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Greetings Dakka,


This is my first post here on Dakka, I've lurked for quite some time. Typically I'm one of those people who really don't register or post on a forum unless they (I) can contribute, and/or at least respond with helpful information etc.

As such, I wanted to review the product that I have recently received from Les at APJ. I'm sure you guys know the website.

Before I start I want to make a couple headers, or points if you will, as while I have not seen many people on Dakka to be trollish, I've been around the internet long enough to know tis best to CYA.

1.) I'm not affiliated with Les or APJ in anyway other than a consumer of the product.

2.) My opinions of said reviewed product are my own and not meant in anyway to demean or suggest a lesser/greater scenario to readers.



Allrighty, with that said lets start.


To give a little background, I've been hobbying WF, and mainly WH40k since early 1990, I got serious around 1998 (3rd Dex), and played competitively in several large tournaments at my local FLGS. around 2002, graduating from college, I turned to career and didn't hobby for many years, until recently picking back up the hobby in April of 10. I played a Salamanders army before, but after going through the 5th edition RB and Dex, I decided to go for a more subtle learning curve, building about a easy vanilla 1500pt Ultrasmurfs army to learn to play again. We will see which way I go after that. That being said, painting was always one of my more favorite parts of the hobby, and after getting back into it I realized that a lot had changed. Youtube brought me to Les's SM tutorials, and after following the work he'd done on Youtube, I followed a bit more on his website, and after potentially gleaning a large chunk of his intellectual "property", decided to support him by ordering his washes.

I have to say that I have been very impressed with the way the washes work, the consistency they color with, and as well the range offered. As such I'm going to try to do a small review of each wash I bought with a set of pictures comparing it, however that will take time as I can't really just create a lot of the scenarios in which I would use the different washes without first having the mini to do it with. So I'll append this post as needed when I come to those points.

To start here is an overview of my purchase, what I purchased.



These are the original washes I chose to pick out of Les's original Line.



These are the dirty washes I picked out of Les's dirty Line.


I didn't save the packaging, but the washes were shippped USPS first class. Sealed with Styrofoam peanuts and all arrived intact, no leakage. I also have to compliment Les on his shipping, the washes were ordered on a Thursday, and received the following Monday.


First, I wanted to preview the washes I've been using the most. Those two are:

Les's Flesh Wash


Les's Armor Wash



To start, I think it is important to show the differences between what you may be using now, and this product. I have compared these washes to GW standard inks. I am using Space Marine Scouts. Models were undercoated with Lowes white primer and given a starting coat of Mordian blue to provide contrast, as well as some Chaos Black on the pants to match the 5th company scheme for the Ultra's. Boltgun/Bolt pistol painted Chaos Black and then in applicable areas, GW Boltgun metal.


Flesh Wash:

The Mini marked with "C" has had GW Ogryn Flesh applied to it. The Mini marked with "L" has had Les's Flesh Wash applied to it.

Standard Shot


Larger Shot


Zoomed Shot



As well below are shot's with the bolter/bolt pistol. The bolter was washed with Les's armor wash, the bolt pistol with GW Badab Black

Armor Wash



Badab Black Wash



It is harder to see from the pictures, but to the naked eye, the flesh wash from Les did provide a much greater shade into the actual recesses of the model, and thus would make it much easier to build up believable highlights from it. I'm a big fan of this wash so far, I'll be testing it out on some upcoming models that have more skin.

The armor wash is really, really, REALLY good. It provides sort of a black/brown/greenish shade, it might be difficult to pick out from the pictures as I cannot rotate the model under a light to catch the nuances of the different colors, but I can assure you they are there. For washing metal, this wash absolutely blows Badab Black out of the water hands down.


As I said, more to come as I complete models that can make proper use of the washes I purchased. I think Les is doing a great job with these products, and thank him for making them available, both with recipes, and through his website for purchase.

Les is an awesome guy and it's always good to see support. Thanks for the review.

Review was ok but the pictures, as said, don't really help. More examples other then black would be nice. Black is a bad colour to use an an example. Its too dark! haha.

Good stuff.

They look good, but as said above, more examples and pics would be nice. ^^

They look pretty cool. I wouldn't buy, since I mix my own washes on the palette, but I can see them being great alternatives to GW's washes. They look like something that can net some really cool results if you're willing to put in a bit more time than GW's washes.