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I've recently been reading a lot on using these things as a fast way to get a tabletop-ready army, and being a bit on the lazy side I'm considering giving it a try. I have a couple of questions beforehand though to make sure I'm not going to damage my figures or ruin them to where I need to strip them and start over:

1) Are these things roughly the same? I ask because the Quickshade is about $30, while Minwax runs about half of that. I've seen various posts with some saying they are the same, others saying they aren't and that Minwax ruined figures, etc. so I want to just check around before I either spend $30 or less and risk ruining something.

2) I plan to brush it on, rather than use the "dip" technique; is there anything that I should do with this approach, such as soaking up excess stain or anything like that? Should the stain be diluted (with turpentine? Not sure how to dilute it, but I know water does not work) before using it?

3) When it dries, you can go and add additional details and highlights if you want, correct? Most of the things I've read just say to varnish after the dip dries and voila you're done, but let's say I want to add extra details to a character model so they don't look like it was dipped?

4) Aesthetics question but my armor color is going to be an olive green and brown, would I be better using a brown stain tone versus black? For Army Painter this would be the "Strong" tone or I've seen it stated that Minwax's "Antique Walnut" is the equivalent of AP's Strong, while Tudor Satin is the Dark tone, but with green and brown it seems a brown shade would be better.

1. I have used both and never had a problem, I did use the Army painter primer in both cases, I know there is a lot of criticism of the Army Painter primer, but personally I have never had any issues.

2. Cutting it with a bit of turpentine would help, I would say anywhere between 1/4 to 1/3 thinner is about what you want to shoot for. I have found that Army Painter tends to be a little thinner than Minwax. When brushing the Army Painter on it seems to be more subtle, whereas the Minwax seems to be more dramatic.

3. Ideally you should paint all details before applying the wash, after it dries if you need to clean up edges or pick out details your should be fine.

4. I think you would be better off with the Strong Tone.

Lastly here is a nice guide to dipping that I always found helpful;

http://gfbrobot.com/2010/12/03/andrews-guide-to-dipping-minis/

Is it possible to use the Minwax without cutting it, or is it too thick to do it like that (for reference I'm doing a Tau army so the models have armor plating)? I'm trying to avoid spending the $30 on the Army Painter one if at all possible, because that's a pretty hefty price for it, but if it's that much better I don't mind paying for quality.

Yes. And Minwax does make an Acrylic wood stain. They carry it at Home Depot. You can thin it, but I have not needed to.

I found my best results using the Walnut colored wood stain on my TK army. This is not the product with the varnish mixed in.

As the stain dried I used a q-tip to blot off a bit extra that was pooling at the bottom of shields. It dried with a slightly shiny look, but after a clear flat spray coat the shiny went away, and the army looks suitably dry as dust.

Should you use this, let me echo the directions on the can and reccomend that you Stir the stuff with a wooden paint stirrer before and during use. Do Not Shake, as this creates air bubbles that are hard to get rid of.

I put 2 quarts into a tall thin tupperware container, roughly the size of a small cereal box. I dipped my whole TK army including giant and chariots, and a regiment of flying monkeys (Eureka minis) and some small resin terrain pieces and there is still plenty left after several years on the basement shelf.

The only problem I encountered was that the stain did not flow into all of the eye sockets on the small skulls, and I had to sit there with a little brush on the day after the initial dip and fill them in.