Two shots of one of the guardsmen. Above is a shot after a sparing coat of Army Painter Strong Tone and a spray fo matt varnish has been applied and allowed to dry for 24 hours. Below is a shot after touching-up the cross belt with some white, re-colouring the hat with GW Badab Black wash and giving a quick coatf of brush-on varnish.
Overall I think the figures came out OK (shot of the whole unit once based).Lessons learned?
- Sparingly applied brushed-on armypainter works well - although I might actually need to be a bit heavier in some parts of the figure
- Allow to dry for 48 hours next time as I got a bit of cracking when spraying on varnish after 24 hours.
- Whites, cream etc come out looking very "dirty" and really need re-painting. This is more or less of a chore depending on the amount of white on the figure.
- Large areas of blue or black look poor after the strong tone treatment. I got away with this on the blue facings but not on some blue trousers or the black hats. I have repainted the trousers and the hats look OK after a Badab Black wash. Next time I'll paint the balck areas dark grey, then army painter, then badab black
- Faces look surprisingly good. I was expecting the "dirty" look to be a problem.
So, overall, better than I thought and I'll have a go at the 1st Guard sometime soon. By understanding what is needed to get the best out of the Army Painter I hope the results will be even better.
The effect is still not as good as a fully shaded and highlighted figure, but this will hopefully speed up production of rank and file troops - especially militia!
I guess the real advantage is likely to come when I get back to ancients and medievals. Numidians should be a breeze!
cheers
I agree -- the figure turned out great! I look forward to seeing the full unit when based.
ReplyDeleteLooks good so far. I'm just wondering how much time one can spare effectively, if you have to use different tones for different areas and eventually have to retouch most of them. For sure, Mr Imrie has perfected this method. But I'm still not convinced that it quickens painting significantly compared to regular procedures.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your progress, anyway.
Cheers
SG
I'm quite liking the results Steve. I think, as you have said, that the secret is to use the dip very sparingly. When I tried I added the dip quite thickly on six miniatures and as it surface dries so quickly it was almost impossible to remove :O(
ReplyDeleteI'll give it another go and take in what you have said when I get some time.
Thanks for the tips.
Darrell.
Hi SG. Only one tone was used all over and the only retouching was on the crossbelts and a few items of white clothing. The black wash on the hats took just a few minutes for all 30 figures. I'm still unsure though whether much time has been saved overall!
ReplyDeleteI know when I painted the bulk of my collection back in 2001/2 it took 14 months but by the end I was turning out a completed infantry figure - belts 'n all in 40 minutes. Even with army painter, figures of this complexity take a long time to block in the colours!
My personal jury is still out but I think it is worth trying another unit.
I'm pretty sure that the "dip" will not work terribly well on blue-coated figures however...
I think he looks good btw.
ReplyDeleteYour right that blocking in colors still takes time,but the real time saver is not needing to black line or paint in the eyes of which I think is the most time consuming part that is avoided when using AP.
I already started painting my AWI in the normal painting methods and so no AP for them as I don't like to mix styles on a period,but I will use AP on my ECW giving me a chance to see how it works on lace and uniforms and such.
Keep it up as I'm really enjoying your blog.
Cheers
Christopher