When GW came out with their washes, I remember a lot of enthusiasm and proud pictures going up, of people using them on basecoated figures. The results looked nice and we tried duplicating them, but to no effect.
We then left them aside and didn't think anything of it till Jason Bickford asked us to use some Devlan Mud on his Skaven, rather than dipping them. Here are the results:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105582963113829861589/JasonBickfordSkavenAndLizardmen#5737805490949723522
I fell out of my chair, and promptly stole the idea. It was quite simple really, and something I'm sure everyone else has been doing for a while now - just a 1:1 mix of the wash, and water. That's it. A single coat, and your done.
In our earlier tests we had tried doing multiple thin coats, and that just didn't gave us anywhere near these results.
We did a few tests after that, but the definite one was these that we did for Kevin Worden using a mix of Badab Black and Gryphone Sepia:
These are much cleaner and easier to do than regular, polyurethane dipping like the Army Painter series. They dry matte, and they dry quick -- especially given the tropical climate out here, drying time for polyurethane has never been something I've been fond of.
It's a little pricier per figure to use the Washes - or rather the "Shades" as GW has rebranded them, but I think it's completely worth it. You get a much better look, for far less time, and its much easier to clean up if you make any mistakes.
It's a little pricier per figure to use the Washes - or rather the "Shades" as GW has rebranded them, but I think it's completely worth it. You get a much better look, for far less time, and its much easier to clean up if you make any mistakes.
So that's our big secret for how we're doing "dipping" from now on. We're really just using the GW Shades, and yes, I think we really have been the last people to have figured this out!
Cheers and be well,
Cheers and be well,
Navin
I'm a big fan of Devlan Mud myself. :)
ReplyDeleteI think you can do with more pooling on the skavens to further delineate the lines between colours, like say around the eyes.
Hey Navin,
ReplyDeletehave you tried using the new GW washes that have replaced the older style Dev Mud? I found they were slightly different in consistency, so you might find a slightly different end result. Army painter ink (the bottle version of their dip) is pretty much the same as Dev Mud though, so there are alternatives.
Only trouble with mass washing like this is it can lead to a slight homogenisation of tone and contrast that leaves models looking a bit flat. Not the end of the world for mass scale units like skaven though!
Shame you found the wonders of Dev Mud after it is no longer for sale :(
Thanks Cap, I'll give that a go and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon, appreciate your post. We have indeed been using their new "shades."
Good to hear Army Painter has come out with a non-polyurethane solution.
Shame indeed!
I'm curious - do you still dip and shake the excess off models, or do you just let the diluted wash sit on the model? I've never dipped myself, but I'm not liking the results of just slopping on a shade straight out of the bottle.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout out Navin! I'm so glad you like and use the wash idea! My friends and others are always surprised at how easy it is when I explain it. I don't have a lot of time to paint, but can get quite a decent result with this when I do.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your great work!
Jason Bickford
Sorry, just saw the new posts. Burns, we don't shake off the excess. Any excess, you can just pick up with the brush and move elsewhere. It makes for a much more even result.
ReplyDeleteJason, this has been a big help for us. Our dipping now blows anything else in the same range out of the water by a country mile.
Thanks.