Painting and Modeling: Using Army Painter Quick Shade

Before anyone starts to think this blog is only about Warmachine & Hordes, I thought I would bring back a panting guide I wrote up a little more than a year ago.

Almost anyone who likes playing miniatures games knows how frustrating it can be finding time to paint.  You want to bring good looking minis to the table, but you know that time is at a premium.

I had recently traded some stuff on Bartertown (www.bartertown.com) for a relatively large Ogre Kingdoms army for Warhammer Fantasy.  Most of the stuff I got was primered or unpainted so I thought I would sit down and try to quickly paint up a force that I wouldn't mind setting up on the table.

In doing so, I decided I'd try to use some of the Army Painter Quick Shade that I bought.  I'm not trying to push their product or anything, but I thought I would give a demo of what kind of results I got.  This is going to be a lot of pictures, so I apologize in advance if you're bandwidth starved.

I hope the pictures are good enough so that people who are interested can tell what I'm doing.  The miniature that I'm using is just an Ogre Bull with a handgun from one of the cavalry sprues.  The other closed-fist hand is just a normal hand with the sword carved off.  I'm trying to use him as a Maneater (even though he's not really customized to any extent).

I'll also preface this by saving I am not a "good" painter.  I've painted some miniatures I'm proud of in the past, but I don't have the patience to do anything more than tabletop quality in large quantities.  My painting environment is terrible.  I'm constantly distracted and I'm one of those people who paints out of the paint pot instead of using a palette (more specifically painting out of the lid after dropping in a drop or two of water to thin it out).  If I get 90-95% of the mold lines off I'm happy.  I don't drill out gun barrels, etc.

If you're a painter like me or even if you're just curious what the Quick Shade or "dip" method can do, read on.

1.  Prime the Miniature

In this case, I just used the GW Black Primer.  No big deal.

2.  Paint Flesh

I use multiple thin coats of Tallarn Flesh by GW.  I'm not very careful in where the paint goes at this stage.  I'm more interested in a strong, consistent flesh tone.

3.  Give him some pants

You can paint the pants whatever color you want.  I'm using Knarloc Green.  The quick shade will make it a little darker when it gets applied.  That's true for most of the colors so keep in mind things will change in tone.

4.  Paint the metal parts

I just use Boltgun Metal for most of the metal parts on the miniature.  This would include weapons, the gut plate, helmets, bottom parts of the shoes, plates on the wristguards or gauntlets, etc.

(As a side-note, someone who's really observant might notice that I forgot to paint the bottom of the boots before I took these pictures).

If something is going to be gold or bronze, I leave it for later.

5.  Boots and Belt

I paint the boots and the belt with Calthan Brown most of the time.  There are a lot of different shades of brown you could use though.

6.  Other Browns

And speaking of different shades of brown, I pick another one and get the rest of the brown stuff painted.  This can be the handles of weapons/clubs, belt pouches, parts of the pistol, wrist bands, and so on.

In this example, I'm using Battlefield Brown by Privateer Press and Snakebite Leather by GW.

7.  Teeth and Bones

Teeth and bones are painted in Dheneb Stone.

8.  Eyes

Those Ogre eyes are tiny little things.  I try to hit them with some Astronomicon Grey.  Usually I have to go back with Tallarn Flesh around the sockets when I miss the eye.

9.  Bronze or Gold Items

This is the only part where I use a wash.  I paint anything I want bronze with Shining Gold.  Then I go over it with a heavy wash of Ogryn Flesh.  Some people like the effect.  Some people don't.  In my example, I'm doing it to part of the pistol, part of the gutplate, and some of the spiky bits.

10.  Hair, Mustaches, Beards

Pick a color.  I'm using Greatcoat Grey by Privateer Press.

11.  Ready for Quick Shade

Here's some snapshots of the miniature before applying the Quick Shade stuff.  Notice that the models already look okay.  If you tossed a Devlan Mud Wash over the minis, they would probably look decent.  However, this isn't a demo of Devlan Mud Wash.  Let's get to the pics and then the dipping!

I took pictures of a couple of the Maneater's buddies too, just to show some additional examples.

12.  Apply the Quick Shade

There's a couple different ways to apply the Quick Shade.  On smaller models, I just use a drill and spin the miniature after dipping it.  I have a small alligator clip that I attached to a section of an old paintbrush.  I put that clip assembly into my drill, attach it to the miniature's base, submerge it upside down, and spin the mini around in a cardboard box to get off the excess goo.

The ogres are a little bigger so I use the "paint on" method.  I have an old GW tank brush I use.  This stuff will ruin the brush so make sure it's a paint brush you don't care about.  You want to paint on the Quick Shade while the miniature is held upside down.  That way, when you flip it back for drying, gravity will help put the goo where you want it.

You have to make sure you paint everywhere on the model.  If you miss a spot, it will be obvious when it starts to dry.

After I paint it on, I then have little rolls of torn up paper towel.  I use this to absorb some of the puddles of the Quick Shade that form.  Watch for joints, on weapon blades, and in places like the eye sockets, mouth, and ears.  In the picture below, you can see the paint brush I use and some of those torn up, rolled up paper towel pieces.

When the stuff dries, it will be shiny/glossy.  We'll take care of that with some Dullcoat spray, but only after the models have completely dried.  I've read that other people let it dry for 48 hours or so.  For the models in the pictures below, I waited about 36 hours (because I was impatient).

I use Testor's Dullcoat spray.  I apply it lightly and carefully.  The effect on the model is amazing.  All of a sudden those darker patches now look like shadows or dirt.  Metallic colors aren't overly shiny, making them look more realistic and weathered.

I will say that I tried this before with GW Purity Seal.  I will never use it again.  I let the Quick Shaded models sit for at least 2 days and applied the GW Purity Seal lightly and carefully (watching for humidity, temperature, etc.).  It ended up with a dusty gray haze on the models.  The metals of the weapons looked almost white.  I've been told that you can fix this by spraying another coat of the Purity Seal (or another sealant) on the models, but that didn't work for me.  Testor's Dullcoat hasn't let me down yet.

Anyway, here are the examples:

Here are some other ogres I did as well:

And the whole gang:

And just for some additional examples, here's a skeleton regiment and a LOTR dwarf:

If you assembly line your miniatures, you can really get things done quick.  I use multiple coats of thinner paint so I can just rotate through 4-5 minis at a time.  I haven't tried the paint-on Quick Shade method on bigger models like the Mournfang or Thundertusk, but I believe the steps would be the same.

Anyway, hope this helps.