Saturday, October 15, 2011

Product review - Liquid Green Stuff

Good evening my avid followers.

When I heard about the "liquid" Green Stuff being released that was all I knew about this product: that something called "liquid GS" was being made available very soon and nothing else. What exactly was it? How was it supposed to work?

Well, I picked up a bottle...a pot... just this Monday and sat down to testing.

As far as packaging is concerned, it's nothing too fancy, just an ordinary paint pot. The lid does not snap and stay open, but I've never been a fan of this, so no minuses here. Concerning its purpose (more on that in a moment), the amount you get for your money - 12 ml -  is great.

Don't be fooled bu the "liquid" part. This stuff is not liquid at all. The nearest comparison I'm able to draw is flowy toothpaste or very, very thick, old paint. It can be diluted with water or Vallejo thinner, but you'll have to be extra careful not to overdo it. A teeny-tiny drop should be enough if you just have to dilute it, but I don't recommend doing so. Why?

Because it's a) not supposed to fill any holes larger or any lines wider than a needlepoint and b) it's sandable. The latter is by far one of the great things about the LGS. Just use a very fine sandpaper (we're talking 3000 grain here) or emery board and it will work wonders. You can also wait a second after application and smooth it with a damp brush.

Application can prove tricky and will require a bit of practice, but it's nothing you can't learn after your first few holes and/or lines. I repeat, however, LGS is not intended for any work larger than gap filling and will simply fail at any such use.

When used for its intended purpose, however, it's a great product. When applying it to your miniatures I recommend using a dedicated, robust brush (I've found GW's Small Drybrush to be quite up to the task). You need a brush with bristles stiffer than your average so you can push the LGS into whatever you want filled. The brush is cleaned with water, just like when painting. Just take a second more, LGS is much more viscous than paint.

LGS dries and hardens very quickly - it took about fifteen minutes from application to being able to sand it. For deeper fillings multiple layers can be used, they don't separate or anything of that sort.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I fully recommend gettinge the Liquid Green Stuff and give it four out of five stars. I have to drop one, as GW failed to properly advertise the product and get the fanbase familiar with it prior to the release. Also, the only tutorial from GW so far are three pictures and several sentences in White Dwarf - not adequate in my book.

3 comments:

Sigmar said...

Thanks for sharing Drazhar, I only trust the independent reviewers like yourself.

Sigmar

Brandt said...

I was unsure of LBS before your review. I think I might go pick some up...

Unknown said...

Thank you both, that's very nice to hear. Feel free to share your experience!