First Mini & Quickshade Test

So I finally got my first new mini under my belt. All in all, the techniques came back pretty easily, so I guess it's like riding a bike. You never forget. Truth be told, my hand wasn't as steady, but that will come back with practice. I had a lot of little touch-ups here and there I had to do.

On top of being my first mini painted in over a decade, I decided to use it as an experiment for a product called Quickshade made by The Army Painter. The company was started by a couple ex-'Eavy Metal team members (Games Workshop's pro painters), so I was interested in the purported ease of building entire regiments of minis. Their instructions are to just basecoat the mini (no drybrushing or highlighting) then you dip the mini into the can of Quickshade -- which is a pigmented varnish -- then shake the excess off and let it dry. Sounded too good to be true, so I decided to drop $30 on a can and try it out.

So here's my progression:

1. Here's the mini I worked on just base coated.

It's a Reaper mini, but I don't remember which one.  

 2. Here it is dipped in the Quickshade and dried.

 3. Back view after being dipped and drying.

 

4. And lastly, matte sprayed and based. (I also took

some black paint to the edges of the base)

I think it turned out well with the Quickshade. I was actually quite impressed with it. I definitely will be using it when I start to make legions of Dark Elves and Skaven for Warhammer. They offer the Quickshades as inks in their paint line as well. I will have to try that with another mini to see how that works.