Thanks to the new GW washes this wasn’t a total disaster. Here is the finished set, replete with crashed lander, or landed crasher. Aquila, just pwerful enough that it can just barely kill you.

I used the black MIG powder mixed with silver and some Calthan Brown GW foundation paint for the scrapes and ground bits, the chicken pit area is Catachan Green and the rest of the Aquila is Astronomicon Grey with various washes. I freehanded the big 5 on the right wing.

Quick painted terrain from the McCragge Set

Marines were, umm Catachan Geen with a Thraka Green wash over that (might be some drybrushing on the top bits). Some quick details are done here and there like shiny bolters and gold eyeslits. I spent the most time on Brother Sergeant Benjamin (my nephew’s name). I added the Safety Stripes to his chain sword. Why do weapons need Safety markings anyway? It is a popular trope, so there. Any flesh was  washed with Wonderwash brown over the closest flesh approximation in the GW foundation set.

Note that Lt Varras has a six pack of Light Beer. heh. I also just realized that inverted V markings on the [i]right[/i] shoulder pads aren’t visible in this picture. Sigh.

Who has the beer? Click for full size

Thank you Leviathan Purple wash over Krylon white primer. The Tyranids were a snap. These washes are great. I did not spend a ton of time cleaning up the figures because I was in a dang hurry. So mold lines and sprue attachment points really show up well when the fig is washed only. Maybe they are belly buttons.

Leviathan purple over white primer for the win! Click for Full Size

After getting everything in place, paintwise, where it didn’t look horrible, I used a flat Armory brand spray dullcoat, which when combined with the humidity or temps at the time instantly became the [b]Glaze of Massive Lacking[/b]. Apparently it also attacks decals that have been Microsoled down too. GAH. Of course it looks worse through the lens than it does in real life. Some.

Argh, the dullcoat! It burns us, like, hygiene! Click for Full Size

As always click on the thumbnail to get the full sized photo for detail.

These are Reaper D&D figs dipped in Strong Tone Quickshade from Army Painter.

Happier with the overall effect this time with the pooling removed.

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.

Sample Sculpt. Has a lot of undercuts still on it that will have to come off, but a nice model by any standards.

Just spotted this on the Lead Adventures site, a new company, Victrix has announced plastic British Napoleonics due to start production in September. The photo on their site is great, but they say they are in tooling and layout now so these are not the final models. I am sure they will be great, but I like to look at miniatures in my hand before I get too excited. This along with the Perry’s announcement of Napoleonic French means a great year for Napoleonic gamers!