Discovering Devlan Mud

Devlan Mud is a wash produced from the Games Workshop range of paints, and is infamous for being able to quickly and easily achieve a good table-top standard of shading over a base coat. It is applied liberally over the base coat, and naturally pools in the recesses creating a shading effect.

I mentioned earlier that I had picked up the High Elves from the Games Workshop Isle of Blood set, which I actually got as part of a second-hand sale for a great price.
So what better opportunity than this to test Devlan Mud! I could see how long it would take me to paint a troop, and to what painting standard I could achieve.


TESTING THE WATERS

I went to work to see if it lived up to the hype - I was sceptical at first, but in the end, reasonably impressed.
So, here's how my Isle of Blood High Elf Swordmasters of Hoeth turned out:

I was impressed with the result, and this is what inspired me to finally take the plunge into fantasy - as I now had a means to paint a large number of troops to my personally acceptable table-top standard, quickly and efficiently.
This level of painting is great for fantasy, where more than half the detail on your models is obscured by the rank in front of them anyway. I think for my Mantic army, I'll spend a bit more time on highlighting the first rank.

ISSUES OF NOTE

After using it on the troop of 10 High Elves, here are a few notes I made on using Devlan Mud:

It smells and tastes bad.
If you're like me and you lick your brush - DON'T. Not with Devlan Mud anyway, it tastes terrible.

It lasts longer than I expected.
I've been using it quite liberally, and there is still a surprising amount of wash still left in the pot. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to use the single pot for my entire 125 model fantasy army - assuming I don't spill the pot or something.

It works great with some colours, not-so-great with other colours.
It really is like 'mud' - it'll make your minis look worn and dirty, which I think suits fantasy armies really well, particularly evil fantasy armies.
It gives metals a burnished look, making them look much duller and more realistic (note - this probably isn't great for High Elves, as they're always depicted in sparkling clean armour).

It is a little more difficult to use on large, flat surfaces.
Because there is nowhere for the wash to pool, it'll depend on your brush strokes as to where the mud will clump. Seeing as it's a wash, it's easy enough to manipulate though.


IN CONCLUSION

If you haven't tried Devlan Mud yet, DO IT. It is definitely worth adding to your collection of paints, and is an extremely effective to way get a decent shading effect on your models.
Like any other paint on your palette remember - it's a tool just like any other, with strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. I haven't used it enough to know all the ins and outs yet, but from what I've seen I'm very impressed and have decided to use it to shade my upcoming 125+ model fantasy army with.

Sync out.