Nuln Oil Shine

[jonfreeman]

general quick question

 

my brother's getting into the hobby (painting things down separately at his house), he's doing pretty good over all, but he's running into an issue with Nuln Oil.

 

Basically, any time he uses it, there's a bit of a shine that results from it.  For metallic/armored figures (like an imperial probe droid or storm troopers), this is fine.  But for other organic figures (like a wookie) it's basically resulting in them looking like they're in the middle of a rain storm.

 

So, I'm not there painting with him - I don't know if this is user error - but I was wondering if you could answer a couple questions ...

 

 

A) is there a technique that would cause more "oil" shine from Nuln Oil, or less of it?  (i.e. how do you get a more matte finish without having to rely on heavy matte spray-on-varnish)

B) is there an alternative black shade to Nuln Oil that doesn't leave as shiny of a texture?

 

 

Thanks in advance!

[DocPiske]

GW shades are essentially paint thinned with acrylic medium. Even the matte medium will be a bit glossy. You can try thinning the shade with water but you might get tide marks. I used to make my own matte washes with water, paint and acrylic ink. Alternatively you can reapply the highlights.

[cmorse]

Nuln oil always has a bit of a shine, but it will be worse if it's not shaken well enough. It also comes in two versions. Make sure you have the regular as opposed to the gloss version.

 

[MojoBob]

Yes, the washes all (or many of them, at least) come in matte and gloss versions, and there's not a significant difference in the packaging so it's easy to get caught with the wrong one.

 

Tamiya sell a Matting Agent that can be added to gloss paints to dull them down, but whether it will work with Citadel washes or not I don't know.

[CorallineAlgae]

Reaper also has an anti-shine additive here. It's super concentrated so a little goes a long way. I would never advise adding anything like that right in the pot without thorough testing. Mixing a teeny tiny bit to some Nuln Oil in a well palette or a bottle cap to see how it affects it first. Those kinds of additives might alter the flow properties of a wash if too much is added. Might not. If you do try it, make sure to shake up the additive very well. It's full of very tiny particles that work to break up light, which is what dulls the shine.

 

Honestly, I prefer to deal with shiny paint with a coat or two of matte sealer, usually AK Ultra Matt varnish. Saves the day, especially when using something like Minitaire ghost tints. 

[Kuroneko]

Everyone here has made good valid points, but I'll add in my additional two cents. 

 

Something else that can make the finish shiny is putting on too much wash. The longer it takes for paint/wash to dry, the likelier it is that you're going to get a shiny effect in the crevices. The room that I paint in is extremely cool in the winter with far too small a radiator for that size of space. I keep a hairdryer on the table for speeding up the drying process because the shiny crevices on everything that I was painting was driving me crazy. Just remember to hold your mini firmly, otherwise it's going to take a little tumble, especially if it's a plastic one!

 

With regards to substitute washes, Army Painter Dark Tone is a great replacement for Nuln Oil. Their Strong Tone is pretty close to Earthshade as well. In fact, I'd heartily recommend all their Tones/washes to anyone wanting to expand their washes range. The rest of their paints are terrible though, IMHO.

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Kuroneko

[lexomatic]

16 hours ago, DocPiske said:

GW shades are essentially paint thinned with acrylic medium. Even the matte medium will be a bit glossy. You can try thinning the shade with water but you might get tide marks. I used to make my own matte washes with water, paint and acrylic ink. Alternatively you can reapply the highlights.

A good matte medium is NOT glossy, though there is a range of "matte." I have taken to using my matte mediums after varnishing to get minis matte again. Matte varnish is a little glossy, but not medium.

Edited April 19, 2020 by lexomatic

[jonfreeman]

Thanks for all the feedback  ^^

[GHarris]

A quick coat of Testor's Dull Coat will also calm the shine down and help protect your model! I sometimes use it while I am still painting to help reduce shine or if I find that paint is being rubbed off while handling the model while painting, you can go back and paint on top of it without any problems.

[Marc]

Testor’s Dull Coat works ok on painted Bones minis? I thought I read somewhere that it caused issues ...

[lowlylowlycook]

Yeah, I'd check to see if he accidentally bought "Nuln Oil Gloss".  BTW, if you really want to see some shine after you shade a mini use Army Painter's QuickShade or the hardware store equivalent Polyshades.

[Venun]

6 hours ago, lowlylowlycook said:

Yeah, I'd check to see if he accidentally bought "Nuln Oil Gloss".  BTW, if you really want to see some shine after you shade a mini use Army Painter's QuickShade or the hardware store equivalent Polyshades.

 

I was about to post this. All my friends who I hooked up with the hobby have bought the "wrong" nuln oil from the shop.

You don't want the one with GLOSS written on it. Unless you want gloss of course, but usually you wouldn't.

[ManvsMini]

15 hours ago, Marc said:

Testor’s Dull Coat works ok on painted Bones minis? I thought I read somewhere that it caused issues ...

 

It shouldn't, as long as the Bones material has all been covered by paint. I use it on mine, the aerosol in the dull coat (and most other spray cans) is what reacts with the material, so it would have to eat through all the layers of paint and primer (if you use one, which I do). Or if you are spraying it too close such that it would begin to eat through all of that stuff.

 

Also worth noting that I gloss varnish (by spray can) before I use the dull coat, so there's a lot of layers the aerosol would have to penetrate through before it damages fully covered Bones plastic.

[WhiteWulfe]

I've noticed with my Nuln Oil (very much so NOT the gloss version) that if it's put on too thick it can have a bit of a sheen or shine to it.

[haldir]

On 5/24/2020 at 8:31 PM, lowlylowlycook said:

Yeah, I'd check to see if he accidentally bought "Nuln Oil Gloss".  BTW, if you really want to see some shine after you shade a mini use Army Painter's QuickShade or the hardware store equivalent Polyshades.

 

Which TAP says it will do but also says to hit it with a matte/dull coat after it dries.

 

 

15 hours ago, WhiteWulfe said:

I've noticed with my Nuln Oil (very much so NOT the gloss version) that if it's put on too thick it can have a bit of a sheen or shine to it.

 

Doesn't matter the year or variety of GW shades, they've always had a gloss sheen to them. I recall using the ones in the now Coat d'Arms bottles back in the day & having the glossy coat.