Voodoo Shade is an olive-brown Warpaints Fanatic Wash from The Army Painter's John Blanche Masterclass range. This 18ml. water-based acrylic wash flows into recessed details to add shadow, contrast and dirty earth-toned colour variation to armour, bone, leather, wood, cloth, skin, machinery, bases and terrain.

What is Voodoo Shade? It is not a conventional opaque Fanatic acrylic but a flowing wash developed in collaboration with John Blanche. Voodoo Shade originally appeared as the wash in the John Blanche Masterclass Volume 2 Paint Set. Its colour has a muddy olive-brown character. As a result, it can deepen recesses while simultaneously making the underlying colours appear warmer, dirtier and more weathered.

Warpaints Fanatic Washes are water-based acrylic washes designed for shading and colour toning. Their specific flow properties help the paint gather around details and settle into recessed areas. This makes seams, folds, panel lines and sculpted textures easier to read. Voodoo Shade can also be mixed with other Fanatic Washes, allowing you to adjust the character of the shading when a project requires a different tone.

How do you use Voodoo Shade? Shake the bottle thoroughly and apply the wash with a brush over a completely dry base colour. Allow it to flow naturally towards recessed areas and guide it with the tip of your brush where necessary. Check broad, flat surfaces for excess wash. If a heavy pool develops, remove it with a clean, slightly damp brush before it dries.

Once the wash is dry, reapply the original base colour to raised surfaces. This restores brightness while leaving Voodoo Shade visible in the shadows. You can then add lighter highlights to edges and prominent details. This straightforward basecoat, wash and highlight workflow quickly creates additional depth and is equally practical for beginner miniature painters and complete tabletop armies.

On armour, Voodoo Shade is particularly useful for creating a worn grimdark appearance. Apply it selectively between armour plates, around rivets and inside damaged areas. The Army Painter uses Voodoo Shade in an official John Blanche-focused Trench Crusade workflow in exactly this way: it is placed directly into recesses between armour panels and into dents and other areas requiring additional shading. Edges and weathering can then be developed afterwards.

Its olive-brown character also works naturally across bone, ivory, skulls, teeth and weathered pale surfaces. A light foundation quickly becomes older and dirtier while the deepest sculpted details receive stronger shadows. Afterwards, restore only the most prominent areas with the original pale colour or Ivory White. Leaving some of the brown toning visible helps the material retain an aged, lived-in appearance.

For leather, wood and cloth, Voodoo Shade can be applied selectively or across larger areas. On leather it defines seams, straps and damage; across wood it gathers around grain and grooves. A controlled layer over fabric increases definition in folds. Because the wash also tones the underlying base colour, it can create a cohesive dusty appearance across several different materials on the same miniature.

Voodoo Shade is also useful on skin and organic subjects when you want an unhealthy or dirty finish. Across monsters, mutants and weathered flesh, a thin application can strengthen details around muscles, fingers, wrinkles and wounds. Selective shading is usually more subtle on conventional skin. Fur, feathers, scales and other heavily textured surfaces particularly benefit from the way the wash naturally flows into recessed detail.

Across bases and terrain, use Voodoo Shade on stone, ruins, timber, sandbags, earth and industrial components. Applying a shared olive-brown tone can visually connect several different base colours. This is particularly useful in a Blanchitsu-inspired workflow where surfaces are intentionally less clean and uniform. Once dry, drybrushing, stippling and selective highlights can bring the raised texture back into focus.

• Type: water-based acrylic wash
• Range: Warpaints Fanatic – John Blanche Masterclass
• Contents: 18ml.
• Colour: dark olive-brown with an earthy, muddy character
• Original set: John Blanche Masterclass Volume 2
• Product code: WP4017P
• Effect: shading, contrast, recess definition and colour toning
• Property: mixable with other Warpaints Fanatic Washes
• Applications: armour, bone, leather, wood, cloth, skin, machinery, bases and terrain

Voodoo Shade is beginner-friendly because a single controlled layer can quickly make sculpted detail more readable. Experienced painters can use it for recess shading, selective toning, multiple controlled layers and visually unifying different materials. Its olive-brown character is especially valuable when a neutral black wash would look too harsh or clean and the miniature instead needs the earthy, decayed atmosphere associated with the John Blanche Masterclass.