Perry Plastic & Army Painter

[Admiral Fraser]

Comrades
Just for info, and I make no pretence as to quality of painting, I thought I'd post a few pics [v poor] of my attempts to create enough Mahdists for a game of black powder.

ansar plastic 5 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


ansar plastic & egyptian by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr

ansar plastic & sudanese by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


ansar plastic 4 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


ansar plastic 3 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


beja plastic 3 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


beja plastic 2 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


beja plastic 1 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr

 I've been experimenting with army painter. Used the rat fur brown as base for the Beja and white for ansar. Then slapped on the strong tone dip with a paint brush. I've had different results usually the consequence of my ham fistedness but think the strong tone has worked reasonably on the white of the ansar. Its certainly allowed me to create enough cannon fodder for some stalwart Sikhs and Brave Black Watch.

[Volleyfire!]

I'm interested to see how the strong tone works on these as I've got 5 boxes to wade through plus as many metals. It was suggested at Derby as I mulled over a tin of Armypainter that soft tone would be advisable for a first attempt, and if one dip wasn't strong enough dip them twice. Can you dip twice? I would have thought that will start to blur detail perhaps? Cost twice as much as using one dip of a stronger tone obviously. Would you have used a softer tone Admiral Fraser instead? Always hard to judge from pictures but your figures look about spot on as they are to me. 

[Admiral Fraser]

I went with the strong tone in order to give some depth, noticable contrast, to the dark flesh. I think it works quite well on the white tunics. The mid and soft tones are a little more brown or sepia from what I've seen - haven't tried them.
I'm not sure about putting a second coat on, again haven't tried. I'm still getting the hang of using it. I dont 'dip' rather I brush it on. I'm about to try it on some Foundary Sikhs that have been loitering for many months unpainted. They have great definition and am optimistic for the results. I think, like the folds in the clothing, they should take the 'dip' well.
The spray matt varnish is a must though Dullcote appears to work just as well as the Army Painter one. Both 'deaden' the colours and the dip, reducing the contrast.
For speed of output I'd recommend it. I picked the spray and dip up at Colours, since when I've managed to finish 32 Sudanese, 28 Egyptians and two boxes of Mahdists. It strikes me that it works best when the base coloured undercoat is the dominant colour, naked flesh for Mahdists, white for the Egyptians and blue for the Sudanese for example.

[joroas]

This look characterful, still tempted by these guys.  Nice to see how quick they are to paint.  Just rebasing a lot of my stuff on BP bases too.

[Marine0846]

The figures look fine.
We see some great painted figures here on the forum.
 I think one tends to think all figures have to be painted like that.
Its great to see good well painted figures that most of us can relate to painting.
Keep up the good work.

[Admiral Fraser]

Just a few more pics of the process.
These are the Sikhs having had the dip slapped all over but pre matt varnishing. Like most accounts of using Army Painter for the first time I got to this stage and was very worried about what I'd done, far too shinny. The matt varnish makes a huge difference. At the moment climatic conditions make it marginal for spraying and the game on Sunday for which these were being completed has been delayed so it may be a while before they get finished.



Sikh dipped pre-matt 1 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


Sikh dipped pre-matt 2 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr


Sikh dipped pre-matt 3 by Admiral Fraser, on Flickr

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

These Madhists look great!

I pretty much use army painter exclusively for all my miniatures now.
Strong tone is the best overall shade. Dark tone I would probably only use on zulus.
Soft tone for my mind is pretty ineffective.  Strong tone on white is quite good.
I am painting up some North African civilians for Gaslight and colonial/sudan games and the army painter works well on white.

You can do a little bit of highlighting with white paint on areas that are too dark after the matt varnish to improve the final result.

Matt varnish is critical to the process. I don't like the army painter matt varnish so use testors dull coat or similar.

Make sure you spray matt varnish on a dry day. Humidity will cause the varnish to fog although you can salvage the figures if this happens by reapplying a satin or gloss varnish again by brush and then respraying with matt.


Cheers Fuzzy.

[jp1885]

I use Army Painter a lot for my VBCW figs and swear by it.

I apply with a paintbrush, leave to dry and then paint on a matt varnish - the result is an ever-so-slightly satin effect which personally I find rather pleasing.

Army Painter does tend to make large areas of white and lighter colours a little mucky though, so I occasionally do some highlighting before matt varnishing.

But for a quick, gaming standard paintjob it can't be beat!

[jazbo]

Interesting to see this.  I have just ordered a tin of dark tone and some leather brown from army painter (well from someone on ebay selling it).  I am going to spray a box of Warlord Zulus leather brown, touch up the white and a few other bits, then slap on dark tone.  I had toyed with using rat brown, but thought it would be too light for Negro flesh colour.

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

I did exactly that for my zulus. Leather brown under coat then paint the details and then apply strong tone. Voila! Instant zulus!

Cheers

Fuzzy

[jazbo]

Fuzzy - you were right.

I did a test on 10 Foundry darkest africa tribals.

1. Sprayed AP leather brown, which is actually a lovely mid reddy-brown.
2. Blocked on details.
3. Brushed on a conservative amount of AP darktone, bit heavier on the skin and less on the cloth bits.
4. Spray of AP matt varnish.

They look.....really good!  Ten figures in less than 1 hour.  


For Europeans I have used a white undercoat, very light block colours and then AP strong tone, and again it works great.  Only thing I find helps is to jus go over whites by brushing along the high ridges of the model, and then a light tone of flesh again on the high areas.  Takes just moments and stops the whites/fleshes looking so "muddy" on Europeans/regulars.

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

I'm sounding like an ad for their product   but I use the army painter for everything now, even my 15mm WWII stuff.

Sure I could get a better paint job using highlights and washes but really its no thant much better than the armpy painter and would take a hell of a lot longer.

For my Zulu war brits I use the AP red undercoat then paint the pants and rifle etc. and dip again.

You can use a dark wood stain varnish for a similar effect for a lot cheaper than AP but I find the viscosity can be a tad thick and you may need to add thinners to make it more runny.

AP takes the guess work out of the technique.

I have had problems with AP matt varnish though so I use testors dull coat

Cheers
Fuzzy

[dodge]

Those look very good,

once you have  based and matt varnished then I know you will be very satisfied 

read an article in this months wargames soldiers and strategy about painting with army painter quickshade and I found it very useful.

dodge

[Argonor]

For large games with lots of units, I think colour-blocking and shading dips or washes is the only sane way to go. Unless you're retired or very rich.

You get such a nice effect in a very short time, and with a matt varnish sprayed on, the gloss effect of Army Painter also disappears.

I stil prefer layering, with the occational use of a wash or drybrush for single minis/skirmish games, though - as soon as each mini is a character in it's own right. But I'd mix and match if I were to play bigger games, that's for sure.

I actually plan to use quite a big bunch of old 40K 2nd Ed, plastic Orks for Warpath, and they'll be blocked and shading washed by the dozen. No need for individual care, here