hi

I'm by no means an expert but this is a reference I used for washes which also discusses the difference between a wash and a filter. Hopefully it will be useful.

http://www.scalemodelguide.com/painting-weathering/weathering/paint-washes/

thank's for that tutorial djjeavons , I've never known the difference either.

Filters would usually come thicker, and their application varies compared to washes. Most filters are just oil paints used straight out of the tube. 

A wash is used typically to enhance certain areas, such as a panel lines, rivet holes, corners. It's usually more localized.

A filter is used to affect or enhance the overall color over a larger area. For instance, it can be used to 'blend' colors together, such as camo.

Usually a wash is a single color.  The dot filter method can fade one wash into another easily. It is not that easy to do with multiple washes.

Filters are thinner than washes, usually about twice as thin (that is, twice as much thinner is added). I'm talking about a "filter" here, not a "dot filter."There is much confusion about these terms. There are different types of washes ("pin washes" and "sludge washes") and different types of filters ("filter" versus "dot filter"). To add to the confusion, figure painters and artists use these same terms differently. Here is a description of each term as used by the modelling community.

Filter: A filter is a product you can buy from companies such as Mig Productions. They are generally very thin enamel-style paints meant to be applied to large areas to create a subtle change in color. You can also make your own filters with oil paints or enamels (or any kind of paint, really) by mixing 1 part paint to about 20 parts thinner.

Note: A figure painter would call this a "glaze." A watercolor painter would call this a "wash."

Dot Filter: A technique that is unique to the modelling world. You take several colors of oil paint and apply small dots to the surface of the model, usually straight from the tube. Then you take a brush and blend out the dots until you end up with a bunch of small areas of subtle color variation.

Wash: The wash is a product you buy in bottles from companies such as Vallejo or AK Interactive. You can make your own by mixing 1 part paint to 10 parts thinner.

Pin Wash: Short for pinpoint wash, but sometimes just called a "wash." You apply this wash by touching your brush to a recessed panel line or to the edge of a raised detail and let the paint flow by way of capillary action. Many prefer to aplly this over a gloss surface, but a matte surface works just fine.

Sludge Wash: I'm not sure what this is exactly, but I think you apply it over a large area and then wipe it off. Paint will remain in recesses and around raised details.

Excellent run-down there Hypertex. 

Frankly I like to think of a filter as a tint, you're applying it over the model to tint the paint a different colour. I didn't understand the use of the term 'filter' until it was explained to me that the term comes from a camera filter. In the same it changes the photo aka using a colour like blue to make the photo look different. 

A sludge wash is acrylic paint mixed with dishwashing detergent and water. As Hypertex stated the detergent causes the paint to wipe off the surface when you scrub it. 

I'm a bit confused ,some say's a filter is thicker , other's it's thinner ???

steve5

I'm a bit confused ,some say's a filter is thicker , other's it's thinner ???

 

I guess I was referring to a dot filter, which is a dot of thick oil paint right out of the tube, then blended in with a wide paint brush with just a dab of thinners on it. 

thanks nathan , and I copied of that list hypertex . no confusion now

From my very very limited experience (two models with filters) filters seem to be primarily a safeguard in case your colors stand out too much, or if you want to blend a camo scheme together a little. Like I said though, I have very limited experience. I'd like to see what the experts say about my hypothesis 

I am not an expert on dot filters or any filters, really.  But I have been using washes for decades.  It is hard to make any generalization on the thickness/thinness of them, because it is highly variable and not really that critical.  They are very thin, but beyond that are not critical like airbrushing mixtures. In fact, when using them and finding they are too thick I merely brush pure thinner over the wash, thinning it on the spot. 

My experiments with dot filters resulted in much more thinner than paint, so I would charactorize them as very thin, and again you can add thinner in the midst of the operation, so it is hard to define how thin they are.  I wouldn't worry about which is thinner- thin both to whatever is needed.

While a pinwash is not a filter, an area wash is essentially a filter.

The situation is somewhat more complex in that a very thin coat airbrushed on, and dry brushing, can both do the same "filter" effect.

I wonder if maybe this thread could be moved to the painting and airbrushing forum.

Filter is simply a new-fangled name for a tried and true technique...wait...wait...a wash.  They are really the same thing.  Filter is what the new, artsy modelers are calling a wash.  Whats old becomes new under a new, flashy name.  Everything has to become a new technique now.

Washes, the thinner the better. You can keep adding them, but they are harder to remove.

Dot filters, bought one took it home cooked it tasted like chicken. I guess I need to experiment more, in theory, and for me in practice it amounted to mixing up a brown color on the model.

HeavyArty

Filter is simply a new-fangled name for a tried and true technique...wait...wait...a wash.  They are really the same thing.  Filter is what the new, artsy modelers are calling a wash.  Whats old becomes new under a new, flashy name.  Everything has to become a new technique now.

 

They're not the same thing at all; only in the broadest sense of how, say, a tractor tire is made of rubber the same way a racing slick is.The difference is in the purpose and application.

A "filter" is usually a very thin wash of the similar color over a paint bed--green over green, for instance, or a very subtle tinting of say, blue over green. Its use is not in the same context of a plain old-fashioned "wash" which is really used more to get shadow detail into the recesses and panel lines of a model. Filters, on the other hand, are primarily applied to the flat planes of a model, not the projections and panel lines---in fact, they tend to look funny if applied in those areas. There really IS a big difference when applied in the correct context and manner.

I know you don't use them much and don't care for the look, but the advances in both artistic and realistic finishing with the new modeling techniques can't be denied. If you don't prefer them, that's fine, but a lot of people--myself included--are making a lot of money and getting a lot of recognition for employing them. You can't argue with that.

Since washes can have a wide range of thinning ratio, can we then say that a dot filter is a thin wash- all dot filters are washes, but not all washes are filters?  Also, I have not seen anyone use a thick wash ( say mix like for brush painting or normal airbrushing)- they are all thin but that ratio of thinness can cover a wide range.  So it seems like we are really splitting hairs here.