Friday 6 July 2012

Folk Art Stains/Washes

I recently read some Forum posts lamenting the withdrawal of Badab Black and Devlan Mud washes by Games Workshop. I have yet to try any of the new GW paints or washes but regularly use the old GW washes; Sepia, Black and Mud.

I picked up these three water based stains some months back - they were being sold off at just 50p a 59ml bottle and thought that I would do a quick test as to there suitability as replacement washes.

Folk Art Stains; 2806 Mahogany, 2802 Oak and 2804 Walnut.


I have used a small scrap of artists watercolour paper and poured out three samples. Each sample has been 'watered down' with plain tap water to see how it behaves when diluted.

The Mahogany Stain first; The colour conforms to the packaging, having a dark almost berry colour.  The Oak Satin, when diluted reminds me of the old (very old) Games Workshop Flesh Wash - the one that came in the blue-topped bottle. Finally the Walnut Stain, which is a very good substitute for the Devlan Mud wash. It is less concentrated than the GW washes but when applied in layers gave a similar effect.


I have used a diluted mix of both the Mahogany and Walnut Stain on both the walls (over grey - Skull White and Chaos Black) and the base (over Snakebite Leather) of this simple piece of scratch-built terrain.

I am less confident using it undiluted, but will certainly use these stains on my terrain keeping the small GW pots for figure painting.


I hope that this short review helps. I am not sure where you can now buy these products - as I stated above they were bought cheap and as a clearance line. It is possible that they would be easier to source in the US.

Tony

NOTE;
I have seen that these Folk Art stains are available from Amazon (amazon.co.uk)  in the UK

4 comments:

J Womack, Esq. said...

Thanks for the pointer. I have used the craft paint for terrain before, but never noticed the stains.

Alfrik said...

I too use the Craft Paints for my scenic paint jobs due to the inexpensive price per bottle and that they are often on sale. I have to admit I had not thought to try the washes but will now after reading your post.

Fire at Will said...

Interesting, I failed to find a suitable replacement for the GW brown ink

Desert Scribe said...

Thanks, I'll have to look for these. I was just diluting the craft paints to use as a wash, although I recently picked up a bottle of India ink and have been using that as a wash.