Vinta Ink - Teal (Andrada 1898)

In 1898, the Philippine Navy was founded and then decimated by American forces in 1899.  When WWII started the Philippines had no navy and was very exposed by the withdrawal of the US Asiatic fleet after Pearl Harbour.  The Philippines had to rely on offshore patrol boats  (OSP) of which they had five to ward off Japanese attacks from the sea. 

The unit of 5 boats was called the Mosquito fleet because they were not fazed by the superiority of the enemy.  Despite being small the unit was successful at fast and surprising attacks.  When the Japanese occupied in 1942 the men of the OSP either surrendered or continued to conduct guerrilla attacks until the Americans returned.

After the Philippines were liberated the OSP was reactivated and led by Major Jose Andrada, The OSP was strengthened in 1947 ultimately becoming the Philippine Navy in 1951.  Jose Andrada was the Navy's first commanding officer and became its first Commodore and Chief.  The ink is named after him.
When I bought inks from Vinta I didn’t think about buying this as the picture on their website really doesn’t do this ink any favours so I was happy when it came in my sample pack.  Vinta describe this as a teal ink with a red sheen.  The sheen is definitely there but I would call this a dark green rather than Teal ink.

Chromatography was heavy on the green but you can see a hint of the red on the left, there is also some bright blue.

On col-o-ring it is a darker green with a heavy red sheen. 

I have many blue inks with red sheen but it is rare to find a green ink that does this. The only other I can think of is Diamine November rain though that has a lighter base green colour.

There are a number of green inks that are a similar colour but without the sheen.  Pilots 100th Anniversary Hoteison  is the closest.
On Tomoe it is quite dark and more teal than green though still very dark.

For the writing a used a Leonardo Momento Zero with a medium nib.  It has taken me some time but I now understand why people rave about these pens.

On cheap paper the ink is a dark green with no hint of sheen.  Very slow to dry and a lot of show through.

On Tomoe again very dark but here as expected the sheen makes an appearance, it is the sheen that makes the ink appear darker than a teal..

Rhodia paper very dark green no sheen.

This ink is very reasonably priced and I know I am repeating myself but, the packaging is nice but the bottle is going to become increasingly impractical as it empties.  The ink flows well, there was no hard start but  it doesn’t dry very quickly.  When I reviewed a couple of the Vinta shimmer inks I found the the look inconsistent and that is what I am finding with the sheen here.  I accept that cheaper papers do not always do inks justice but Rhodia is also considered a good quality paper and I was disappointed to see virtually no sheen, if I had used a broad or stub nib I suspect it would have been different.  I expect to see at least a hint of sheen with any nib.
In summary –
Saturation – high
Shading – no
Sheen – yes but seeing it is dependent on the paper used
Flow - good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep – none
Start-up – immediate
Feathering – nil
Drying – slow
Cleaning – Requires a bit of work but not as much as a Krishna or Organics Studio sheener
Water resistance – not sold as waterproof and quite rightly so, very disappointing after the Vinta pastel inks w.r.t to being waterproof