Black Tree Designs Cretan Archers

Black Tree Designs Cretan Archers

I painted up a unit of Cretan Archers by Black Tree Designs. The sculpts weren't bad and they painted up quickly, but Army Painter quick shade finally let me down. After block painting the archers I brushed on the Army Painter quick shade. It looked a little dark, so I wicked away quite a bit of it and had faith that it would lighten as it dried. Unfortunately when I checked them the following morning, the dreaded goop had remained fairly dark and they needed quite a bit of repainting and highlighting to get them back up to table top standard.

I was concerned that the BTD Cretan Archers were sculpted larger than 28mm standard, but comparing them to a Warlord Games Celt (on the left) and a Wargames Factory Viking (center right) my fears were unfounded.

BTD comparison

So while I'd happily pick up more BTD Cretan Archers, I'm afraid the honeymoon is over with Army Painter. I'll still be doing some experiments with thinning it and using it sparingly, but for me, I don't think I can rely on it completely to handle the shading of my figures.