Hi guys!

So today we will be doing our ever product review!! Exciting indeed! Today we will be reviewing a few of Vallejos Textured paints and two of their washes! This is what we used:

The products used


1)Vallejo Red Oxide Texture
2)Vallejo Desert sand Texture
3)Vallejo Brown Earth Texture
4) Vallejo Brown Wash
5) Vallejo Terran Earth Wash

Firstly, the products themselves. They are all absolutely wonderful to work with. Very easy to use and they cope very well with your demands of them. The textures can be applied in a number of ways. They can be painted on with a brush, or scooped onto the base with a small spatula of some sort or a toothpick. They are also gel based products that allow you to do a small amount of shaping and sculpting to the texture when applying them onto the base if you are going for a specific look. For each Texture we showed the effects of washing and also drybrushing, for the drybrushing we used Vallejo Bonewhite.


The three Textures straight from the pot


Vallejo Red Oxide Texture:
Color of the red oxide is as you can probably guess red. It is a very deep red that is absolutely perfect if you are looking for a Mars type base or a red desert type of theme (think grand canyon!) and so on. The  texture itself is also very fine which is great as for scale modelling regular sand is pretty big if you do actually put it to scale. One grain of sand will be the size of a toilet paper roll, which i dont think is very realistic. Anyway back to the point, when the base was drybrushed with bonewhite, it gives a wonderful effect. The two colors compliment each other very very well and also the drybrush helps strengthen the textures, LOTS. So if you decide to do any minor sculpting in the base for whatever reason, this is a very useful product. Also we decided to wash the base. The wash is applied without any brybrush and we also have a result from first drybrushing and then washing. The first one without the drybrush gives a very unique look. It doesnt really change the tone of the red too much but rather adds texture in a different way than the dry brushing. The wash gives a texture that comes more from under the grains in the texture. This gives shading and a very natural feel. Great for people that dont want a too elaborate base that will not pull too much attention from the model itself and focus on the base, but while still maintaining a very nice Table top level base. The next one is the drybrush first and then the wash. This is gives a wonderful end result that is of a very high quality. It gives a very nice soft tone on the top layer of the grains which highlights the base and adds a nice warm feel to the base. it also breaks the heavy red color and adds a bit of variation.

Brown Earth and Red oxide bases Drybrushed with Bonewhite



Being a color that is not very common on bases unless you are doing themed Mars type of bases, it is still a wonderful product. Depending on how you play with the colors and how you work with it, you can still achieve very nice and realistic outcomes that dont look too "odd." In fact they dont look odd at all! Most outcomes even the product just from the bottle gives a very nice color and natural feel to it. VERY Useful. Can be magical and gives a huge variety of results.


Red oxide Base and Brown Earth Base washed with Brown



Vallejo Desert Sand Texture:
The Vallejo desert sand texture is interesting. It is also quite fine grained again giving it some more realism rather than actual sand in regards to scale, and also the color is already a very warm Bonewhite type of color. Therefore this texture does limit you in terms of drybrushing for lighter colors. HOWEVER, you can be very adventurous and drybrush darker colors. This doesnt really work for all people, as it doesnt really work in theory being that a light source (most often the sky) hits from above, therefore making the drybrush normally be a lighter color. But to each their own, and to some people it may work and some it may not. Since the texture however is a light color, it gives alot of room to paly with when it comes to washes! The possibility of washes you can use on this are endless and each one gives very different results. Some subtle, some strong. It all comes down to the how you wish to wash them.

Left: Brown Wash    Right: Terran Earth Wash

For our examples, we have done two washes. We first washed with brown and then Terran earth. Both are earthy natural colors. They are a little similar but they both look great on this base. Same concept applies that it gives the base a beautiful texutre from the bottom up. But since the original texture is such a bright color it does make it darker (which is often what you want when you wash) but you once the wash is dry you are able to drybrush a white color on top for maximum brightness possible if you are looking for that!

Unfortunately, personal preference limits me a little with this base. I am not a huge fan of light bases. The most I will go to is light brown, and that is still really pushing the limits. But everybody has their own preferences!

Vallejo Brown Earth:
My favorite of all these three textures by far. The color is beautiful. A very warm brown color that looks alot like Vallejo Beasty Brown (maybe it is? I don't know :P) and this gives you so much space to work with. The color can be washed in many different colors and they all give very nice different results. Drybrushing is also easy to perform on this texture as the grains are jsut the right size for basing and the capture paint well when given a light dry brush. This alone gives you endless possibilities. It allows you to drybrush a variety of colors that can later be altered with washes, or it can be left just dry brushed! Very worth trying out.

First we drybrushed again with Bonewhite and after that we also washed a base without a drybrush. The drybrush gives a nice finish and is already good enough for any table top figures wether it be display pieces or table top armies as a whole. Adding washes to the drybrushed gives a very nice contrast that makes the base look outstanding while also giving nice dark and natural crevices. do try this out. Well worth it!


The Textures in general:
The textures are a very useful tool in your toolbox. They work very well in many different ways. And great thing about them is that they are already in a gel medium. This saves you plent of time in your basing stage as you dont need to worry about first painting on pva glue, then applying sand and waiting for that to dry and then coating it in another layer of pva to lock the grains in so the dont fall off (thats how i base atleast). This saves you alot of time. And the fact that the textures are colored also take a huge load of your back as you dont have to worry about basecoating the base with a model already painted and on the base or however you do it. I beleive you get the point. There are also many other textures such as the Grey and White Pumice textures and also the Black lava (WHICH IS AWESOME) and all these textures have their own pros and cons.

The only honest problem I can find with the textures is the coloring. MAKE SURE YOU DONT GET IT ON YOUR CLOTHES. That can ruin a very fun day of painting very very fast. And it is extremely hard to wash out. But I guess that's good in a way coz I presume that means it sticks really well to the base ;) Silver lining people!

Vallejo Brown Wash:
This is a very nice wash. It can be used straight from the bottle or diluted to your prference. Gives a very nice even coat and doesnt really pool very much apart from the intended areas. If mistakes do happen it is also very easy to clean up wit ha cotton swab. They work very well with the bases and the washes arent so sharp either. Some other washes are very dark and give shadows that seem a little unnatural to me. But then agian i presume that is personal preference.

Vallejo Terran Earth:
Also a very nice wash to work with. This brown has a more brownish tint to it while the brown wash has a bit of a greenish feel to it. These two different tints compliment both washes very well. The terran earth also works the same way as the Brown wash. Easy to use straight from the bottle, and doesnt get in the way at all when you work. Great color to use for washing leather and cloaks or anything else brown for that matter. Thinned down it can also be used to make water and rust streaks when it comes to weathering! Well worth the try. But if you do this, make sure you thin the paint down and build up layers slowly. It takes about 4 or 5 layers for the streaking to really give full effect.

The Washes in General:
The washes are great. Not much to say about them other than TRY THEM. Very handy tools. Also the Vallejo range of washes is extremely varied and gives you very many options in natural tones. And the thing is that often in each color section they have different shades of the wash which i think is wonderful and lets you choose what you are looking for. By this i mean that under the black section for example, you can find the Vallejo Black wash which is very dark and firm. perfect for oil and grease stains mixed with some brown wash, but they also have grey wash which is a little lighter than the black, it lets you shade things with a softer color which is wonderful. And as the stated examples about, i would put them under the Brown category, and they are different shades. There are also many other shades of brown that they offer. When using the washes though, make sure you shake them well before using. If the bottle stands around for a while the pigments collect at the bottom of the bottle and you will not really get your desired tone out of the wash. Also, if you dont shake well enough you may pick up those grains of pigment which have not been dissolved properly and accidently slap em on your models, whci hyou dont want. It looks very weird have a nice subtle shade and all of a sudden a spot of really dark brown/black/whatever color you are using. Also and last but not least, the amount of wash you are getting for the price you are paying is great, high quantity of high quality paint for a good deal!


Alright guys!!! That's pretyy much it for our first review! Will be posting some more soon once we have the time! If you have any questions, do feel Free to ask or visit us on our
Juggernaut Painting facebook page

Thanks!

Juggernaut