant as well.

The shade thins with water and mixes with other colors of the same line. For an airbrush thin it slightly with acrylic thinner; for work with a brush it needs no adjustment and covers straight from the bottle.

When storing, stand the bottle cap upward and do not leave it lying in the sun. Light pigments take swings in temperature worse than dark ones and after chilling they need longer shaking before they disperse again.