Will Oil Wash Reactivate Army Painter Speedpaints: Trying with and without varnish

I’ve been using an oil wash on all my minaitures for a while now. It gives you more control, and it costs less in the long run.

The question I always get though, is will it ruin the paint job if I don’t varnish before applying the oil wash? This comes up a lot as I mostly use Army Painter Speedpaints for my basecoat.

Honestly, I haven’t used varnish between layers, but I decided to give it a try. I painted up this awesome set of minis by Dragons Forge Miniatures that they kindly provided, and then left four without a varnish, hit three with a gloss varnish, and another three with a matte varnish.

Once that was done, I mixed up my usual oil wash which is basically Windsor and Newton black oil paint, and some white spirits mixed together. Mix this until you get the consistency you like.

Then I applied it all over, and went back in 30 minutes later to wipe off the excess with a makeup sponge.

The results were mixed. There isn’t a huge difference between the matte varnish and no varnish. However, you can go back in with some white spirits and be more aggressive with your cleaning with the matte varnish and not worry about destroying your base coat.

The gloss varnish was the easiest to clean and the oil wash flowed into all the nooks and crannies far easier. Hitting it with a matte varnish after would dull it down.

Here are the photos of each set.

To sum up, I’d say it’s worth using the gloss varnish on hero units or minis where you really want to preserve the base layer. For regiments or batch painting, it just adds another step that I personally didn’t see enough of a difference with.

Let me know your thoughts, do you varnish before washing, or do you just slap it straight on?