I just tried the Minwax Tudor Satin stain (the pigment is black, or nearly so) for the first time, on Old Glory 15mm Indian Elephants.
Preparation and colouring: Indian elephants often have parts of the face and lower ear with less pigmentation, looking pinkish. Note that I used brown ink on the elephants before coating. The other paints were solid, unshaded acrylics. Mostly Valejo and Games Workshop.
The one thing I would change in my undercoating would be to use a darker skin tone for the men. I used a lighter shade out of concern that it might come out too dark, but the pigment is very fine grained and settles in the smaller folds, leaving the original colour only slightly darkened. The overall effect is a bit darker, but the individual colours are still recognizable.
I was originally worried that a brown shade might make the figures look like they'd been mud wrestling, but I may yet try the darker brown walnut for figures showing more skin--like the riders here--though the black worked reasonably well. It was better on the elephants themselves. I think it would work well on metal armour.
Application of the stain: I needed to wipe off some excess around the elephants' feet, which was easy after a few minutes. I recommend blowing hard on the models just after application to remove any 'webbing' in crooked arms and so forth.
All in all I am well pleased.
A group of 15mm OG Nellies:
Close up:
