Army Painter First Trial, In Which Lessons Are Learned…

Ed Watts once said that I put more work into a miniature for less result than anyone he knows and it is true, I am a pretty cowardly painter, always forgetting the two foot rule. When I am painting a figure I look at it too closely, forgetting that for the bulk of my troops as long as they look good from two feet away as they are moved on a gaming table they will be fine. As a result, I didn’t like the results the last time I tried a staining painting method a couple of years ago, the results were uneven and blotchy and far too unsubtle for me. Then I got to see Warlord Games painted Romans and Celts at Historicon and was convinced to give staining another go, using the Army Painter product they sell. They kindly sent me a can and this article is a summary of how my first experiment went with some tips on how I can do it better next time.

First here are some shots of some Dixon Dahomey War French Colonial Marines I have had around ‘nearly finished’ for years. They are primed white and have a light uniform color which I thought would make a great test case.

Click on the photos for full sized photos, the thumbnails are a bit less sharp than the originals.

French Colonial Marines, With Terrible, Yet Slowly Done Shading.

The Officer Pre-Dip.

As you can see the figures weren’t very inspiring, even by my standards…. Still it took a leap of faith to dip them into the can of Army Painter’s Strong Tone.

The First To Be Dipped. They Suggest Using Pliers To Hold The Figure While Dipping. I Did.

I Panic As I Take Him Out. What Have I Done!

Quickly Shake Off As Much As You Can Of The Excess. I Didn't Flick, I Should Have.

Now the figures have been dipped and they really look rough. Even with the excess shaken off they are way over cooked, I wiped some of the excess off with a paper towel, but I should have been far more aggressive at shaking or flicking the initial dip off, then using the paper towel to get pools of excess. I really wasn’t sure how it would dry at the this stage so I used a light hand in getting the excess off.

This Is The Figures While Still Very Wet, Pools Of Stain Still Visible.

They say let the stain dry for fourteen hours, I let them dry for a day. Here they are dry, but still glossy. Now I can clearly see where I should have been getting the excess out.

Figures Are Dry To The Touch, But Very Glossy.

Then I sprayed them with Dullcote and prayed it would kill the gloss. It did nicely recovering a couple of spots I was convinced couldn’t be recovered as I had let them pool too much.

Figures After A Coat of Dullcote.

A Second Shot Of The Squad With Dull Coat On.

The Officer Post Dip

Not The Overstains On The Back Of Some Helmets And On Some Of The Lower Trousers.

Now, this aren’t as nice as they could have been. I wasn’t cleaning the excess enough and that leaves some puddling that doesn’t look fantastic and bluntly said, these guys will never win a painting competition. However, I am not at all disappointed. I learned a lot hear about how the stain works and I think If I had another squad the next one would be much improved. I have some Vikings I need to base and prime and will post up the results here when they are done. As for this squad, well they are done now. I may touch up the bases on some where the stain was too heavy, but that is maybe five minutes more work. From two feet these guys look fine and I have a ton of figures in line to get done next. It gets pretty mucky in the jungle anyways…

To summarize, this was dead easy to do and I do think with a bit of practice I can lose the overstains I didn’t like.

1. I would say this will work best on figures primed white.
2. In their guide the say use the brown (strong tone) for lighter figures and the black (dark tone) for figures that require more contrast. I would suggest the black for anything primed in black as well.
3. Once dipped remove as much of the excess as you can, look for where the stain is pooling deeply and soak up those spots using a paper towel.
4. The figure will look glossy and a bit manky until you have a flat finish sprayed on them. Try not to panic like I did, it will be fine.