Interlude: Dipping - a UK comparison of Quickshade and two UK based varnishes

When I am not painting up old bits of lead, I am also painting up various armies for use with Hordes Of The Things (HOTT). This usually involves me ransacking various old games such as Battle Masters, Hero Quest and Dark World for the miniatures, which are then used to make up the rank and file aka sword fodder.

The majority of these miniatures are painted for tabletop use, and I've previously had good results with a furniture varnish by Blackfriar - I use the Dark Jacobean colour. However, I was given two tins of Army Painter Quickshade - one tin of Strong, one of Dark - and I thought I'd post how they compared. In addition, a friend had suggested using Wilkinsons own brand Walnut Satin Woodstain, so a tin of that was acquired.

I've tried to summarise my findings below by assigning a rating between 1 (poor) and 5 (good) for each of the following categories:

• Price
• Preparation for dipping
• Application of dipping
• Drying time

Price
Army Painter Quickshade Strong - £16. 2/5
Army Painter Quickshade Dark - £16. 2/5
Wilkinsons Satin Woodstain - £4.20. 5/5
Blackfriar Dark Jacobean - £7.29. 4/5

And here are the contestants - 4 archers from Battle Masters. all painted in the same base colours:

 
Preparation
Army Painter Quickshade Strong - just shake the tin. Easy. 4/5.
Army Painter Quickshade Dark - just shake the tin. Easy. 4/5.
Wilkinsons Satin Woodstain - needs LOTS of stirring and associated mess. 2/5.
Blackfriar Dark Jacobean - needs stirring and associated mess. 3/5.

Application - this was done with a brush, with the figure held upside down.
Army Painter Quickshade Strong - smooth, easy to apply, little or no pooling. 4/5.
Army Painter Quickshade Dark - smooth, easy to apply, little or no pooling. 4/5.
Wilkinsons Satin Woodstain - awful, really sticky and thick. Lots of pooling. 2/5.
Blackfriar Dark Jacobean - thicker than Quickshade, bit sticky to apply, bit of pooling. 3/5.

In all cases, the brush could be cleaned with White Spirits, as long as the brush was cleaned before the varnish dried!

Drying time
Army Painter Quickshade Strong - good, touch dry in 3-4 hours. 4/5.
Army Painter Quickshade Dark - good, touch dry in 3-4 hours. 4/5.
Wilkinsons Satin Woodstain - fast! Touch dry in 2 hours. 5/5.
Blackfriar Dark Jacobean - slow. Needed to be left overnight. 3/5.

Here are the figures after the drying:

And finally, after a coat of Dullcote:

My conclusion is that whilst Quickshade dips are expensive, the Dark version delivered what I wanted - easy to use, quick drying, and the figure looked good enough for general tabletop use.

If cost was an issue - then Blackfriar varnish is a definite alternative, if you can live with the stickiness of application to the figure and the extended drying time.

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM43 Giant Griffon with GW Eagle wings

Now this is a bit of an oddity. I originally acquired just the body as part of a job lot – no sign of the original wings – and I was going to pass it on an incomplete miniature. As I was digging through the bits box, I stumbled across a pair of wings from a Games Workshop Eagle… but with no eagle body. Asgard body, meet GW wings.

Now, I am not a fan of winged miniatures. They take up too much space, the wings get chipped and break off far too easily, and worst of all they gather dust. But I like a challenge…

 

The wings actually fitted on to the body quite well using a few dabs of superglue, followed up with Milliput to make the join a bit less obvious. After that, white primer, then base coats of dark brown and yellow for the body and upper wings, and then dark gray for the lower wing tips – and then a wash of Army Painter Soft tone, and lots of lots and LOTS of dry brushing, especially on the lower wing tips. The GW wings really benefited from this – the Asgard body less so. As with so many Asgard miniatures (especially the large ones), the quality of sculpting is really coarse – the claws in particular were just indentations on the paws - and the GW wings did tend to show that up.
  
The figure needed a decent sized base to make it stable, but it did look empty – so the heads of victims were added, which are just GW plastic heads and various bits and pieces painted up in suitably decaying colours.

I was fairly pleased with this - it might even get some table top time for wilderness encounters. Not too bad for a late 70’s basic sculpt and a dodgy conversion job!

Grenadier Fantasy Lords 2nd Series 009 Titan

Titan: an enormous, powerful, and godly outsider. Though titans are supposedly of both chaotic good and chaotic evil alignments, the majority of them seem to be good, and hence, those are the ones which will be described here. In appearance, a good titan resembles an enormous (25 feet tall) humanoid, with perfect beauty and strength. They are hardy and muscular, but nonetheless extremely handsome/beautiful. Every aspect of them (teeth, hair, etc.) is also perfect.

When this nugget was extracted from the Lead Mountain, my immediate reaction was WOW – what a figure! It is fabulous bit of metal – large scale (look at the Grenadier-Copplestone Wood Elf next to it), and really well sculpted – lots of detail, and a great pose. I’d acquired this figure in job lot, and originally it had been quite badly painted, but I’d stripped that off and was determined to try and make a decent stab at it. 
With something this size, I thought the best thing would be to keep the paint job as simple as possible, so not to distract from the figure. The helmet, breastplate, shield and greaves were just base gold, whilst the tunic was white, against standard flesh tones. I went for a red plume on the helmet for a contrast against the gold and white, and also because the figure reminded me of the Spartans from 300!

After that – a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone, which really brought out the detail and gave the helmet, breastplate and shield a good polished bronze appearance, followed by lots and lots of dry brushing. I deliberately kept the base as simple and as cluttered as possible – it's just GW sand, inked over and then dry brushed.

I am very pleased with the way this one turned out!

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM75 Huge Spider - Unknown Barrow Wight - Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM96 Vampire Bat

Just a minor update of some miniatures I’ve been working on. First up, the Asgard giant spider - I'd previously posted it here, but I wasn't especially happy with the photos, so I've added it again here as part of a group. Oddly enough it looks far better at a distance!

In the middle… an unknown. This came as part of a job lot, and the base was missing or had been cut off, so I have no idea who the manufacturer is. I think it’s a barrow wight – the crown suggests that – but I can’t confirm it. A Lich maybe? I’ve searched for similar figures and found one other owner, but they have no idea who made it either! Any thoughts on who the manufacturer is gratefully received! The actual paint job was fairly simple – light green, then GW Beltain green, then dry brushing, with the face and crown picked out. The base is simply flock with a few strands of cotton wool to suggest mist! Whilst I was fairly happy with the paint job, I thought it did bring out how coarse the sculpting is – the face of the wight/Lich in particular isn’t that great. Still, I like the sculpt and the figure – I think it is very atmospheric – and I can see this getting a lot of table top time.

Lastly, the Asgard Vampire bat. Quite an easy figure to paint; browns and grays, then Army Painter Dark tone, followed by dry brushing. Simples! Having said that – I honestly can’t see it getting much table top time. It’s not a particularly dynamic figure – I think most Role Players would have preferred a figure in flight, rather than having something scrabbling along the dungeon floor. From what I can make out, it wasn’t a particular popular piece, and it’s fairly rare now. One for the collectors than the players, I think!

Citadel Advanced Dungeons and Dragons C34 Water Elemental

What’s this? A DOUBLE posting?!?! Well, seeing as the weather is good, I’ve taken the opportunity to varnish up as many figures as I can.

This was the next figure to be extracted from the Lead Mountain. I think this is a fantastic figure – fabulous sculpting, lots of detail, with a great pose. It really makes you realise how good some of the early Citadel stuff was. The hardest thing was building up the base so that it seemed like the figure was emerging from a pool of water – this was just white Milliput built up into waves.

The paint job was really easy – light blue base colour, then blue ink, then lots and lots of dry brushing in varying shades of blue, eventually ending up with white for the foam on top of  the elemental’s head and back. Simples! I usually give my figures a final spray of Dullcote, but I kept a satin varnish finish on this one, and I really think it helps give an impression of water.

Again, very pleased with the way this one turned out, and I can see it getting a bit of table top action – more than the Naga Spirit any how!

Grenadier Advanced Dungeons and Dragons large boxed sets 5002 Monsters Naga Spirit

Nagas spirits are the most powerful type of naga. They have a human head on a snake body and are akin to witches, among the naga races. They are even more mysterious and enigmatic than the others of their kind, seeking lost magic to a fanatical extent. They delight in causing suffering and death with the powers they possess.  

It’s been a while since I posted, not because I haven’t been painting – it’s just that the vile English weather has meant nothing but rain and high humidity for the last couple of weeks, which means no varnishing. However, I’ve had a couple of days of blue skies, so I’ve had opportunity to apply a couple of coats to the latest batch of figures.

Next out of the Lead Mountain was this early nugget from Grenadier. I was NOT enthused – as I’ve said before, a lot of the early Grenadier figures were very poorly sculpted, with little or no detail, and my initial reaction was that this one fell into that category. Still, out with the brushes.

It’s a simple figure, so I made a deliberate decision to keep the paint job simple – just two colours, red and yellow. I was going to go for black and red, but black isn't the easiest colour to paint, and I thought this figure needed all the help it could get. I also decided that I would have it rising out of sorcerous flames – after all, it’s a magic using spirit naga, so why not? – and the base was just white Milliput moulded into the form of flames.

The paint job was nice and easy – base reds and yellows, then a couple of Games Workshop washes, then lots of dry brushing, to bring up the yellow and also to try and brush in the gradual change from red to orange to yellow.  I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail that came up – obviously not as much as modern figures, but still pretty good for early Grenadier. The face of the naga didn’t give much joy, so I kept it simple and just painted glaring blood red eyes. Christopher Lee, eat your heart out!

I was quite pleased with the way this one turned out – I had very low expectations of the figure, and it came out quite well. Can’t see it getting much table top time though.

Grenadier Fantasy Lords box set 6004 Monsters of Mythology M1 Chimera

The Chimera was, according to Greek mythology, a fire-breathing creature composed of the parts of three animals – a lion, a snake and a goat. It is usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that ended in a snake's head. 

Next from the Lead Mountain was this gem by John Dennett. Initially I was a bit underwhelmed - it looked a bit ridiculous to be honest, and I have always thought a Chimera was a weird idea for a monster anyway. You can see why a lion or a snake would be feared, but a goat!?!

As soon as I started to paint this up, I appreciated what a well sculpted figure this is – lots of detail, which really came to the forefront with a wash and then highlighting. The figure itself was a pleasure to paint – yellows and browns for the lion, a red and yellow design for the snake, and grey with white highlights for the goat. Simples!

I was really pleased with the final product – it’s a great figure, one of Grenadier’s best IMHO – very dynamic, and for once it gives an idea of how the Chimera might work as creature in D&D. You have the fire breathing lion with claws and teeth to drag down and savage adventurers, whilst the snake watches out for any one trying a stealth attack at the business end of things!

And the goat? The goat acts as a lookout whilst the lion and snake sleep - as soon as it sees or hears anything, it bleats and wakes them up!

Very pleased with the way this one turned out!