"Citadel Nuln Oil" Topic

I've just ordered some Citadel Nuln Oil shade after it was recommended to me and now I'm wondering – what exactly is it? Where did that name come from? Is it just another name for a variety of sepia wash? Any insight appreciated.

DBDD

Like so many GW and Citadel products, the name is a complete fabrications.

So do not even try to decipher it.

It is a pre-mixed wash. A response to the "magic dip" (majic dip, magic wash) craze of oh so many years ago now. That was among other things, adding India Ink to Future Floor Finish (which was/is a very fluid acrylic media with a flow agent).

Like the speed paint craze of today, it allowed one to just slap some wash onto a miniature and the tint builds up in the recessed areas, like folds in cloth and undercuts, while allowing highlights to show through.

Here is a write up I did before the turn of the century.
link

This is mainly focused of using Min-Wax stains (like the Army Painter stains), but the water based system has been more popular.

It's basically just ink and medium.

Geek Gaming Scenics made a good video on how to replicate both it and Earth Shade: YouTube link

Looks like I've been seduced by the possibility of yet another easy route to brilliance.🙁. As a veteran of 50+ years of figure painting, of course I'm well aware of the various washes and shades – I had my bottle of homemade, floor cleaning-based wash decades ago.

So, I've basically bought something that is no different to the big bottle of Vallejo sepia wash that I already have.

Ahh well……

DBDD

Good find Flashman!

I just notices all the links in my ancient page are dead.
I found some useful info on the brands of acrylic media based floor finish on these two sites:
link

link

One can always start with artist acrylic media, diluting with the distilled water and adding your own flow agent.

Oh, nonsense! Nuln oil is squeezed out of the fruit of Nuln trees. Goblins specially trained at the Juan Valdez School pick them at the point of maximum ripeness, and Ogryns operate the press. Orson Welles himself decides when a batch has sufficiently matured. And besides its use in painting, it helps old terminators get up in the morning.

Why do you think there are periodic shortages and GW is forced--positively forced--to charge the prices they do? The money paid into the goblins' IRA is one of their most serious expenses, and the necromancer who calls up Welles isn't cheap either.

You're all heretics, and can expect to be hearing from the Inquisition shortly.

No one ever expects the GW inquisition. It's always those bloody Spaniards…

The GW Inquisition's weapons are speed, secrecy and a fanatical devotion to return on investment.

Don't goof up and assume this is inkyoudont have to shake. Ya gotta shake it, or it'll dry gloss.

Words to the wise. BTW, it's great stuff. Also Agrax Earthshade.

Nuln Oil is magic for armour – prime in black, paint in silver or steel and wash with Nuln Oil – great way for the mediocre painter to shine!

I've been Dip'ing since the mid-90's. I assembly line paint, averaging 10 minutes per figure. I've been happy with the results since my beginning.

Then this Army Painter Speed Paint came along. I asked Wyloch, a YouTuber, how Speed Paints compare to Dip'ing, but I asked him if he was familiar with Dip'ing, because if he wasn't, he should not bother to answer me, as he could not make a valid comparison…

Turns out Wyloch is very much like me in painting mini's: he does not enjoy it; he does basic (block?) painting, followed by the Dip; and he had zero interest in improving his painting skills. He tried Speed Paints, and he reduced his assembly line painting time to 2 minutes, with better results!!! He was ecstatic about it. That is 5 times faster than my 10 minutes per figure…

I am down to around 200 figures left to paint. To invest $100 USD in a set of Speed Paints, is just not worth the investment, for me. If simple block painting techniques work far better with Speed Paints, and I had more than a decade of hobby painting left in me, I'd invest in the new paints.

My other issue is that my armies look cohesive, on the tabletop, as they are all painted with the same approach. If I used Speed Paints now, the new figures would stick out like a sore thumb in my games. I'll trudge on through to the end, using my tried and true painting techniques. Where were Speed Paints, 30 years ago, when I started? LOL! The Dip and Magic Wash were yesteryear's 'Speed Paint', and they're good enough for me. Cheers!

30 years ago, Sgt Slag? You're just getting started. My earliest are long-fiber enamels from 1968-9. I jumped on acrylics with both feet when they came out.

robert piepenbrink, I have more than enough figures for my games, already! LOL!

I only used Testors Enamel model paints in the very beginning, on my very first painting attempts, in High School. These were some 1980 lead fantasy figures. I never primed them, the enamel barely covered them, and it looked really bad when they were finished, let alone today, with 40 years of aging…

I've been using acrylic paints since I started collecting fantasy figures, in the mid-90's, as an adult (when I could finally afford them). Those early, enamel painted figures, were offal, to be blunt. I stripped down some, and re-painted them with acrylics, in the late 90's, turning them into superb tabletop figures. I have some other 1980's figures in their terrible, enamel paint jobs. I'm still considering whether to strip them and do them right. Not sure it is worth my time to try, to be honest.

In the 90's, I started out using black acrylic paint, watered down, for a wash. That worked surprisingly well! It covered a multitude of painting sins of a newbie. Then, I learned of The Dip Technique, and Magic Wash (Future Floor Shine + acrylic paint). Those two techniques have served me so very well, since the mid-90's.

I just wish Speed Paints had been invented before I started. To date, Speed Paint is the greatest painting tool I've yet encountered, bar none. My collecting of new figures, is pretty much over. I just need to finish what I have, and then focus on gaming with them, in the time I have left.

On another note, I always suspected that Citadel Nuln Oil was an attempt at making their own version of The Dip Technique. I pretty much laugh when I see YouTuber's using Army Painter washes: they cost around 3x what the same sized can of Minwax runs, and they're virtually identical products. To each their own. It seems like no one is willing to use Minwax anymore, but something that comes from a true miniatures-related company, is auto-approved, without question. LOL!

Minwax makes a water-based urethane stain in the same colors as their solvent-based urethane stains (much less lingering odors after it cures!). It has Ether in it, FYI, but it cures within two hours, and that makes it superb to work with, rather than the solvent-based lines, which can take several days to fully cure. I always baked my solvent Dip'ed figures, in a slow-cooker for 30-minutes, out in the garage: fully cured, ready for a matte clear coat. I use throw-away school painting brushes, 30-pack at Wal-Mart, for <$2, to apply The Dip. The plastic brush's bristles are trashed in the application process, so clean-up is pointless: they splay every which way, 90-degrees from the handle. Cheers!

Robert everybody knows your not suppose to do business with GW. You need to go to the fairtrade shop where the goblins are not exploited, yes it cost a little more but really…

No, no dapters! Goblins at GW are treated very well by the orcs who run the place. Have the orcs take you on a tour sometime, and all the goblins will assure you of this. Those places selling "Artisanal Quality Nuln Oil" are just rebottling the GW product and jacking up the price.

Sgt, you missed the "long fiber" bit. Not Testors, but Imrie/Risley, which had to come from some specialty shop in New York and was priced accordingly. Even I/R doesn't sell it any more. There was a plastic-based brush-on primer too, which usually took about three passes. When the surviving ancients tell you how great things were at the dawn of historical miniatures, they're not talking about brush-on primer, I/R paints generally, or the really wretched quality of some of the castings.

That was fun :)

The game has simple controls that can be easily grasped by players of all ages. Run 3

I understand your curiosity about Citadel Nuln Oil shade! It's definitely a popular choice for miniature painting, but the name and purpose might not be immediately clear. sod gold