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Being the lazy bugger that I am, Im looking for easy ways to paint up the masses of Marines and Tanks I have sitting around.

Has anyone used these or have any experiance with them?

are they like the old GW colour sprays?

Do they need a undercoat(Black, white, grey)?

Ive seen and read alot about the minwax method of dipping, but they results on the army painter website looks alot more natural(and easy!)

I have not tried their color sprays; however, I have used their STRONG Tone - QS1002 and anti-shine matte varnish.

These marines used both above mentioned products;



I did not dip, rather I blotted / painted the strong tone product on.

What I can say about Army Painter is this: it gives a decent result if you don't mind your figures having a shiney, satin finish.
And really, it's acrylic furniture stain; you can buy a gallon of stain at the hardware store for about what a pint of Army Painter costs. The only reason to buy AP is to get a broader selection of colors.

Here is a thread where I review Army Painter primer. I hope it helps...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/241188.page

It's written in context to other primers so I didn't copy and paste.

Thanks that was what I was looking for.

I think Im gonna give the Pure Red spray and Dark Tone combo a try on my World Eaters Army.

Based on how that goes, It might be time to repaint my Ultramarines.

Thanks for the insight.

The shading products they offer I believe are oil based. The label content mentions petrol products on it.

I've dipped some space marines with army painters strong tone before too. IMO, you're better off with a simple basecoat/wash. This got me better results, and actually took less time, because the dipped marines needed a good going over with matte varnish to get rid of the shine.

The only advantage dipping has over the kind of results you can get with citadel washes as far as I can see is that the models are already protected.

Having said that, dipping might be quicker for some people depending on how efficient they are at making it into a conveyor belt type process.


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I have also used their primer (only black so far) and their matte varnish, and have no complaints.

I've not had great results with the AP Colour Primers -- I've used their black and their desert yellow, and both work fine some of the time but come out grainy at other times. They have an FAQ on their website that tells you how to avoid this, but even following it to the letter, I still sometimes get grainy results. :(

Dip-wise, I just buy woodstain, and use that. Seems to work fine, and comes in much bigger cans... I paint it on like a wash, though, rather than actually dipping it.

I've used the bone and the blue and both primers seem to be top notch.

The primers are fairly dense. I back off another 6 inches from my usual distance, and don't overspray. I did two stompers, one in dessert yell and one in the red, it saved hours of work. The bone I tried on a unit of skeletons with decent results, and several khorne armies have been done in the red by some friends. Overall the primers are much better than the GW color sprays. You don't need an undercoat with them, although I will often undercoat black, then hit the model obliquely with the spray to add a lighter coat of color, leaving a lot of black in the crevices.

I brush on the dips, with good results. I've used them less now that the GW washes are out, but still find them time savers. I usually hit the models with dull coate afterwards to knock the shine out, then do some detail work on top.

One thing I've used the stong tone and black tone for extensively, is bringing life to old models. I've got thousands of models I painted a decade or two ago, that I will never strip and repaint. But I've brought many units back to the table by dusting them off, giving them a quick drybrush of lighter colors, then hitting them with the army painter tones, and then dullcoate.

I've only used the primers but really like them. I've used red for my skinks and bone for my chaos marines and also black for undercoating other things. the paint sticks on real well and you can get a nice even tone where all you need to do after that is paint on some wash and some quick drybrush highlights. saves a whole lot of time