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.