Shady Dealings - tests on washes & dips

I'm not a natural speed painter, but with a couple of hundred figures in front of me on a fairly tight schedule, I naturally decided to waste some time comparing methods and products. The comparison starts with 3 Wargames Factory plastic Numidians assembled and painted in flat basic colours

From memory, the flesh is a Coate D'armes dwarf flesh, the blue-grey is a mix of Vallejo blue-grey and white, and the helmets are GW Mithril Silver.

I had 3 wash-type options available

* Army Painter Strong shade (the middle one of their range). This is not water based, so brushes need washing in White Spirit. It gives a fairly thick somewhat shiny coat. For the sample figure I brushed the paint on, let it dry overnight and brush-applied Vallejo matt varnish to kill the shine. (I normally spray the matt varnish, but my spray area is outside and it was the sort of cold damp day that has given me trouble in the past with the varnishes going milky).

* Coate D'Armes brown shade - again the middle one of their range of 3 shades. This is an Acryllic wash so it dries a lot quicker and brushes dry in water. Comparing volume-volume its more expensive than Army Painter, but I suspect the rate of use is less. It dries Matt so no subsequent varnish. The effect is slightly darker and heavier than the Army Painter, but quite similar.

* And lastly GW washes. A range of colours so I applied the blue one to the tunic, the "Ogryn flesh" one to the skin and the "Badass Black" one to the helmet. I tried them undiluted straight from the pot. Again, acryllic, quick drying.

And lastly, the three side-side.

Army Painter on the left, Coate D'Armes in the middle, GW washes on the right.

For myself, the extra brightness of the GW washes might be worth the effort, but I need to experiment with dilution and its not just a "slap it on" item - the test figure looks quite blotchy because I deliberately went for a quick style. For plastics I'm quite taken with the Coate D'Armes wash. It is definitely brown, which might be a problem over some colours. Howver, the speed of application and drying are useful, as is not needing to keep white spirit and a separate brush around. For metals, Army Painter probably comes into its own since the dip also acts as a protective varnish against chipping.

Suddenly "next year" doesnt sound so far off

Every year the Society of Ancients put on a "battleday", in which a famous historical battle is re-played in a number of wargame formats, with expert speakers. Next April the battle of Zama will be coming to Bletchley, near Milton Keynes.


My involvement in this started in early summer, when I enquired about a possible WAB game. I'd naively hoped that the overall organiser, Dave Lockwood, would cheerfully say "yes, so-and-so is doing that and would welcome another player". Things didnt quite work that way, and somehow I ended up volunteering to put the game together.



A number of volunteers stepped forward - I'll name check them on a future blog - and I was also delighted to be offered the loan of the remaining elements of Gripping Beasts Zamaday demo army. Thus encouraged I put together a provisional order of battle - around 8000 points per side - and build the tracknh website for the progress on unit assembling and painting


www.miraclemodels.co.uk/zamaday/intro.asp





I also thought aout what figures and units I wanted to contribute - I aimed to finish up with a Carthaginian army anyhow, as well as getting some older stuff finished.



Lastly, Tony Reidy of Wargames Factory promised (and delivered) a large number of his excellent Numidians - they'll be taking part both as Numidians and as Carthaginian citizens.



Which brings me to the end of November and my painting efforts.







3 units of Gauls - 90 in total. I thought these were done when I committed them, but when I got the boxes out they were far from finished, and almost all without weapons and shields. Oh well, I've had them 4 years so its about time they got done. Figures mostly a Foundry Christmas offer, some Warlord, a few Renegade and Wargames Factory.

My first unit of Numidians assembled and ready for undercoating then painting. It takes a little while to get the knack of assembling them in reasonable poses - there are a few strange ones mixed among the back ranks.

Half-complete Gaul comand tableau. Not sure about the ASB - I didnt quite get either the assembly or the painting right. Chief is Renegade, musicians Foundry, ASB and other guy Wargames Factory.

The immediate painting queue. I'm a frequent insomniac, so I try to have something fully prepped and ready for paint on the workbench at all times. Here theres some part-done Gripping Beast Carthaginian veterans, the numidians and some Carthaginian horse in the background. I also have some "african spearmen", more Numidians and Numidian horse awaiting assembly