"Stain Painting" Topic
15 Posts
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 Bobgnar | 02 Sep 2025 9:05 p.m. PST |
I want to retry Duke's Stain Painting process. Here is an earlier TMP discussion
TMP link There is one reference to an old Dragon Magazine with article on this
Dragon #33, January, 1980 I cannot find it on line. If anyone has that issue, can I pay you for a scan of the article? Any other source would be appreciated also. Thanks |
 Editor in Chief Bill   | 02 Sep 2025 9:23 p.m. PST |
I told a manufacturer once that I was trying stain painting. He said he wouldn't sell me any figures.  I believe stain painting is essentially painting with washes over a white primer coat. |
| DisasterWargamer | 02 Sep 2025 9:52 p.m. PST |
Internet Archive has most of the Dragon Magazine – link to issue 33 is below – look at Pages 4-5 and 8 link |
 Extra Crispy  | 03 Sep 2025 6:56 a.m. PST |
IIRC There was also a how-to in The Sword and the Flame using the same technique. Today we would call is "speed painting" or "contrast painting." Prime white/zenithal and use washes. |
| dragon6 | 03 Sep 2025 8:20 a.m. PST |
"Prime white/zenithal and use washes" What is zenithal? |
 Sgt Slag | 03 Sep 2025 8:49 a.m. PST |
I re-read the TMP discussion link. I found the comments about block painting + The Dip, encouraging. I do simple block painting + The Dip, having done so on 1,000+ figures. My armies are mostly painted in the same manner. My block + Dip painting usually amounted to 10 minutes per figure: assembly line by pose, as Uncle Duke suggests. When I apply The Dip, I use a dark brown, not the Tudor black. I bake my Dip'ed figures in a dedicated crock pot to fully cure them in 30 minutes, on Low Temperature (175 F). I recently started using brush-tipped acrylic paint pens, and that halved my painting time (priming, mounting, is not included, but matte clear coating is!) down to 5 minutes per figure. With the paint pens, there is no time wasted in cleaning after each color -- I just replace the cap, shake it a few times, then reach for the next color. Here are some examples of what I've achieved using basic block painting + The Dip (Minwax Polyshades Urethane Stain, Royal Walnut): 28mm sized Human Plate Barded Knights; 22mm tall Gnome Army; 48mm tall Cyclops. When you need to put 1,200+ figures on the gaming table, and you want to do it before you've been rotting in your grave for decades, speed painting techniques are your friend. At arm's length, or a little further sitting on the tabletop, GEtGW painting techniques really look about the same as figures the owner spent hours painting each figure, rather than 5-10 minutes of painting time on. Cheers! |
| Sgt Slag | 03 Sep 2025 8:58 a.m. PST |
Zenithal painting is when you prime black, then spray a white down on the figures, from above, to mimic natural lighting from above, to show you where to highlight. I have issues with how much high praise is lauded on Zenithal highlighting because if you really pay attention to its application in YouTube videos, they cover it up, entirely, with other colors of paint, such that the Zenithal White completely disappears, without any discernible effect at the end of the painting process! I found it to be pretty much a wasted step/effort. YMMV, of course. If you plan to drybrush, I would imagine that will achieve the same effect as Zenithal White on your figures: as I said, all of the Zenithal White paint ends up covered, so just skip it, if you plan to dry brush for highlights. Just my opinion -- worth everything you paid for it. LOL! Cheers! |
 McKinstry | 03 Sep 2025 9:20 a.m. PST |
Aren't all the various 'speed' paints from GW, Warlord, Vallejo etc. simply an evolution of Duke's stain painting? |
| Martian Root Canal | 03 Sep 2025 10:07 a.m. PST |
+1 McKinstry. I think GW Contrast, AP Speedpaints, and Vallejo XPress Colors are the modern day evolution of Duke's old technique. |
| DeRuyter | 03 Sep 2025 10:17 a.m. PST |
Sgt Slag – Zenithal works well with the current crop of washes/contrast paints because you need to prime with a light color (Wraith Bone/Gray Seer for GW) to get the right highlight effects. So, while it is covered the white or light color on top effects the color of the wash and provides more shadow areas. |
| Bobgnar | 03 Sep 2025 11:19 a.m. PST |
WOW, such fast replies and useful. Thanks to all for good discussion. Especially Disaster Wargamer with the exact reference I was looking for. EX Crispy too for the for the TSATF reference. I did Stain Painting 30 years ago, and then when Dipping came along, I dipped them too:) Ditto the the Sgt on brush-tipped acrylic paint pens. Very handy for a few figures at a time and touch ups. I recall Stain Painting was priming with gesso and then using thinned paints to just dab on so to stain the figure. |
 John the OFM | 03 Sep 2025 1:36 p.m. PST |
I was watching a demo at a convention by Uncle Duke when I mentioned priming with Gesso, which his primer obviously was.
He got extremely indignant, saying in a loud admonishing voice, "Sir! This is NOT Gesso!" 🙄
Yeah. It was. |
| Sgt Slag | 04 Sep 2025 8:38 a.m. PST |
Thanks, DeRuyter, that makes perfect sense. Nearly all of the videos I've watched covered the Zenithal with opaque paint -- they did not make sense. Cheers! |
| abelp01 | 04 Sep 2025 1:57 p.m. PST |
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| dapeters | 08 Sep 2025 12:06 p.m. PST |
Duke was a charter. But I still do (er when I do) use minwax. |
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