"Fastest UNSC: AP Red Primer + Quick Shade Dark Tone?" Topic

I need to ASAP paint whole army of GZG UNSC LI, GZG Cyclops and Brigade Models PowerArmors.

Since those are quite a hell lot of figures, I plan to make whole work as simple as possible.
I have no airbrush.
I am no pro painter, lets say I am so so.

My plan:
1. Army Painter Red Primer (spray can)
2. Green visors, maybe semi blended till dark (jewel).
3. Red/pink highligts
4. Weapons in Gunmetal
5. (optional Valleyo Black Wash or GW Oil Nuln)
6. Army Painter QuickShade Dark (Strong?) Tone.

Should it work on those figures? I hope for Red-on-black colors scheme, gaming quality.

Like here, but quicker and less detailed:
TMP link

Will the AP DarkTone blackline all those fancy lines on Brigade Models Poweramors? Is 5th step neccesary?

Or should I go with traditional way of priming black, blocking red (Valleyo Heavy/GW Foundation Red) etc.?

What do You think?

The only real downside I see is that the QuickShade is a warm color wash, and you've got some cold colors on that model.

Warm colors: red, pink, the shade
Cold colors: green, gunmetal

As a result, the cold colors might look kind of dirty.

Obviously, you're thinking about that with the "optional" black wash. If it matters to you, you can either apply two washes (in which case you don't need the QuickShade) or switch cold colors for warmer ones so that the QuickShade technique will look best. (Or switch the warm colors for cold, and use the black QuickShade, whatever it's called.)

Actually, the green color might not be a cold color -- I'm envisioning one with more blue in it. If it's more drab or yellow, you might get away with a warm wash, which only leaves the weapons as problematic.

This should work fine, but Meiczyslaw is right. I'd suggest just re-doing the visors post dip with a touch of the original colour.

Other option is to use the matched colour wash from GW, these washes are excellent. I'd advise mixing it 50/50 with their Lamian Medium to get an outstanding result.

- Leave the visors or paint them black before using the dip.

- Dullcote/matt varnish.

- Paint visors.

- Gloss varnish visors with brush.

So You think that it is possible to gain intensive black colours in crevices on red primer as well as shading just by using black washes, without AP Quickshade? Maybe add a tiny bit of green wash to dominant black wash to gain pure black crevices and shadows?
Thanks for all those great comments, seriously those comments are very informative for me.

If you use a black wash I suspect you will lose the red (though you will have got all the crevices).

For red, army painter dip is fine as it's a shade of brown.

You should mix your own shade. Vallejo black ink, matte medium, and ~5 parts water. That's thin enough to not darken the reds too much, and thick enough to blackline.

if you want to get this done fast I'd forget about blended visors. Just paint them black then you can use the red base/ AP dip (or any other dark brown wash) no problem. Some gloss varnish will make them look more visor-y.

Have a look at the stuff I did on the other thread TMP link

John T

John, I have already linked Your great work. ;) I search for way of repeating it with a bit less work.
Great ideas overall, thank You all.

with a bit less work

And a bit less fluff! – those have been in a cabinet soooo long I didn't bother checking them and giving them a dust down before I snapped them.

Gosh that's embarrasing!

John T

Lots of good advice here. I would suggest one more thing. Head to the Armypainter site and look through their galleries. They might not have exactly what you need, but they show their dips with just about every color combination you could want.

Best of luck!

Agreed ordinarybass: use the product myself. Anything for a fast(er) result, gets my vote!

John T

Black ink mixed into Future with a bit of water and some P3 mixing medium

I have already looked several times for AP gallery before starting this thread, as well as googled all pages. Unfortunately all I found was about 28 mm.

I was afraid of combining colored primers + QuickShade. However with Your help I have found one thread about using such combination. Of course John Treadway's. :D
TMP link

link
Fifth page.

My plan ver 1.1. :

1. Army Painter Pure Red (Dragon Red would be too dark in 15 mmm) Primer (spray can)
2. Red-with a bit-white (Orange Red?) highligts/drybrush
3. Black visors
4. Weapons in Gunmetal
5. Army Painter QuickShade Dark (Strong?) Tone
6. (AFTER?! Quickshade, John did this) wash with Vallejo black ink, matte medium, and 5 parts water (as Lion In The Stars suggested, I have no accese to Future)
7. matte Varnish
8. again hihglits
9. greenish jewel on GZG Cyclops
10. gloss varnish on visors (as The Sentient Bean and SpaceJacker rightly suggested)

Thank You all, You have helped me greatly, I will report the results.

Of course John Treadway's. :D

I do try!

John T

Army Painter Dark Tone is a black wash.

That seems way complicated.

I'd:
1. Army Painter Primer
2. Drybrush
3. Visors
4. Weapons
5. AP Dark Tone
6. AP Anti-shine (seriously this stuff magically removes any hint of gloss)
7. Gloss on visors

Actually, I am afraid that AP QuickShade only will not be enough to blackline all those delicate crevices on BM powerarmors heads. I dunno. Will see, will try all methods before bathpainting. Thank You for advice. :)

OK, so I have tried this procedure and the figures were much too dark. AP Red Primer worked excellent, giving great coverage.

Quick Shade didnt worked as I hoped – funny bearing the fact I am using it on 20 mm WW2 without problems. It is newly opened tin, not this "improved formule", shaken for a few minutes just before using.

QuickShade worked too much like glaze (blackended reddish) and not enough like ink (not enough of black in crevices).

I wonder if diluting Army Painter Dark Quick Shade dip with turpentine or mineral oil would work.

Or maybe a little of Spray Gloss Varnish would help the flow of this dip.

If not, I will have to resign of all thi AP QuickShade and just Spray Gloss Varnish and then black ink.

Any ideas?

I've heard of people using a gloss finish, and then adding their washes over that, to help with the flow of it.

You might try a darker red, instead of black, for your wash, so the figs don't turn out too dark.

Most accounts I've read mention drybrushing/retouching the minis after doing the wash step, to lighten them back up a bit, if needed.

Obviously, you'd then need to re-seal after that.

On my blog You can see how it finished:
link