Giving Armor a wash

rebel,
I use a pastel chalk and windex mixture for my washes. Get some chalk dust by rubbing the stick on sand paper. Put the dust into a disposable cup and add some windex. Using a thin paint brush, work on seam lines, bolt heads, road weels, what ever needs to be grimed up. I use black on sand colored armor, and light gray on green armor. The windex dries fairly quickly, Leaves the pastel chalk, and does not harm enamel finishes. Capilary action pulls the mixture and you will have a dirty tank. For dust, I use pastel chalk again, only I apply the dry chalk dust with a BIG paint brush. A fixative afterwords keeps the dust in place. Do take care however, as the dust will highlight the clear portions of your decals.

just did my 1st wash. spraying tank glossy 1st helped alot , used windsor oils and thinner and applied to whole kit, then mixed a little thicker and applied to nuts/bolts. perhaps overdid it a little but looks pretty good.

I have trouble with my washes too. I've been using acrylic paint with acrylic thinner for my last couple of kits with mixed results. I'll have to give the pastel chalk a try.

I use this reference article for many tips, washing as well.

http://www.scaleworkshop.com/workshop/paintingsmallscalearmorbg_1.htm

The key is the colour + how much to use.

For instance, I used Sepia acrylic based colour on my leopard 2a5,using brush on panel lines, bolts, all the finer details on the kit. Then I used a very fine spray of Sepia over whole model to finish. Dont be over zealous, be subtle with application, you dont want to 'darken' the model to much. Especially with panzers, base colour might be a desert colour say, a light mix of burnt umber perhaps, just keep checking on that piece of blank white paper first, before any application to model, that way you can pre-determine what the wash colour looks like.

regards

Dave

ridleusmc -
what are you putting that wash over?
you want to be careful it's not something that the acrylic thinner will attack.
you can thin some acrylics w/ water for washes.

and most washes, you can add a drop of liquid dish soap
to break the surface tension of the water so it will flow & not bead or 'stick'

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to try a chalk wash. Do I wipe away anyof the excess paint?

I use 2 different washes..an overall wash of either a combination of Mars Black, Burnt Sienna, and Raw Umber; or a straight wash of Raw Umber. I will then use a pinwash around detail like bolts, panel lines and recesses. My pinwash usually consists of a Indian Red Burnt Sienna Oil Mix. I will at times use black pastels for the bolts. A nice drybrush really brings out the detail.

Cheers

Mo

I use drawing ink thinned down with alcohol. I do mostly US armor and the MM OD is a little light so I wash the whole tank (a panel at a time) and use a Q-tip to wipe the excess wash off in downward strokes. It gives it a dirty rain washed look. I do the wash right over the flat paint. When I'm done with the wash I start with a drybrush of my base OD then lighten it from there.

John,

I use Tamiya Acrylic dark brown + flat black thinned with alcohol and water with a drop of dishwahing liquid. This will result to a sephia colored wash. I apply it all over the tank and I rarely remove the excess (unless it is really too much). If the effect seems too light I either darken my wash or re-apply it until I get the desired result. If some portions are unintentionaly darkened by the wash, I just adjust the color with drybrushing.

Good luck.

dwight, do you apply it to the whole model, or just the crack, and little details?

I give the gloss coat a big thumbs up. I use a light coat of pledge (future). I use oils, siennas, umbers and blacks mixed to taste thinned with turps. I mix them quite rich, about 1:15 or thereabouts. The gloss coat makes it easy to clean the excess, and I quite like the heavily shadowed look. A couple of disasters taught me to always use a different type of paint for the wash to the basecoat, too!

I wash selectively with dark colours, detail and such, but sometimes overall with thinner washes to discolour the paint. I tilt the model so the area I am working on is always more or less flat, and I let it partly dry before continuing.

John,

I apply it to all all areas. Capillary action (if your wash is fluid enough) will make the wash go towards, the recesses, panel lines, dents, etc.

i use thinned down oils applied with a brush and excess removed with q-tips. u can make dripping effects that way too