Washes

[AlanD]

Hi all,

I am relatively new to scale modelling, it’s a hobby I enjoy very much. I am stuck when it comes to washes, especially on infantry and tank crews. Anytime I do a wash, the wash also darkens and stains the uniforms. I just can’t seem to get it to stay only in outline details without staining the uniform along with it. I was hoping someone on here would have some tips for me? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Alan

[Ian M]

Hi Alan. Welcome to the forum.
A wash works best if applied over a glossy finish. It will follow the detail and hopefully stay within the lines and around edges. If the surface is matt it will just soak everything.
A thin wash done twice is better than a thicker one which can obliterate the paint beneath it.
Have a look in some of the build sections in the Armour and figure sections. I am sure you will find plenty of examples there.

[AlanD]

Hi Alan. Welcome to the forum.
A wash works best if applied over a glossy finish. It will follow the detail and hopefully stay within the lines and around edges. If the surface is matt it will just soak everything.
A thin wash done twice is better than a thicker one which can obliterate the paint beneath it.
Have a look in some of the build sections in the Armour and figure sections. I am sure you will find plenty of examples there.

Appreciate it, thanks.

[Jim R]

One thing that affects the way a wash flows, apart from the underlying surface, is the type of wash. Is it water based or is it an oil or enamel based wash? I personally find acrylic/water based washes difficult to work with. However some find they work perfectly.
Oil washes, diluted with artist white spirit, flow well and because they are slow drying give plenty of time to adjust the effect. Areas are easily cleaned up with a clean brush dampened with white spirit. Their only downside it that they do take time to dry. Careful use of a hair dryer will go some way to speed up the drying time. As Ian says once a wash is dry a second wash can be done, perhaps concentrating on the creases, pockets, shadows, stitch lines etc.

[Guest]

For figures, I find washes very hard to work with. Glazes, on the other hand, are much easier. You can make one in any shade you like by mixing paint into (matt) varnish, or buy them in a limited range of colours (mostly primary ones, brown and grey) mainly from wargames paint manufacturers.

The difference is that a glaze is essentially translucent paint of normal thickness, rather than very thinned paint. It will build up more in hollows and around detail, like a wash does, but it doesn’t run.

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Alan. I have painted a lot of figures, and have used washes extensively for a long time. My experience of pre bought washes is mostly using Vallejo. Best acrylic washes (in fact, best washes over all) I’ve used on figures are Vallejo game color washes. I use them a great deal. I dilute a bit with water and add a couple of drops of flow aid because I find they are too strong used neat. Some colours in the range are better than others though

The model colour washes have a different formulation and don’t flow so well. They are best suited to models such as tanks in my experience. They don’t work well on figures apart from black lining (hand painted outlining) around equipment etc.

I have used home made oil washes, but again, they don’t work that well on figures because they follow gravity and pool around the bottom of the figure. They are also very slow drying which is a handicap in something like a figure which responds better to a faster paint style. In general the washes designed to be used for pin washing things like tank models work better on horizontal surfaces, not on figures.

Remember that once you’ve done the wash you can always go back over the figure highlighting the tops of creases etc to get better definition into the figure. No stage is a one shot deal, you can throw paint at the model for as long as you need to get the look you want.

[Tim Marlow]

For figures, I find washes very hard to work with. Glazes, on the other hand, are much easier. You can make one in any shade you like by mixing paint into (matt) varnish, or buy them in a limited range of colours (mostly primary ones, brown and grey) mainly from wargames paint manufacturers.

The difference is that a glaze is essentially translucent paint of normal thickness, rather than very thinned paint. It will build up more in hollows and around detail, like a wash does, but it doesn’t run.

Don’t quite get this. A glaze shouldn’t pool anywhere Jakko? It’s a single coat of paint that should just tint the surface.
By the way, the most effective way to make them is using a dark colour and glazing medium. Sounds counterintuitive, but dark colours don’t have white pigment in them so make far better glazes than light colours because white is a very opaque pigment.

[AlanD]

One thing that affects the way a wash flows, apart from the underlying surface, is the type of wash. Is it water based or is it an oil or enamel based wash? I personally find acrylic/water based washes difficult to work with. However some find they work perfectly.
Oil washes, diluted with artist white spirit, flow well and because they are slow drying give plenty of time to adjust the effect. Areas are easily cleaned up with a clean brush dampened with white spirit. Their only downside it that they do take time to dry. Careful use of a hair dryer will go some way to speed up the drying time. As Ian says once a wash is dry a second wash can be done, perhaps concentrating on the creases, pockets, shadows, stitch lines etc.

Thanks you for the tips.

[Guest]

If you paint a glaze over a detailed surface, then unless you’re really careful to get an even depth of paint, you will see it build up more around detail, in folds, etc. It’s the whole idea behind things like Army Painter Quickshade — sure, they advertise it as best used by dipping figures into it, but stuff like this will work just fine to create shadows if you brush it on, too.

[ATTACH]507174[/ATTACH]

Left an unpainted figure, centre with base colours applied, right painted in the same way plus a painted-on glaze (actually translucent brown furniture paint).

[Tim Marlow]

If you paint a glaze over a detailed surface, then unless you’re really careful to get an even depth of paint, you will see it build up more around detail, in folds, etc. It’s the whole idea behind things like Army Painter Quickshade — sure, they advertise it as best used by dipping figures into it, but stuff like this will work just fine to create shadows if you brush it on, too.

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Left an unpainted figure, centre with base colours applied, right painted in the same way plus a painted-on glaze (actually translucent brown furniture paint).

Not the place for this, but quick shade is a wash, not a glaze…….you get far better results with it than I do, by the way.

[Guest]

Debatable what it is, IMHO. The soft tone and strong tone you get in dropper bottles have the consistency of paint, not of a wash — I thin them something like 1:1 or 2:1 (wateraint) to make washes for AFVs. The more garish colours are a bit thinner, but still nowhere near as thin as GW’s old inks or the pre-mixed washes that companies like Mig sell. The stuff I used on the sample figure was unthinned translucent furniture paint, which is rather thicker than most model paint.

[Tim Marlow]

AP tones are more like varnishes to me, same as the old dip that was used by lazy painters back in the day. They are much stickier in texture than paint….i think they are basically repackaged coloured varnishes. Personally I don’t like them because they don’t suit my style, such as it is. Inks are a whole other game that I’ve really not used enough to crack properly. I do like the Daler FW inks though, very highly pigmented and flow well off the brush. Much better than any other yellow or orange paints on the market for bright colours.