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I had my first attempt at quickshading a space marine last night (salamander tact marine justing strong tone). I followed the directions on the can and also took note of the dakka article however the result was far from great.

It seems to have pooled in large amounts on the shoulder pads and is just looking brown in most places even after shaking the mini and soaking up excess with an old brush. Tomorrow night (the recommended 48 hours) I will spray him in anti-shine so I can see the full extent on the quickshine.

Tonight I have tried 2 more approaches, one by soaking up the excess with a Q-tip which did not work so well as I now have fibres on my mini, awesome, The 2nd I put the can in hot water for a little while to thin out and then after dipping I gave him a very good shake and then tried to soak up the excess with a tissue folded into a point. Although it still seems to be pooling quite a lot.

Any advice? I would really like to quickshade a whole bunch of marines as I don't have much spare time and would like to field my mega force boxset as soon as possible.

My advice, shake the mini until you think you have shaken it enough, then shake it 6 more times.

The first mini I dipped I thought I had shaken enough and it looked like a brown diaster.

Also my method for shaking was not vigorous enough, now I sweep my arm from should height to perpendicular to the floor in a hard sweeping motion. It will tire you out. And the shade goes everywhere.

Or you can brush it on, that is way easier but takes longer.

I dip almost everything I paint. I use minwax, but it's essentially thesame thing. Here are a few rules I follow.

First of all, I'm a big proponent of brush dipping (Army painter calls it the "splash" method.) rather than emersion dipping. It requires less space, less mess and if setup and clean up is taken into account, it takes roughly the same amount of time as emersion dipping.

Secondly, I also dip my figs in batches of 3 like this to keep excess dip in check:

Dip fig 1
Dip fig 2
Dab off excess dip on fig 1 with brush
Dip fig 3
Dab off excess dip on fig 2 with brush
Dab off excess dip on fig 3 with a brush
Dab off excess on fig 1 one last time and set asside.
Dab off excess of fig 2 one last time and set asside.
Dab off excess on fig 3 on last time and set asside.

This ensures that every fig gets two checks to make sure it doesn't have too much pooled dip. It sounds very involved, but it's actually a very quick process.

Third, I would never use a cotton swab, and I would be warry of paper towels for dabbing as you can get fibres as you did.

Fourth, if I find that there is too much dip on a fig and it has dried/thickened too much to dab off, I IMMIDIATELY clear the dip off that section of the fig with a brush dipped in mineral spirits (paint thinner) you can always go back and brush on some more dip. However, once it completely dries, it's impossible to remove without killing your paint job.

Lastly, if you want to thin the dip, add a bit of mineral spirits. Warming the dip is not going to get you the results you want.

Hope this helps.

One more thing, Brush on Acrylic Matte Varnish (available cheap at art stores) is a great alternative to matte spray as far as being easy to use and cleanup and easy to apply a bit more (after the first coat dries) if the first application doesn't get rid of all the shine.

In the past when I have dipped figures I glue them to the base of a large headed nail, you can get them at the hardware store....Just a drop of superglue is enough to hold the figure secure and will break off pretty cleanly. Then after I dip I run the figure on my power drill in an empty box or trash can...the spinning force pulls off pretty much all the excess.

Ashton

Go to the local Dollar Store (aka cheap whatever you need, not really quality store) and grab some crappy brushes. Brush that stuff on, then toss the brush out.

I tried actually dipping as well, but had similar issues of just too much of a mess. You can dab it off with a crappy brush, but why bother when you can just avoid waste. It's also not logical to have to whip around your mini when it's winter out, so.... yeah....

Edited b/c there probably isn't a Dollar Store outside of the US.

I don't "dip" but I do use minwax

basically I just paint it on like wash, when there's too much, you are right, use a second, junky brush to absorb the excess

One quick note, for the junky dab-off brushes, I still recomend a brush where the bristles at least look like hair (actual material doesn matter) . The extremely coarse bristle brushes don't absorb the dip nearly as well as those. It's worth ten cents more to but the finer bristled brushes

I buy cheapos from my local model shop or craft store. If you pop them in mineral spirits after use, you can reuse them at least a few times before having to throw them out.

redfinger's idea is pure win.

I use quickshade a lot and my advice is this: After dipping, hold the model over the pot to let the excess drip back into the pot, then shake the figure no more than ten times forward, back then side to side. This should help.

I've experimented a bit more with this and can say Redfinger's drill technique works well. I still also do a few arm swings first and spin the drill in both directions a couple of times so that the g-force (or whatever) does not make the shade build up in certain areas.