"wash and shade over white primer" Topic

For ages, I've painted my figures all back with a Rustoleum flat black paint. I've found it adheres well to metal and plastic. Then, use the 3 coat minimum color method which takes time but gives great results. Recently, I bought some plastic miniatures via ebay that were pre assembled and then washed with some type of material that looks to be similar to the Army Painter shade varnish. For the heck of it, I tried painting them. It was a fun experience as I found the ease of achieving a brilliant palette of color when painting over the white primer to be excellent. The shade in place also eliminated the age old problem of white sticking through here and there when painting over white primer. I also thought the faces were more believable and took less work.
After all this, I'm left with some questions. Is the Army Painter shade/wash/varnish okay to brush over figures that have been primed white? Online video says to dip figure only after painting. Are there other products similar to this that are on the market which I could use. I checked Vallejo and they don't seem to have anything. Citadel have varied products and some paints called "shade" which seem to be just normal paints used to give a basecoat and then add the lighter tones of that color. Thanks very much.

Future wash is your friend.

JcFrog has it right-cheaper than the Army Painter by a factor of about 100 as well!

I've used both – future wash and army painter dip. They both give excellent but different results.

On that basis I still use both for different needs.

John T

Sounds like you are rediscovering a painting technique of pre-shading.

This can be done in many ways.
1) Spray with flat black to cover well. Then spray with flat white from overhead only. The spray "rains" down just like sun light highlighting areas that would be light.

2) Spray with flat black to cover well. Brush flat white on from head toward feet highlighting the upper most portion of the cast details.

3) Spray with flat white to cover well. Wash with flat black and allow to pool in recesses.

Now paint with transparent (well thinned) paint to allow shadows to be seen through the paint.

If you are painting over the effect, I would say to avoid the expense of actual Army Painter wash. Using a Min-Wax Tutor stain will be more cost effective. But making up a wash of black would be quicker (Min-Wax and Army Painter have long drying times before one should paint over them).
I have painted over them in the past, but you have to wait a long time to make sure all the solvent it out of the varnish.

You did not say what paint (media) you use for your painting. But assuming acrylic, Future Floor Finish, is an extremely low cost and effective wash media to add the color of your desire to. You can prime white, wash with black, and then paint with no extra waiting time.

Here are my very old pages on "Dipping" techniques:
link
link
But more importantly the classic work: "The Complete Future": link

I see it has been up for 12 years now! It details some of the many modeling uses of Future Floor Finish (now sold under other names).

Wealdmaster, thanks for the post, which resulted in DyeHard's excellent links.

DyeHard…interesting technique that I'm going to have to try.

Thanks,
Ray

What DyeHard is explaining is "zenithal priming". I regularly use it on miniatures: completely prime in black, highlight spray with grey, final highlight spray with white. Sometimes, I'll use Army Painter color primer instead of grey and white, to get a head start on the basecoat. Afterwards, I'll use Army Painter Quickshade Ink washes, then hobby paints often thinned with washes.

I have some paint tutorials on BoardGameGeek for 28mm figures: link

Depends on how much detail you're going after.

Yes, great stuff Dye Hard, It seems that playing with these techniques are offering a whole new world of possibilities for me. Again, I respect the method of layering color onto black but have found that it isn't the only way of getting amazing Wargames Illustrated style figures. A friend has pointed out my error in misunderstanding the new range of citadel shades. He says they can really be used in the same way as these shade washes either before or after application of color. So, I broke down and bought the nuln oil and agrax earthshade to see what can be achieved. More soon.