Painting and Modification Display Thread

[srmalloy]

Originally Posted by TREX

I've been using the pledge floor finish for all of my washes mixed with paint and water for years. I'm mainly wondering if it compares to quickshade.

Both of them are a clear gloss base with a pigment added; Quickshade is only available in the strong, dark, and soft variations, while doing it yourself with Magic Wash or some other variation on Pledge/Future lets you use whatever color you want if you want. Admittedly, the three types of Quickshade will cover the majority of the figures you'd want to use it for, but for figures with different skin colors, being able to tailor the wash to your subject adds flexibility.

Quickshade is a varnish; it thins with turpentine, so it's going to have a strong smell, and should be used in a ventilated area. Pledge/Future is an acrylic, which means that it thins with water and has relatively little odor of its own. Spilled Quickshade will need to be cleaned up with a turps-based thinner, while Pledge/Future can be cleaned up with water. One additional benefit of Pledge/Future is that, as an acrylic medium, you can add a flat base to your wash and have it be flat, rather than gloss, with just the wash, while Quickshade requires that you overspray the dipped/washed figure with a matte topcoat.

Where I think the big difference comes is in flexibility. Quickshade comes in industry-standard paint cans, so whether you dip your miniature (a process requiring at least as much of the Quickshade liquid as the height of your mini) or brush it on, you've got the can open, with a lot of surface area exposed for evaporation. With a bottle of Magic Wash, you only decant enough for what you're going to use, and the rest remains sealed (while you can do this with Quickshade, the paint can doesn't lend itself to pouring out a small amount, making it more inconvenient).

You can also more easily set up several different washes to use for different minis, or different parts of a mini -- a green wash for the exposed skin, a gray wash for fabric, and a black wash to pop armor details, for example. Overall, I think that between the price and greater convenience of Magic Wash, it's a better solution for someone who wants something between 'dip your entire army to get it shaded as fast as possible' and 'full-color shade/highlight and blend each miniature individually'.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to what you're happy with. They both work, they both produce good results, and they're both a lot faster than the detailed shading you see in competition miniatures.

[keglo]

What do you guys suggest putting on these for protection after painting? I have a can of Testors Dullcote. Is that sufficient or do you suggest something else?

[Porkins]

Testors Dullcote is great. Use thin coats.

[TREX]

@keglo , I just use Flat Krylon Clearcoat.

[Porkins]

I use the Krylon stuff on terrain pieces and the Testors on minis.

[keglo]

Ok thanks guys!

[keglo]

I just wanted to come back and warn everyone to NOT use Krylon Cover Maxx Clear on your painted fugures. It literally ruined 9 of my painted AotP figures

I am very irritated as it is taking me a very long time to get these figures painted and now much of that work is undone. I had about half of my set painted but did not have the clearcoat applied yet. I decided to finish those up this morning with the Krylon Maxx and I was rewarded with disastrous results.

The first three looked fine at first, just after spraying. After spraying the next three figures it bubbled up the paint on all three of them. They look terrible. I couldn’t figure out why the first three looked fine without a single bubble while these looked terrible. I had used the same paint after all. I decided to try three more to see what would happen. After spraying this last set of three I looked over and noticed that the first set, that was fine a moment before, now were covered in a very milky, almost opaque, layer that almost completely obscures the color and detail of my paint job.

I sure wish that I had read the reviews from the above link before I used this product. It is much more expensive but from now on I will be sticking with the Testors.
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[TREX]

@keglo , I have used the krylon stuff quite a few times on my figures and the came out great most times. I do know what your talking about. I had one can that was kind of cold, and wasn't spraying right, and made the consistency come out in flecks instead of a spray giving that milky residue your talking about. I haven't used the Color Maxx Stuff, just the older stuff they have though. Sorry about your figures. I sprayed a new squadron of X Wings I just painted yesterday with krylon and they look amazing.

[keglo]

Originally Posted by TREX

@keglo , I have used the krylon stuff quite a few times on my figures and the came out great most times. I do know what your talking about. I had one can that was kind of cold, and wasn't spraying right, and made the consistency come out in flecks instead of a spray giving that milky residue your talking about. I haven't used the Color Maxx Stuff, just the older stuff they have though. Sorry about your figures. I sprayed a new squadron of X Wings I just painted yesterday with krylon and they look amazing.

Yeah I think that there must be some big differences between the regular Krylon clearcoat and this Maxx stuff. The Maxx has many bad reviews while the regular stuff has good reviews. I know that it really screwed mine up.

[srmalloy]

Originally Posted by keglo

Yeah I think that there must be some big differences between the regular Krylon clearcoat and this Maxx stuff. The Maxx has many bad reviews while the regular stuff has good reviews. I know that it really screwed mine up.

The web page for the product on the Krylon website says that the cleanup is with mineral spirits. Combining that with what I've read over some months on the Armorama website's painting forum, it tells me that the product is a solvent-based acrylic, not a water-based acrylic, and can pull up water-based acrylics if they're not fully cured (and depending on the solvent used, sometimes even if they are fully cured).

[HeroTempest]

[keglo]

Originally Posted by HeroTempest

Whatever you just posted, I can't see. Maybe because I'm on my phone?