AWI Project Log Part 2: Painting Militia with Vallejo Xpress Color paints (and friends!)

A much delayed part 2 of my AWI project. Here is a painting guide for the militia figures. I used mainly Vallejo Xpress Colors to quickly achieve the finish. Painting militia in a multitude of civilian and uniformed clothing allows for a test of the various paints to decide what works for the more uniformed Continental units to come later in the project.
Colours used (all Vallejo Xpress Color unless noted):
Prime Colour Forge Matt White
Dwarf Skin
Wasteland Brown
Copper Brown
Plague Green
Plasma Red
Black Lotus
Templar White
Citadel Contrast Skeleton Horde
Citadel Contrast Medium
Army Painter Platemail Metal
Army Painter Strong Tone
Citadel Baneblade Brown (bases)

[@inthetrencheswithcas1762]

Stunning mate your delivery whole way through and the finished result is superb I’m watching this from a hospital bed and I forgot about my pain while I binged your craft

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

Get well soon! Thanks for watching - glad you find the videos to your liking.

[@norm977]

Thanks for showing the Xpress paints.

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

No problem. This project is an excuse to use them more.

[@philRminiatures]

Nice details and wonderful work on this militia... 👍👍

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

Cheers!

[@basicminiaturepainting]

They look super,great tutorial

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

Thanks dude.

[@NicGamz]

Great work and very good tutorial. Keep up the painting. 👍

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

Thanks very much.

[@BrushQuill]

These chaps look brilliant

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

Thanks, they turned out pretty well. I have since found out the hard way that Xpress Colors reactivate with brush on Winsor & Newton matt varnish which has been really disappointing.

[@BrushQuill]

@@CullodenPaintingStudio i have heard that basically any but contrast paint has reactivation issues. Which as I dont own or have space for an airbrush puts me off. I need to try that W&N matt varnish as hear its ultra matt. I use the Vallejo stuff atm

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

@@BrushQuill You can get the W&N in a spray can which seals things without reactivation fortunately.

[@maryhinge6334]

Lovely work Rory. I picked up a couple of the Xpress colours recently to see what they’re like and I’m looking forward to trying them out. 👍

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

Cheers. There are a few colours that I think will supercede GW Contrast paints in my collection, but not all. Have fun experimenting.

[@mattcooper1664]

Classic paint handle! 😛

[@mattcooper1664]

How are you getting on with the Xpress? Have you used it to paint units yet? I ask because, while I like the range and colours, I've been having some trouble with working with them. I find introducing a small amount of water, to loosen things up, leads to the paint becoming a little gelatinous. Adding further water dilutes as you'd expect but then it's too thin. I've been experimenting with the medium but as a commission painter I haven't always the time to take a punt on whether a mix is forgiving enough to cover 70+ 15mm Romans! It's a more "commercial" use case sure. As a learned colleague could you share some thoughts on batch painting with this range? It's entirely possible that I'm doing something badly wrong with them that I've overlooked. I've been playing around with an icepack palette for a couple of months, both with a ceramic tile and metal dishes. I first noticed the paint reacting oddly to small amounts of water as condensation formed on the surface of the palette.

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

I haven't actually done any commissions myself yet with the Xpress Colors as I need more practice with them. These militia are a good excuse to improve with them before putting them on clients' models. I think one advantage over Contrast Paints though is the dropper bottle. It is easier to keep the ratios the same throughout a commission if it is "one drop medium to three drops paint" or whatever. I have been using baking parchment as my palette for these, and trying to leave water out of it. I initially put the paint down on my wet palette but soon found that was a bad idea as the mix was all wrong.