"28mm Napoleonic French Dip- Strongtone??" Topic

Hi

I bought one each of the Army Painter Dips (i.e. Dark Tone, Strong Tone and Soft Tone) when they first came out and also have bought some of their more recent inks.

I know they are a "marmite" product on TMP – most people either love them or hate them. I do like them and they can be brilliant on certain figures – I love the effect they gave my LOTR Uruk Hai for example – and they have also come out nicely on some Ancients figures.

I am looking to paint (to a basic gaming standard) a large number of 28mm Napoleonic French for Black Powder. Figures are primarily the wonderful Perry's plastics with some Warlord and Victrix for certain units and variety, plus some metals for characters and artillery.

For main French infantry uniforms I am looking at very dark blue – possibly the Wargames Foundry French Blue triple pack (or if not Vallejo Prussian Blue). Also troops in greatcoats so mixture of blue, grey and beige greatcoats. Plus Dragoons, Hussars and Curassiers in their usual colours.

I am planning on painting block colours first, then use Quickshade, then paint final highlight once Quickshade dry.

Now my question is which Quickshade Tone would work best on French? I have not painted any blue figures with Quickshade dips before. I know that Soft Tone will be too light for the dark French blue. Should I use for the browner Strong Tone or the blacker Dark Tone??

Thanks very much

James

See my recent experience with Army Painter Strong Tone Wash (acrylic type).

link

I'm doing some French soon so may be able to help you more later on.

Thanks Jim

Your's was one of the threads that I browsed when I searched through the forum. Thought they looked nice.

But what might look good on lighter red and white colour figures may not look as good on darker blues. I think I am thinking of leaning towards the Dark Tone over dark French Blue (mainly to get the equivalent of blacklining and cover up small mistakes in block painting).

I'll scrounge out a figure later today, paint it blue and then apply Strong Tone and let you see what it looks like.

I'm not sure it will replicate a blacklining effect but it will shade the figure.

Blacklining produces a neat outline around an area whereas a dip (or a wash) will shade the area without giving it a definitive outline.

I'm not sure what effect you are really after.

Hi Jim.

I agree that the browner Strong Tone will just shade the dark blue base coated areas.

What I have found on other figures is that the blacker Dark Tone achieves an effect closer to blacklining (but obviously a LOT quickerthan blacklining, plus also shading the figure.

That's why I am leaning towards Dark Tone for French. I may just have to try a couple over the holiday period.

Re Quickshade; use the softone on lighter coloured uniforms and the strong tone on darker uniforms e.g. French blue.

I rarely use Dark Tone on uniforms as it too black. But I use it for a very grimy look on most equipment and buildings.

I've done a few test washes on some spare figures.

They will dry overnight.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow (Saturday).

I need to follow this thread :)

Thanks Jim.

I would rather stick to one tone of dip across the army. If Strong Tone works on the dark French blue then I can stik with it for the other units.

Results from my wash/dip tests are here:

TMP link

Thanks Jim

WI – Good morning! As I mentioned in my Gallery thread, I like the Strong Tone (the medium color) of Army Painter Quickshade. Here is a sample of my basecoat-dip-hoghlight infantry:

There are more pix on my blog: link

- Jeff aka SquadPainter