Army Painter System

[Luddite]

Shouldn't she be in the 'totty' thread.   

[nikharwood]

Shouldn't she be in the 'totty' thread.   

Oh go on then...if you insist 

[Jim Ando]

Hi

I use the army painter stuff and love it, however at £18 a tin I think someone is taking the p***.

I like the idea of using the B&Q varnish but what shades  will do the same as army painter.

I use the dark tone and light tone army painter (the mid tone is a waste of time) so want varnish the same shades.

Jim.

[Leman]

  I use Army Painter Soft Tone varnish to protect my figures. Yes, it is expensive but:
*one tin lasts forever
*it does provide some subtle shading, which in 10mm is all you need
*it is absolutely rock hard, which is what you need for figures which are going to be handled on a regular basis

Further' I apply by brush (saves waste) and it tis not my top coat. For that I use Winsor and Newton Acrylic Matt Varnish which has never given my figures a white bloom, which I have experienced in the past with spray matt varnishes.

I will be using my Pendraken SYW figures at Phalanx (St Helens) this June.

[Hertsblue]

*it does provide some subtle shading, which in 10mm is all you need
*it is absolutely rock hard, which is what you need for figures which are going to be handled on a regular basis

Do you also shade the figures or is the Soft Tone enough?

[Leman]

I generally find the AP does the trick, although I do use two shades of flesh and some things, brown horses, carts and so on, I give a coat of Winsor and Newton brown ink to.

[mike40k]

I use the dip method on my 10mm minis. Though I don't use Army painter, I use Minwax Polyshades Tudor Satin woodstain. Much cheaper, and I can get it from my local hardware store. It will leave the minis quite shiny, but a quick spray of dullcote takes care of that. An added bonus of the woodstain/dullcote combo is the minis have a strong protective coat.

I quite like the technique, and use it for all scales I paint now (10, 15 and 28mm). It's fast and looks good. In 15mm and 28mm I usually do highlights after the dip (but before dulcote), but I find highlights aren't really necessary with the wee 10mm chaps.

You can the results of my 10mm dipping here: http://thetrojanbunny.blogspot.com/2011/02/here-are-some-close-up-pictures-of-some.html

[tjantzen]

Sorry for reviwing an old thread  

Just wanted to post a picture of some of my dipped SYW 10mm figs.
As ys can see from  the picture the central figs are block painted. The rest are dipped (brused-on) with Army Painter Dark Tone - the darkest of the 3 shades
The 2 left and right flanking figures has then been applied some "strategic" colores for highlights and depth. Afterwards all will be dull coated.



regards
Thomas

[tjantzen]

And here is a closeup of "Block painted" - "dipped" - "highlighted"



regards
Thomas

[Hertsblue]

Does seem to work best on the lighter colours. Nice painting, though.

[Sean Clark]

As a user of Army Painter I would be interested to know if any one has come up with a 'dark tone' equivalent from B&Q.

Dark tone is essentially a black or very dark brown wash, similar to 'devlan mud' from Games Wrokshop.

Strong tone is a brown wash similar to 'ogryn flesh'.

Intrigued as I have a small horde of Army Painter that I bought in a panic. I was so hooked on the results I began to buy a tin at every show I went to just in case the company went belly up 

Of course that was before my daughter came along and

a) ate up all my hobby time
b) ate up all my money


and

c) ate me all up 

[Leman]

Don't know that I'd go for the dark tone but I'll give the strong tone a whirl on my non-white uniformed troops. Before the advent of AP i had used Tamiya smoke on some of my figures which was quite effective, especially on armour.
DP

[tjantzen]

Here are a couple of photos where I have experimented with both Army painter dark tone and strong tone on some white SYW austrians





These figs has just been dipped and no high lights has been applied.
Personally I prefer the left ones, which is AP Dark tone
After high ligtning, the  AP Dark Tones gives the white uniforms a more "crisp" look

regards
Thomas

ps sorry for the bad photos  but they are old....

[tjantzen]

And here is another regiment done with AP Dark Tone
Based, dipped and highlighted ... only needs flogging and flags



regards
Thomas

[Leman]

They look good but I think I'm still inclined to go for soft tone.
DP