"I'm trying a new Minwax shade" Topic

I've decided to give Honey satin a try.It gives a much more subtle finish than the darker shades. So far it looks promising over lighter colored paints. I pleased with the results. Anyone else tried this shade?

Nope, only Antique Walnut Satin so far for me. I may get a small can of Tudor and try it out on some stuff, seeing how it seems to be one of the most recommended.

Nope, I have not tried Honey.

I have tried tudor, and it is a "black" tone, but works with a very nice effect.

I have also tried Bombay Mohogany, which looks great over reds and browns (darker than tudor though).

Oops, that should be Pecan Satin, sorry for the mistake!

I'm using Honey Pine for my 6mm Napoleonics. The darker stains really overloads the paint at that scale, but the Honey Pine seems to be just about right….well maybe it could be a shade darker, but its as good as it gets from the Walmart selection.

I'm very satisfied with it so far.

The Pecan Satin is the shade between the ones I have and will be the next I give a try.

Skipper

I've used Walnut and Tudor. Walnut gave a nice grimy look, good for WW-II. Tudor looks best for Napoleonics (picking out belts, etc)

Classic Oak is what I use. As shown in these examples….

link

Minwax, sounds like a total rip off of Army Painter :)

Actually PM, it's the other way around. Minwax has been around for a long time. It's "intended" purpose is as a wood stain, but gamer's have found it's works well for shading. As I recall, Minwax Polyshades Tudor was one of the earliest of the "Magic Dip" mediums.

Sarcasm does not always translate smoothly to the internet ;)

Has anyone used both Army Painter and Miniwax? If the effect is pretty much the same then I would rather buy Miniwax as it is a great deal cheaper.

Has anyone used both Army Painter and Miniwax? If the effect is pretty much the same then I would rather buy Miniwax as it is a great deal cheaper.

I really haven't noticed any differences.

Ah, the question I keep asking. It appears they are very similar products, but I have yet to find anyone that has actually tried both side by side.

I keep threatening to do it, but I am so happy with Minwax results, that I am having a hard time justifying the expense.

Recently I primed some figs with Rustoleum leather brown, block painted, an then "dipped" with tudor.

I am 90% sure that what I did was the same as primer with leather brown Army Painter spray (I bet the primer is nicer, probably more Krylon like in that it dries faster), and then dipped in the Army Painter Dark Tone.

Anyone?

Granddad, have you tried both?

yes,strong shade army painter and various shades of minwax. To my eye they have very similar results. I brush it on pretty heavy though.

Thanks!

I'll be working with my friend this weekend. He picked up a can of Army Painter Strong Shade and I have a can of Minwax Antique Walnut. We are gonna compare but my suspicions are that they are going to be almost the same. I gotta tell you, I about crapped when I saw how small that can of Army Painter is. Its possibly smaller than half a pint! A one quart can of Minwax Polyshades costs $12 USD dollars at Lowes. I could buy three quarts of Minwax for a little more than the price I'd pay for one can of Army Painter and have three different colors and at least 12 (maybe more) times as much. If they are even remotely similar, and I suspect they will be very similar, there is absolutely no reason to spend the money on Army Painter.

Delthos,
I think we are all looking forward to the results of your evaluation.

Well, we played with it some last night. Unfortunately my digital camera's batteries need replacing (or maybe the charger or both) as they don't hold a charge anymore, so no pictures.

As I said I have Minwax Antique Walnut in the one quart size and my friend has the Army Painter Strong Tone which looks like around half a pint.

My first thoughts on opening both cans next to each other is the Army Builder Strong Tone is much darker than I thought it would be. It is very very dark brown, as others have said, I suspect it is very close in color to Minwax Tudor. In looking at the Army Painter Website I thought it was going to be much closer to the Antique Walnut from the in progress shots. The Antique Walnut is a much more red brown and significantly lighter. I can't imagine how dark the Army Painter Dark Tone is. It must be completely black, which looking at their website further it says it is.

My next thing to look at was the sniff test. Army Painter and Minwax definitely do not smell the same. Minwax has a stronger sweeter smell than Army Painter, but they are similar in smell. So very similar but different.

Next was the viscosity and pigment saturation test. We dipped some strips of paper the same size into each can to the same depth, for the same ammount of time, and pulled them out and let it drip off. As far as we could tell they are equally viscious, with possibly Army Builder being slightly more. They seemed to flow off the paper at the same rate and leave a similar amount on the paper. As the colors were significantly different between the two we couldn't really do a valid test on them, but that being said considering the difference in tones, we felt the pigment saturation levels were similar. We'd need Minwax Tudor or one of the other near black colors to do a more accurate test. Again very similar and impossible to tell the difference.

My friend had some Ogre Kingdoms Knoblars painted up so we dipped one of each in each can. They each required a similar number of shakes to get the stain off the figs to a similar level. Again no significant difference, and other than color, they looked similar.

The final test was to dip the tip of a finger in and see how it feels and rub it between fingers and such. Because, lets face it, you are gonna get it on your hands, especially if you are using the actual dip method of application and not brushing it on as I prefer. As would be expected they are both very oily and seem to have a similar lubricating effect. Also as with all stains, it clings very well and resists being wiped off with a paper towel. Both seemed to require a similar ammount of effort to clean off our hands with the towel and similar ammount of work with the soap and water. I forgot my mineral spirits at home as well or clean up would have been much easier.

In conclusion, in my not so expert opinion, while Army Painter is not Minwax, Army Painter is just a repackaged wood stain and varnish. This is probably due to the fact that Army Painter is a UK based company and it is a UK company's oil based polyurathane stain repackaged. I also suspect that all oil based polyuratahne stains are basically the same and any other companies polyurathane stain will perform the same.

The funny thing is that on Army Builders website it says this could be used on a floor or shoes but they don't recommend it. I agree, but for different reasons that what they are implying, at $32 USD dollars per approximately half pint you would have a rediculously expensive finish.

My recommendation is save your self $20 USD (which you can spend on new miniatures) and buy a can of Minwax and be just as happy. You'll also be able to dip at least four times as many miniatures as you would with one can of Army Painter which is triple the cost. Unfortunately I can't recommend a Minwax shade as I've only used Minwax Antique Walnut myself, which works really well on reds and yellows.

I think they saw a market for people that didn't know better and were looking for a miracle cure for painting armies quick. Don't fall for the hype unless you have lots of excess cash you want to waste.

Delthos,
great information thanks for the update!

I should also point out for mixing, we just shook the hell out of the cans before opening them. We didn't bother with trying to find a stirring stick to mix them with.

Is it legal to simply re-package another company's product in the UK, or anywhere for that matter ? Seems to me there must be something different about it

They are not a UK company and products often get rebranded even in the wargames industry, Revell, Italeri and Zvezda often rebrand each others product.

I've used different mini wax before but could never settle on the right shade for me. I read an article recently here about using floor wax with dark pint mixed in. I tried it and like it very much. CP

Dear Forum,

I plan on purchasing Minwax stains for 15mm painted Napoleonics, very soon!

Here's my question on "dipping 15mm Napoleonic Armies", which shade of Minwax stain would be the best to use on the following 15mm Nappies:

Austrians(this is the Army I want to try the dipping method out on first!)

French

Russians

and finally, Prussians.

VR
Wayne

Dear Forum,

I have a quart of Minwax Rosewood Stain, would that shade be "too dark", to use on any of the four(4) 15mm Napoleonic Armies that I mentioned in my previous post on TMP?

Rosewood color stain wasn't mentioned on this topic page, so I thought I would ask, since I already own this Rosewood-colored stain, by Minwax.

It is really dark, almost black in color!

VR
Wayne

Dear Forum,

Would the Antique Walnut or the Pecan Polyshades Satin stain, be the best to use on painted 15mm Austrian Napoleonins' Line infantrymen miniatures figures?

I've block painted the white uniforms.

Wayne

An update. I just realized that I said this is a UK based company. For that I am wrong. They are actually located in Denmark. Change any reference I make to the UK to Denmark.