Army Painter Quickshade dry time

[Bravo Six]

I dont usually use washes but am experimenting with some Strong Tone on bases at the mo. How long is the dry time before you drybrush? Anyone have experience with this?

[ErikB]

Lots of variables ranging from heat and humidity to how thick you're putting on the wash.

I suggest at least 6 hours and then put on another coat of base or later color and only then drybrush.

[CookAndrewB]

If you are just brushing it on, I don't find dry time to be much longer than any other paint. 10-15 minutes, tops, really. That assumes you aren't dipping or applying it in standing puddles, I suppose. But honestly I don't often set aside a figure for much longer than 30 minutes. Oil paints being the most notable reason that I would allow for a lot of dry time.

Some washes dry a bit glossy, which might be why you are assuming it is still wet?

[wmyers]

Do you mean Quickshade from the dropper bottle or from the metal tin?

They are two very different products with very different drying times!

[DavidB]

I have a problem with the Strong Tone can Quickshade.  Dark tone dries in the 24hour  advertised window but my Strong Tone takes over a week.  Using it in the same environment and the same acrylic paints.

[Daeothar]

I can only comment on the acrylic product in the plastic dropper bottles and larger plastic pots (which is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same product), but I have no experience with the 'Future Floor Finish'-killer that started off Army Painter back in the day.

It is as stated: a lot depends on the amount of wash applied, the room temperature and humidity, but overall, I'd say that the wash can be drybrushed over safely after about 15 minutes, give or take.

Longer drying times are always better of course. In fact I usually plan it so I apply a wash as the last activity of the evening/night, so it has plenty of time to thoroughly dry.

But when the heat is on and the blood is up, I usually set a mini aside for the abovementioned 15 minutes or so. Or not, if I'm batch painting an entire unit, because once I'm done with the last one, the first one is usually dry enough to continue.

Also, I once set myself a challenge to finish a set of minis in one hour's time, and then I simply used my wife's hairdryer

[FifteensAway]

Here is a trick I use with acrylics if time matters - I hold a figure up close to an incandescent bulb to accelerate drying time.  It has to be warm to your fingers to be effective - not hot but good and warm.  Not sure how that will work with Quickshade because I don't use that stuff.

I use the simple paint on first for basic color, thinned paint as washes for shading, and towel brushed dry brushing for highlights - the old tried and true approach that served the hobby for half a century and still works just fine.  And I do this with layer painting.  That gives me enough to achieve my, admittedly, simple results.  Sometimes I do a bit of a different approach:  I brush on my shading color first, then dry brush what would otherwise be the basic color, and then dry brush highlight.  That really can speed stuff up.  Mind you, I am only going for wargamer standard at best.  It works for me - and over 3,000 mostly 15 mm figures in the last 27 months - and a small smattering of 10 mm recently.

[Daeothar]

Here is a trick I use with acrylics if time matters - I hold a figure up close to an incandescent bulb to accelerate drying time.  It has to be warm to your fingers to be effective - not hot but good and warm.  Not sure how that will work with Quickshade because I don't use that stuff...

I used to do that too. I had two rather bright halogen reading lamps above my desk, combined with an incandescent tube on a flex arm.

This taught me to really thin my paints and drying time was at rocket speed. It also influenced my painting style, as I had to really work to achieve wetblends, since the very hot lamps dried the paints really fast (sometimes even on the brush!)

They were so hot that I could actually correct warping issues on resin models when held right in front of them (mind your fingers!)

But the added advantage was that they kept my hands warm when painting during colder winter evenings

Now, after a move two years ago, I use LED (daylight) lamps, and I really had to get used to the (much) longer drying times. Luckily my PC is now at the same workstation, so I can browse the LAF inbetween colours, because drying now takes minutes instead of seconds...