Army Painter washes are tinted acrylic dips built to pool into recesses and settle the shadows on a whole model in one pass, and the range now sold as Warpaints Fanatic wash tones is the direct successor to the product long nicknamed Quickshade. If you learned the hobby a decade ago and are hunting for a bottle labeled Quickshade, that name has not been the current retail branding for years. The tones themselves survived the rename and still do the same job: dunk, drybrush, or brush-apply a colored wash over a basecoated model and let it do the shading work that used to take a dozen careful layers.
What Quickshade actually was
Quickshade started as a dip-style finish, originally sold as an oil-based wash you could literally submerge a model in. That formula has been phased out in favor of water-based acrylic tones that behave more predictably and do not need mineral spirits to thin or clean up. The tone names carried over. Strong Tone is still the workhorse: a warm brown wash dark enough to read as heavy shading on almost any color. Soft Tone and Light Tone step down in strength for pale armor and skin. The naming logic is intensity, not hue, which trips up painters expecting a wash called "blue" or "red."
Matching a tone to your basecoat
The wash tones are not neutral. Each one carries its own color cast into the recesses, so the right pick depends on what is underneath.
| Tone | Best on | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Tone | Metal, brown leather, most mid-tone armor | Deep warm brown shading, the default choice |
| Dark Tone | Black or very dark basecoats | Nearly black recess shading without muddying the color |
| Soft Tone | Pale skin, cream and off-white cloth | Gentle brown shading that avoids a dirty look |
| Light Tone | White armor, bone, parchment | Faint warm shading that barely darkens the base |
| Sepia Tone | Yellow, tan, desert schemes | Warm amber cast that stays in the yellow family |
| Military Shade | Green and olive drab | Muted green-brown shading built for camo colors |
Blue Tone, Red Tone, Green Tone, and the other saturated colors work the same way but push the recess color harder toward that hue, which is useful for glowing effects or heavily stylized armies and risky on anything you want to look naturalistic.
Applying it without the pooling mess
Brush the Army Painter wash tones(affiliate link) on generously, let it flow into every crevice, then either leave it to dry undisturbed or dab a dry brush into the deepest pools before they set to pull excess pigment off flat surfaces. Working in small sections beats coating a whole regiment at once, because the wash starts to skin over within a couple of minutes and a half-dry edge is what creates the blotchy tide marks painters complain about. A wet palette keeps the bottle from drying out mid-session if you are working through a batch of infantry, and Army Painter Wash Medium is worth keeping on hand to thin a tone that has gone gluey without weakening its pigment load too much.
If you are shading over a Citadel basecoat rather than Army Painter's own paints, the same tones still work: acrylic washes do not care what brand laid down the base color. The Army Painter to Citadel conversion chart is useful here for matching a wash's intensity to the Citadel Shade you might already know, and the Army Painter vs Vallejo comparison covers how the two brands' wash philosophies differ if you are choosing which range to standardize on. Our Army Painter range guide and Nuln Oil buying guide go deeper on Citadel's equivalent wash lineup if you want a side-by-side sense of tone options across brands.
FAQ
Is Quickshade still sold under that name?
No. The formula lives on as the Warpaints Fanatic wash tones, most visibly Strong Tone, which is the direct descendant of the original dark Quickshade dip.
What is Army Painter Strong Tone used for?
Strong Tone is the default all-purpose wash: a warm dark brown that shades metal, leather, and most mid-tone colors without a specific matching step required.
Can I still dip a whole model in wash?
The current acrylic tones are formulated for brushing rather than full submersion. A generous brush coat gets you nearly the same pooled-shadow effect with far less cleanup and no risk of ruining thin detail.
Do Army Painter metallics need a different wash?
Metallics take Strong Tone or Dark Tone well, though a lighter hand and a quick dry-brush pass afterward keeps the shine from going fully matte and dull.