It has a few uses, one of which was it could be used to make washes or dips for shading models.
The problem was it contained ammonia. And as the chemical is pretty toxic etc it was banned in several countries and so the "Klear" liquid (which happened to be indeed, clear or transparent) was removed from sale.
Then a replacement with no ammonia was released.. here in the UK it is called "Pledge Klear Multi-surface wax, 750ml".
It is no longer clear in colour and is in fact white.
But I am reliably informed, that it dries completely clear.
So as the zombie horde are still in progress and doing individual hi-lighting on each of the 100 or so figures is just out of the question time wise. I thought I would give the Pledge a go and make my own wash/dip.
Though I won't be actually dipping the miniatures as army painter suggest with their product. I will instead by painting it on with a brush.
I have picked up two bottles of Dayler Rowney Permanent Acyclic Artists FW ink.. Sepia and Black (not Indian, just plain black, FW Indian ink has less particulates in it, you want the particles).
Now the inks were £5.50 ish each. And the Klear/Pledge was £4.99.. so for about a tenna UK price wise, you can make 750ml or more of your own wash.
The big area of debate is do you use it neat or do you use De-ionised water to thin it a little. Hmm not sure, so some experimenting will be needed I can see.
The other question is, as dried paint has a rough surface, it has a high surface tension. This means when you apply dip, or washes, it tends to stick to flat areas and pool.
So you get shadows where you don't want them. Some people get around this by warming up their dip to lower the viscosity. That can work.
Over thinning of your dip/washes with the likes of de-ionised water tends to lead to streaks.
So I am considering doing a pre dip of the figure in plain Klear/pledge and seeing if that helps the second cost to flow or not.
So I have some experimenting ahead. Will try and get a few photos up of the results. But it could be a little while. As my speed painting is still not that speedy! :)
So happy painting folks.. and watch this space.
