Army Painter's Quick Shade, GW's Washes/Shades

[Brother Christopher]

I need your advice. I need to quickly paint a couple of models (20-30 miniatures) in brighter colours than black :D. As most of my minis so far are Black Templars, I never cared much about anything. Highlighting was almost all I needed. I also have 2 washes which seem the most universal ones: Devlan Mud and Badab Black.

 

Could you tell me what's the difference between the two products? I mean, Quick Shade and Washes/Shades? As far as I'm concerned, they are essentially the same. They differ in the suggested way of application: you dip your minis in the former, while the latter is applied by a paint brush. The real difference is that Army Painter's product is expensive, but comes in a huge can, while GW's washes are smaller and cheaper. I don't need a lot of the stuff --just for those 20-30 models--so I suppose that after buying Quick Shade, I'd end up with a lot of it remaining and slowly setting in the can. Would you say that I'd get similar results with the washes I have (or their replacements from the current line of products) as with the Quick Shade?

[Akesis]

GW washes and glazes are pretty nice from my experience. I would just go with that if you are not intending to do a lot of washes.

[Chaeron]

If you look at the Army Painter washes, they're arguably better than GW's.

The big thing I never realised prior to getting the Army Painter large cans is that they're varnishes also - meaning that everything comes out glossy, and whilst protected, may not be the look you're going for.

 

I wholeheartedly swear by the smaller Army Painter inks and thought this would also be a money saver to get the tins - but they're very different. The effect is excellent mind - but wasn't what I wanted. It also can be easily applied via paint brush, if that's a concern, to avoid wastage.

 

In short - Quickshade is great. Dark Tone and Strong Tone washes are probably better. GW's stuff is fine - no problems with it, but it isn't as good as it used to be.

[GhostLegion]

the army painter system quick shades are similar to a wood stain.  basically put, they help deepen colors on the model, add deeper shadow to recesses, and generally tone down the overall paint scheme you have going.  best to think of it as a dip...its not really like the washes and shades that gw has as those are colored.

 

that being said, I do tend to like the mid tone quick shade for large projects and it does paint on well...but it does require turpentine.  this has strange effects on water based paints if youre thinking of thinning down the quickshade and painting it on.  this works, but be careful how/where youre applying and make sure there is more shade than turpentine on your brush...ive had this mistake before...happy accident as bob ross said.

 

brief and blunt.  GW shade/wash advantage: colored within their paint range.  generally stays where you want it.  easy to do paint tricks with

Army Painter advantage: shade over whole area of model without changing color directly.  nice thick shade.  easy to dip/flick.

 

GW disadvantage: kinda runny/wet. small pots.  significantly matte.

Army Painter disadvantage: requires turpentine.  designed for dipping.  leaves high gloss shine on cure.

 

that's just how I see it in my experience.

 

[Gurth]

the army painter system quick shades are similar to a wood stain.

And you can get the same effect for half the price with a tin of tinted varnish/transparent wood paint from a hardware store The main difficulty is choosing a shade that will work with the colours your models have, since these are really only sold in shades of brown and grey (in my area anyway), but you can even make your own with a tin of clear varnish and a tube of paint pigment. Be sure to buy a type that can be cleaned up with water in either case.

Also note that you don't need to "dip" models into it — you can paint on the shade with a brush too.

[Brother Christopher]

First of all, thanks for your answers! Maybe I'll actually go for the Quick Shade... I'll do the Marine models first and then use the rest to finally paint my board games' miniatures from Descent and Rune Wars and others. For those smaller and less detailed figures Quick Shade appears to be a perfect solution - I'll just apply a base layer of paint, then dip it and it should look nice on the board.

 

BTW: Should I get Army Painter Matt Varnish, if I don't want my minis to be glossy after applying Quick Shade?

[Gurth]

Any matt varnish will do, but having tried the Army Painter one just today, I have to say theirs seems to be a pretty good one.

[Chaeron]

First of all, thanks for your answers! Maybe I'll actually go for the Quick Shade... I'll do the Marine models first and then use the rest to finally paint my board games' miniatures from Descent and Rune Wars and others. For those smaller and less detailed figures Quick Shade appears to be a perfect solution - I'll just apply a base layer of paint, then dip it and it should look nice on the board.

 

BTW: Should I get Army Painter Matt Varnish, if I don't want my minis to be glossy after applying Quick Shade?

 

Yup. Have a look in my sig at the contrast between inks and the varnish...

[GhostLegion]

I think both the army painter matte and gw spray on matte are about equal.  both flatten the shine very well.  having used the gw matte varnish spray over army painter strong shade, I found it to result in an almost cell shaded appearance to the figures.

 

now if youre wanting to do any special effects with shine/varnish, they youre going to have to do some reworking of the paint and varnishing to get it right...I did at least...but then I do like working with matte, satin, and gloss varnishes when I am working specific models (not as a general rule in otherwords).

 

[Kastor Krieg]

Yes, Army Painter Matt Varnish is good, just as well as Talen's Acryllic Picture Varnish Matt (you get that easily and cheaply in a shop for artists).

Here's an example of a simple paintjob done with the Dark Tone Army Painter Quickshade, over a simple paint job (just put the primary colors there, really, nothing more is needed). It's how it looks before a matte varnish, a really glossy effect when it sets.