Ok, I’m totally confused about which pastels to use. Until I got into Armorama my bibles for modeling were the two books by Shep Paine, “Modeling Tanks and Military Vehicles, and “How to build dioramas.” In the first book, and also the second I think, Paine says this about pastels; “The ones you want are soft artist’s pastels, not the hard blackboard sticks.” A while back though, in a thread called “Using pastels” Kencelot replied, “The pastels to buy are the chalky type. Oil pastels are no use for modelling.”

I have a box of pastels that I bought at a craft store even before I started modeling, knowing I was going to want them. The box says; “Soft Pastels for Artist’s and it’s made by a company called Mungvo. There are 12 sticks ranging from what I would call ochre to a black, with several tans, oranges, and browns. Are these the right pastels or not?

I understand where the confusion comes from - Chalk you use in school and colored chalk that kids use to draw on the driveway typically are very hard (or were when Shep wrote the books) and brittle. Artists pastels are chalky but softer, finer grains of chalk so to speak.
Oil pastels are out (IMHO). They are to hard tow work with and don't spread well.

Here is the test to see if you have the right kind...
Take a pastel and rub the back (dull) side of a #11 blade on you knife against it - does it produce a Very fine chalk powder that falls to the hobby table? Or does it stick to the blade more like a paste? The oil kind are a bit more sticky and pasty. The dust is very fine.
Typically, the oils are round while the chalks are square.

Bottom line: if you go to an art store, you only have two choices, oil or chalk pastels. go with the chalk. While Scott's knife test will work well once you have bought them, testing them that way in the store could present some security issues. However, you can get much the same result by just lightly rubbing your finger on the chalk. If you have fine, dry residue, you'll have the right one.

#:-) Good Point Al #:-)
Shop keepers will get a bit peeved if you do that before you lay out the $

Thank you both, and especially you Slodder. Based on your blade test I've got the right kind. I got a nice pile of fine dust and no paste on the blade at all. This, btw, is also a much better way to get that dust, rubbing the blade on in, than trying to rub it on sandpaper. The only time I tried using these pastels I rubbed them on sandpaper and all I got was dirty sandpaper. Another case of Armorama being superior to Shep Paine, not that he's a slouch, but you guys do this every day.

Thanks again.

If you haven't figured it out, you can also mix colors to get just the right shade, as you would with paint. I've always used the edge of a #11 to get my pastel dust. The lighter you run the blade over, the finer the dust.