Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi people. I am about to use army painter quick shade (dark tone) on a bunch of my models. The instructions on the can are saying to wait (after applying it) 24 hours. Was wondering is using a hair blower would be useful or wouldn't be recommended, thx.

Well I would not try it on plastics, with the fear of them getting too hot and melting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Why not put them right infront of a fan?

Get a little mini travel hairdryer. These work better because they move less air. I use one all the time for plastic and resin miniatures, both when I paint and airbrush. Probably 50% of the miniatures you see in my gallery had a little hairdryer on them at some point, with the heat cranked -- certainly, anything with a decal.

A couple of things to keep in mind...

- if you blow a hot hairdryer onto resin for any length of time, it will easily deform, which is good if you're trying to straighten it out, and terrible in every other case. So for resin models, hairdryer is ok for drying, but don't set it too hot, or if you must, don't point it too closely at the model.

- this sounds so obvious, but don't use a hairdryer to dry any paint that is so wet that it can still move around, like a wet shade or wet glaze...

- In my experience, blowing air across the model will work much better than blowing air at the model

- use a pair of pliers or something so you don't burn your fingers if you have the heat turned up

- cool air dries almost as well!

All that being said, what does it mean, wait 24 hours? I mean, wait for what? For varnish, probably, yeah. But if you just want it to be dry enough to drybrush or detail, it just has to be dry to the touch. I don't dunk my models, but even when I slather dark tone onto terrain, it takes at most a couple of hours without any help from artificial drying.

I haven't used the cans of Army Painter stuff, only the small plastic bottles.

According to AP the cans are a polyurethane, but I don't know whether it's oil based PU or water based PU, probably water based I'm guessing?

Polyurethane tends to harden in 2 stages, first the solvent dissolves off and then the polyurethane itself starts to cure. It depends what you're putting on top of it whether or not you just need to wait for the solvent to dissolve or whether you need to wait for a full cure.

Blowing air over it will cause the solvent to evaporate faster and it doesn't make a huge difference whether it's hot or cold air (hot should be slightly faster but not a whole lot). Once the solvent evaporates and you're waiting for the polyurethane itself to cure (which is important if you plan to paint something "hot" over the top which might eat/crack/craze the AP varnish) then warming it up a bit should speed things up a bit, but make sure you still don't want to heat it much above typical room temperature.

If it says leave 24 hours, leave it 24 hours. You're waiting for the PU to cure - it's a chemical reaction.

I'd also say, leave it at room temperature. Heating the surface of the PU may well get that to cure faster, but you're gonna get outgassing as the layer under it goes and this could have undesired effects, especially if the quickshade went on thick.

Thanks for the answers !

I have used Army Painter quick shade dunks extensively recently, and the best thing to do is just leave the damn things 24 hours. That stuff dries slooooooow, and even if you add a moving air source, you are still going to be tacky to the touch after several hours, so realistically, if you paint in the evening, then dunk them, and just carry on the next evening. You just can't reduce 24 hour drying time significantly enough to make it worth it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, since you want this stuff to pool realistically, remember that even though it's dripping slooooowly, it is still moving when not totally dry, so a moving air source risks blowing it so it the shadie looks weird.

 goblinzz wrote:
I have used Army Painter quick shade dunks extensively recently, and the best thing to do is just leave the damn things 24 hours. That stuff dries slooooooow, and even if you add a moving air source, you are still going to be tacky to the touch after several hours, so realistically, if you paint in the evening, then dunk them, and just carry on the next evening. You just can't reduce 24 hour drying time significantly enough to make it worth it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, since you want this stuff to pool realistically, remember that even though it's dripping slooooowly, it is still moving when not totally dry, so a moving air source risks blowing it so it the shadie looks weird.

The way you describe it almost sounds more like an oil based polyurethane. Does it smell quite a bit as well? Water based PU is usually fine after a few hours, just not quite as tough as it would be a day or two later.

It's oil based, not water based. if you use a brush, you need to clean it in turpentine.

Ah ok! That makes sense. Yeah, I'd definitely wait a day for it to dry then. You can buy water based stains and for those I think you're fine once it's touch dry in a couple of hours, but it's still a couple of days before it's really toughened up.

There's probably a reason they chose oil based though, probably sinks in to the crevices easier (that's just a guess, I haven't tried it myself, I'm not a big fan of dips to begin with, I prefer acrylic, enamel and oil washes myself).