What colour for washes

SMJmodeler & doog, thanks for your input.

doog, your suggestions sound interesting, I would not have thought of a wash for individual colours.

I did look on your site but the this model is not there. What I am trying to achieve is a model like the following picture, these would be freshly painted and I think even POLISHED, in fact these MBT's would be covered in nothing else other than good old fashioned "Elbow grease". However I do like your ideas, tho' I'm still unsure of myself

cheers....Kenny

I did exactly the same tank, same color scheme, and I used a dark gray wash---black oil + a little bit of white. Then I went over the gray and brown areas in pure black. It looked great. I wish I had a photo of it, but I can't find one right now, and that model is at my parent's house.

spacemaker: Use a REAL diluted dark brown wash.  I use raw umber oil paint as a filter no matter what the base color.  This way you won't lose the colors but you'll knock down the chroma/vibrancy. 

I wouldn't use blue unless you want to make it a local wash over the white. 

I'd be concerned gray will give the colors a sun-faded look...

Hope this helps.

Hans, thanks for looking in, it is the overall wash that I am most concerned with. I want to pull the colours together as normal but I don't want to degrade the white. Grey is possible. What do you think about Blue ( in the old days we used to add blue when washing Whites to make them whiter ) with dark Grey for the pin wash?...cheers....Kenny 

The purpose of a wash is to get paint to settle into recesses, cracks, and crevasses and act as a pre-cursor to dry-brushing highlights... 99% of the time, you do a dark (shade of the base-color) wash, then dry-brush the high-lights with lightened shades...

Overall, I'd suggest using dark brown or dark grey for the wash.. Grey would probably be better, since you have a multi-colored camouglafe scheme in mind..  Even a "parade" camouflage scheme would be in need of the washes and dry-brshing, as the paint istelf is going to be grimy in places, but it will also be sun-faded in others, so keep that in mind.. Unless you're going for it rolling out the factory doors for the parade, that is...

Pin-washes go one step farther in the detailing, adding more depth to areas that are "open", as opposed to recessed, areas like grille-vents, intakes, exhaust pipe openings, machine-gun muzzles, etc., using thinned paint.... Time-consuming yes, but IMHO quite necessary.. An overall wash never gets those areas dark enough.. 

Tojo 72, yes a wash all over to pull the colours together and then perhaps a pin wash. It is the colour of an all over wash that I am unsure of...cheers....Kenny

Hello Kenny,but washes do simulate dirt and grime.An overall wash would dust or dirty up the whole thing,or a pin wash serves to bring out hilites.

Maybe you are referring to filters which serve to change the tone or pull the different colors together ?

For a filter,perhaps an ochre,or sand