Gamma "raduga-2" Red Ink Review

[Intensity]

Recently an interesting ink landed on my desk, courtesy of an exciting PIF by Amberleadavis. This Russian ink is by Gamma from a "Raduga-2" (Rainbow-2) product series in red color.

 

 

I did not know what to expect, so I opened the bottle and gave it a sniff, out of curiosity. There's a bit of a chemical smell to the ink that brought on a wave of nostalgia: it reminded me of old pigment inks I used to use as a child; when they were mixed with water, I could smell something similar. Of course it's been some long time since, so I could be wrong, but I definitely had a strong association with this scent and some paints from my early years.

 

The nostalgia did not end there! When I first filled a fairly dry pen with the ink and wrote a few lines, I was immediately reminded of old red ballpoint ink I used to use, also in my school days. This ink makes a very convincing imitation of such an ink, particularly when used with a fine-medium round point fountain pen with conservative flow.

 

It's not really an inspiring kind of ink with great complexity, but a fairly basic pinkish-murkyish watery red. Dry, low lubrication, flushes out easily from a pen. Water resistance is low, but some ink does remain after a water spill, though fuzzy and not very clear unless washed neatly and dabbed with a clean tissue right away.

 

This kind of ink works really well in a flexy pen, because the dry, translucent consistency is very "buildable", resulting in more noticeable shading. Thus I switched to an FPR Himalaya fountain pen with an ultraflex nib and a high-flow ebonite feed for the bulk of images in this post. Otherwise you might expect a look such as an example on Tomoe River paper below.

 

Color: Translucent red with some definite pink components, but also not a "clean" color. There's a note of wine red to it, with a light murky grayish-brown tinge. It will shift between more red-pink and brownish-red depending on ambient light conditions.

 

 

Scan of a Fabirano Bioprima paper sheet - less pink in person:

 

 

Scan, with some other inks for color context:

 

 

Close-up photographs, more color-accurate than the scan:

 

 

 

 

 

On Tomoe River:

 

 

Thank you, Amberleadavis, for this curious blast from the past!

Edited June 23, 2020 by Intensity

[DrDebG]

Great review! Thank you. This isn't really my color of red though.

[LizEF]

Thanks! That was a great review!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Beautiful review of an unfamiliar ink!

[Intensity]

Oops, I forgot to add a photograph of the Col-o-Ring splash, fixed.

[Eclipse157]

Beautiful review, thank you!

[TSherbs]

Puts my review in the for amateurs only section!

[yazeh]

Thanks for sharing the story and memories...... I'm not sure if the ink deserves it, but then again, anything that provokes memories like a Madeleine dunked in a cup of tea is worthwhile that moment

[amberleadavis]

This is a fabulous review much better than I would have done thank you.

[Zookie]

That is a wonderful review! Thank you!!