Ionic “Ioninks” are a joy to use – but perhaps not for everything (review)

Ammo MIG has expanded the Ionic Smart Colors family with a dedicated set of 12 inks. And on paper, the Ioninks look like the perfect companion to one of the hobby’s most exciting newer paint ranges. High chromatic intensity, high opacity, and a highly fluid formula all sound promising. In practice, though, the Ioninks carve out a more specific niche than you might expect. Here’s everything you need to know before you buy.

Ioninks reviewed: what’s in the range and how are they different?

Some time ago, Ammo MIG, now the sole distributor of the Ionic Smart Colours range, released a set of 12 Ionink Smart Inks. Unlike the main Ionic Smart Colors range (which I tested in detail with a video here), the Inks don’t come in 20ml flip-top bottles but in standard dropper bottles at 17ml. The colour selection covers the full colour wheel, with primary and secondary colours alongside Ionic Flesh Tone Ink, Ionic Brown Ink, Ionic White Ink, and Ionic Black Ink.

The Ioninks promise high-quality pigments with strong saturation and light resistance in a highly fluid acrylic base medium.

Opaque, glossy, and very much their own thing

One important distinction from traditional inks, as you might remember from the old Citadel Colour range, and from most Contrast-style paints: the Ioninks are opaque rather than transparent. As you can see on the test model below, primed white, the Orange Ink in particular has a notably high covering power for an ink. The Ioninks also dry with a pronounced gloss finish and behave like classic inks in terms of flow. They don’t produce the effect typical of Contrast-style paints, where the medium draws colour away from raised edges and into recesses to create that characteristic one-coat shading effect. Their primary application is therefore the classic one: glazing, blending, and intensifying colours.

Glazing and blending: where the Ioninks genuinely shine

For this Aeldari arm, I basecoated with Vallejo Model Color Sunset Red and then built up a gradient for the shadows using diluted Ionic Magenta Ink glazes. For the highlights, I mixed VMC Sunset Red with Ionic Pink from the main range.

The Ionic Magenta Ink has genuinely impressive chromatic intensity, feathering beautifully smoothly for blending and thinning down extremely well for glazing. That said, for this kind of application, I’d have preferred a more matte finish, similar to the inks from Green Stuff World (my review here). As you can see on the test arm, the glazed areas are quite noticeably glossy. Ionic Smart Colors have a soft, matte finish like many modern hobby paints, and a more matte ink would harmonise better with that in my opinion. Perhaps a matte medium would do the trick.

Candy coating test: execution is tricky

A glossy ink does, however, call for one technique in particular: candy coating. This involves airbrushing coloured inks as a colour filter over metallic paints to achieve an intensely tinted metallic effect. While excellent coloured metallic paints like Vallejo True Metallic Metal now exist (my review here), candy coating can still push the intensity a little further.

For the test, I airbrushed Ionic Blue Ink over a test model primed with a light silver, and Ionic Red Ink over gold, building up several thin layers from bottom left to top right to show the gradation. Both the Blue and Red Ink’s opacity work against them: very little of the silver and gold basecoat shows through, unless you just apply the thinnest coat possible. For candy coating, I’d recommend other products instead, such as Green Stuff World’s more transparent Candy Gloss Inks. The Ionic Brown Ink, Ionic Flesh Tone Ink, and Ionic Black Ink could, however, work well as deep shading washes over metallic paints applied with a brush. With metallics, the glossy finish isn’t an issue. If anything, it can be a welcome bonus.

Ionic White Ink in the airbrush: a pleasant surprise

Last but not least, I tested the Ionic White Ink through the airbrush. Inks carry finer pigments than regular acrylic paints, which can produce a finer spray pattern. Here you can see a zenithal highlight with Ionic White Ink over black primer, undiluted at around 30 to 35 PSI. The spray pattern is genuinely very fine with smooth transitions into the black. Airbrushing also takes some of the gloss off, leaving more of a satin finish.

The Ionic White Ink and the coloured inks would be a fine choice for OSL effects. It’s a shame the set of 12 doesn’t include a bright plasma turquoise.

All Ionic Smart Colors and inks in one handy colour swatch

Hand-painted and professionally digitised samples of all 12 Ioninks are now part of the Stahly Swatch System. If you already have an older version of the Ionic Smart Colours swatch, you can get a free update. If not, please check out my Patreon:

This hand-painted swatch is available in my Patreon shop for a small donation (or by becoming an Autarch tier member). I also have swatches for Pro Acryl, AK 3rd Gen, Vallejo Game & Model Color, Citadel Colour, and more – all cross-compatible with each other so you can compare colours across different brands. Check out my shop for details.

Where to get

You can find the latest hobby products at our 🇬🇧/🇪🇺 partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Firestorm Games, at 🇩🇪 Taschengelddieb and PK-Pro, and at 🇺🇸 Noble Knight Games with a welcome discount of up to 10 – 15% over RRP. Using our links helps to support Tale of Painters at no additional cost to you, so thank you very much for using them!

I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.