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Thursday, April 26, 2012

GW Shade vs. Wash AND Harlan Versh

So yesterday there was some disappointing news about the status of War Room being delayed.  It was originally planned for late April but now it's looking like the middle of May will be when we can expect this awesome app.  I didn't share it on here but if you had checked out the Facebook page you would have found out about it yesterday!  Ha!  And you thought I wasn't going to plug the Facebook page today...
The real article today is actually a two-for-one.  I've begun painting my 15 point Morrowan list for the local Warmachine League and I recently picked up some of the new GW paints to try them out.  Not the 'base' or 'layer' paints, but some of the more interesting paints like the new 'shades', 'dry', and 'glaze' paints.  I'll be doing some reviews of the dry compounds and glazes later, but since I used the old GW washes right away in my painting process (it helps to identify the detail before I paint), I figured it would be helpful to show the differences between the new Nuln Oil black shade and the old Badab Black wash, and then I'll show off my first painted Morrowan model: Harlan Versh!



First here is Badab Black vs. Nuln Oil over just a white primer:



You'll notice that the Nuln Oil has a more even coverage, but it makes the overall model darker.  I'm still not sure which one I prefer, but since Badab Black will no longer be manufactured, it means that Badab Black has a limited supply anyway, so the transition is more or less necessary.  The Badab Black was a little more friendly with white, and since my Cygnar feature a lot of white (and I wanted to do so moreso with my Morrowan models), I'm a little sad that the Nuln Oil ends up being darker.

Ultimately, I think that the shades do exactly what they're supposed to do, and shade the parts of the model you want instead of being the all-inclusive step that the old washes were.  I do like how there's less pooling with Nuln Oil than Badab Black (you can see it more clearly on the shield and the bottom of the robes).

And here's Harlan Versh!  I love this guy as he basically looks like a badass cowboy pastor:

The only thing I didn't like about how he came out were his eyes.  I'm really particular about models' eyes but since his are so close to the brim and it looks like he's squinting, it was really difficult to get them the way I wanted with my dexterity.  After trying a dozen times to get them right, I decided in the end to go with the lame 'glowy' look to them.  I'm still not happy with them but fortunately you barely see them on the model usually anyway.  In the end, I'm quite pleased with him and I think he'll blend in well with the rest of my Cygnarian forces.  I was a little worried about him blending in with my Highborn Covenant models, but then I remembered that Fiona can't work with Morrowan models anyway, so it's all good!

Anyway, Harlan was really straight-forward to paint and quite fun and easy.  I got him done in around 2-3 hours - and that's including drying time between layers.