Any suggestions for bulk-shading terrain and/or alternatives to Agrax Earthshade?

[Halandaar]

I need to paint up a bunch of new terrain and I'd like to have it consistent with my existing stuff, as far as possible. The previous terrain was mostly achieved with a simple scheme of spraying it with the rattle can of the base colour i wanted (Leadbelcher for gantries/pipes, Averland Sunset for Mechanicus stuff and Ryza ruins, Zandri Dust for Sector Imperialis stuff), picking out the relevant detail colours and then just washing the whole lot in a liberal coat of Agrax Earthshade to dirty it up a bit.

Given the amount I'm looking to do, I'd like to try and be a bit more cost effective than just buying a load of Agrax, and given that they've changed the recipe I'm not sure it will even give the same effect I had before anyway. So, does anybody know of anything close-ish in effect to Agrax? (and ideally, available in bulk/cheaper than GW!)

Thanks!

[MARK0SIAN]

When I had to wash a bunch of zone mortalis terrain I just made up a wash with white spirit and some oil paints. I spray varnished the pieces first then mixed a wash by combing black and burnt umber until I had the colour I wanted. It's very easy to change the shade of it to suit what you want and enough stuff for an entire zone mortalis board cost me less than £10.

[Karhedron]

For washing big stuff like buildings, I just make my own wash using cheap artists acrylics. I use a mix of black and brown (burnt umber) with a small amount of white mixed in to add a greyish tone. Then I just thin it with water and apply. A bit crude but find for blocky stuff like terrain and far cheaper.

[Grotsmasha]

Luke from Geek Gaming Scenics has made a video on bulk making your on washes

 

 

[Arkhanist]

Army Painter quickshade dip is an oil based product that comes in a big tin - far lower cost per ml than agrax. Just apply it with a painters brush (half inch or the like), or cosmetic sponges if you have any. I find it's easiest to let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then use a clean brush or sponge to soak up/brush off any heavy pooling, same as as acrylic wash - you tend to get it build up around the bottom of the terrain. You'll want something under it to protect your desk etc, as some will drip off, it's quite goopy. Do not use paper towel, as it will become part of the terrain... A glove on your painting hand to avoid worrying about splatter when doing large pieces like terrain is also a good idea.

Strong Tone dip is not an identical colour to agrax, but it's damn close. Being oil based it seeks the crevices better than acrylic washes and gives a nice graduated shading.

You can do a normal highlight (e.g. drybrushing) on top of the dip once it's dry. Dip does dry hard and glossy after a couple of hours, so nice and robust to protect terrain, but you'll need a matt varnish of some sort to finish it off.

You will need some form of oil paint stripper to clean your brush such as mineral spirits or turpentine, and obviously don't use an expensive brush for this; one advantage of the sponges is they're so cheap you can just bin them after they get fully saturated.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Arkhanist

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

  On 7/11/2022 at 3:11 PM, Arkhanist said:

Army Painter quickshade dip is an oil based product that comes in a big tin - far lower cost per ml than agrax. Just apply it with a painters brush (half inch or the like), or cosmetic sponges if you have any. I find it's easiest to let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then use a clean brush or sponge to soak up/brush off any heavy pooling, same as as acrylic wash - you tend to get it build up around the bottom of the terrain. You'll want something under it to protect your desk etc, as some will drip off, it's quite goopy. Do not use paper towel, as it will become part of the terrain... A glove on your painting hand to avoid worrying about splatter when doing large pieces like terrain is also a good idea.

Strong Tone dip is not an identical colour to agrax, but it's damn close. Being oil based it seeks the crevices better than acrylic washes and gives a nice graduated shading.

You can do a normal highlight (e.g. drybrushing) on top of the dip once it's dry. Dip does dry hard and glossy after a couple of hours, so nice and robust to protect terrain, but you'll need a matt varnish of some sort to finish it off.

You will need some form of oil paint stripper to clean your brush such as mineral spirits or turpentine, and obviously don't use an expensive brush for this; one advantage of the sponges is they're so cheap you can just bin them after they get fully saturated.

 

Expand  

While I wouldn’t use this stuff on minis as it can make a mess of them and you’ve got Buckley’s chance of being able to strip them and start again, using this stuff for terrain is great because terrain doesn’t need to be as neat, but as a bonus it is really durable and provides a good protective coat for the paint underneath, which is great for terrain as it tends to get knocked around a bit. Behaves similar to Contrast but it has a much longer drying time. You may want to add a matte coat over the top, as it can be a bit glossy. Don’t have any pics as my terrain is in storage and will be for the foreseeable future. It can be messy so you’ll want protect any surfaces and preferably do it somewhere where you won’t get in trouble from your Mum, wife/GF, landlord or other authority figure if you make a mess.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Captain Smashy Pants

[Maker666]

I don't know if anyone is still reading this, but there are a lot of paints out there that you can use right now, but I would go for the Green Stuff World dipping inks for price and quantity of product. There are other contrast type paints on the market but they are all expensive for what you want to do.

[Firedrake Cordova]

We generally don't continue threads this old, @Maker666, although bringing the GSW product to people's attention is appreciated.  

 

Home-made is one way to go with bulk usage. Matt Sterbenz has a recipe for Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil that's pretty accurate, and you've got Lester Bursley's more generic recipes, too - both use acrylic inks and medium.

Edited January 30 by Firedrake Cordova

[Grotsmasha]

IIRC, Midwinter Minis on YouTube also has a tutorial for homemade washes.

[Grotsmasha]

  On 7/11/2022 at 12:10 PM, Grotsmasha said:

Luke from Geek Gaming Scenics has made a video on bulk making your on washes

 

 

Expand  

 

@Deus_Ex_Machina just reminded me of this one too

[tychobi]

Oil paint. Dab a dash of pure paint and then scootch it around with a brush full of thinner. Cheap paint and thinner work fine. Can cover a lot of model very quickly. Good luck!

[Evil Eye]

Oils are definitely a good idea. They can be made as thin as you want, they're extremely workable (and soothing to blend to boot) and incredibly efficient, as a small amount of oil paint can be thinned into a truly vast quantity of wash.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I've used a chestnut coloured craft paint (don't remember the brand, but basically any cheap desaturated dark brown acrylic paint from the painting section of any large craft store) to good effect - its what I used to wash the terrain I posted here.  Another example is here.

 

Or, if doing more metallic terrain, such as that here, I prefer to a use a redder brown - I think for these I used GW's Scrag Brown.  Other examples are here and here.  For the copper terrain in some of those, its also a cheap acrylic craft paint - though, dark green rather than brown.

 

Hope that helps.

Edited February 6 by Dr_Ruminahui