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I've been looking at obtaining the following:
- Citadel Nuln oil and Agrax earthshade.
- Army Painter Ink Strong Tone and Ink Soft Tone (I don't want to use the dips)
- Secret Weapon Soft Body Black, Baby Boop, Armour Wash and about 8 others.

I already have the Vallejo 200ml black and sepia washes, but I find they leave too much pigment on the surfaces rather than just the recesses, even if I mess with the consistency using flow aid, water and matte medium. Do the above washes / shades behave suitably differently from Vallejo (or from each other for that matter) to justify purchasing them over the much cheaper per volume Vallejo? Do the equivalents from the above 3 ranges behave differently, or is one objectively better than the others, ie. Nuln oil better than soft body black and soft tone?

Does anyone have experience with more than one of the above four ranges of washes/shades that they can weigh in on?

If you have experience with the older line of GW washes, hopefully this will help:

Soft Body Black is weaker than the old GW Badab Black pigment-wise but more or less comparable replacement. Baby Poop is pretty unique as far as color goes, but fairly strong pigment wise. When I use Baby Poop or Armor Wash (which I love, by the way) I typically thin it 1:1 with water. I have a bunch of SWM washes and I highly recommend them.

The Army Painter washes are pretty damn close replacements to the beloved GW Devlan Mud and Badab Black. Here is a comparison to the AP washes to the old GW washes: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2012/05/devlan-mud-and-badab-black-wash.html

GW Nuln Oil is more heavily pigmented than Badab Black (which it replaced) and I find that I usually thin it 1:1 with water. I have no experience with Argrax Earthsade, but I do know it was meant as a replacement for Devlan Mud, but the colors don't that closely.

As far as justifying their purchase over Vallejo, I can't answer that one for you. I would say that really depends on how much you use washes and what you use them for. Personally, I use acrylic washes very sparingly so I have no qualms buying a more expensive-by-volume product so YMMV.

I recommend Vallejo Pale Grey wash highly, perfect for shading white, especially if mixed 2:1 with blue wash.

I know its a bit more work, but I would urge you to try oil washes. They are pretty easy to make and flow into crevasses like a boss.

Don't forget to consider Secret Weapon washes. I use both their black washes, and their armor wash extensively. I find some of their other colors useful for special situations as well.

What I like about it is that they are pigment heavy, so you can water them down to adjust the consistency and flow. I also find that their dry time is slow enough that they are very easy to clean off of larger flat surfaces.

I do use oil washes also, but in many cases, I find the SW washes to just be faster to use with similar results.

feel free to check my blog for pictures of the washes in use: http://www.jlopatin.com

 Yonan wrote:
I already have the Vallejo 200ml black and sepia washes, but I find they leave too much pigment on the surfaces rather than just the recesses

You could try a little clean-up work just after applying the wash. Take a cotton bud and gently wipe away the wash from large surface areas that you don't want shaded, rubbing it over areas almost like a drybrush should remove colouring whilst leaving it where it's wanted - recesses.

Hope that helps, good luck.

 Anfauglir wrote:

 Yonan wrote:
I already have the Vallejo 200ml black and sepia washes, but I find they leave too much pigment on the surfaces rather than just the recesses

You could try a little clean-up work just after applying the wash. Take a cotton bud and gently wipe away the wash from large surface areas that you don't want shaded, rubbing it over areas almost like a drybrush should remove colouring whilst leaving it where it's wanted - recesses.

Hope that helps, good luck.

I haven't tried the Vallejo washes, but if they're your typical quick drying acrylic washes, you'll need to add some flow retarder if you plan to do clean up otherwise you'll be left with a messy result.