Quickshade is a tinting dip made by Army Painter. The way it works is you block-paint your figure or model, then dip it in the Quickshade and shake off the excess (definitely something you want to do outside or in a large box-enclosure). The shade will run into the cracks and crevasses, darkening the recesses. Once it's completely dry you can dry-brush some highlights and give it a shot of lusterless flat spray.

I don't dip it...too messy. I brush it on, then brush off the excess. It will leave a glossy finish which can be okay for tinplate figures, but for more realistic finish you will definitely want to give it the overspray of flat lacquer to dull it down (and protect it).

Before there was Quickshade some folks used Minwax Polyshade, which you can buy at Lowes or the hardware store in various colors. I've never tried that.

To be honest, Quickshade is not perfect, but it looks pretty good from a few feet away. Google it...you can find it at some mail-order hobby suppliers. I think it comes in three shades.



You can also use inks, such as Game Color made by Acrylicos Vallejo, or Citadel has some tinting inks as well. With these I block paint the figure same as with Quickshade. I take a small amount of water and add a drop or two of the ink (very sparingly). Then I just paint the figure with the diluted ink wash. The diluted ink will similarly run into the cracks and recesses. However, one issue with the ink is that it will darken flat acrylic paint significantly...sometimes that looks okay, other times not. One thing you can do is give the figure a coat of gloss or semi-gloss lacquer before using the ink. This will mitigate some of the ink darkening the lighter colors. Then after it dries give it a spray of the flat lacquer. You have to experiment to find what works for you.

Hope this helps.

Paul II

Thanks for the info!

A recent project using the dip-method:



Learned a couple of things with this figure, the first being it's possible to solder parts together. You have to dial back the heat on your solder-pencil to avoid melting the lead-pewter casting, but it works a lot better than super-glue (something with which I have had mixed results over the years).

The other thing I learned is that my eye-sight is really shot. From a couple feet away he looks sharp, but up close I can see the block-painting is not near sharp enough.

Paul II

hey, winced36...

there's nothing wrong with your paint job...by the way...i have a question...i just wonder...

...how many "young model railroaders" know what the figure is doing?...

my very best regards...howard...

old enough to know...and actually seen...

The old Western Maryland Railway mainline passed through the town I lived in when I was a boy. As it was single-track most of the way passing train-orders was part of their operations almost to their consolidation into CSX. Their system had a pole outside the freight-house in town where orders were placed using a wire bracket...nobody had to stand out there and pass them to the locomotive. I don't recall ever seeing it done, but I knew what the process was.

Paul II

Paul, love the figure AND the tribute to past practices.

A 2-rail scale mate of mine dropped off a couple boxes of Plasticville citizens awhile back, considering them too toy-like to work on his layout. Me, a prewar tinplater, they are perfect. A bit of acrylic paint and an ink wash, they are ready for the layout:



A good project for a chilly winter's evening.

They are wonderful!

Thanks.

Here's a few other Plasticville citizens completed recently (still need a bit of touch-up):



The guy in the middle is supposed to be a policeman, but I painted him as a British Army officer. He has this weird outstretched hand; rather than cut and reposition it, I drilled a small hole and gave him the stereotypical riding crop. The uniform is not quite right, but close enough that most won't notice.

These are soooooooooooooooooooo well done.