A Wash about Washes

Well, if i understadn you correctly. You arnt doing ANYTHING wrong. That IS a wash. You may be lookign for a difrenct technique.

NOW. If the paint your using for the wash is LIFTING the paint your trying to wash OVER then you need to try a difrent paint. Something not oil based perhaps.

I'm about to stick my neck out here (editors need to remember their limitations!), but hopefully more skillful (and experienced) modelers than I will join in with more advice.

You get a wash to blend in one of two ways: Apply it over a gloss coat, so you can wipe off the excess and leave it only in the crevices and panel lines, or.... If you apply it to a flat paint surface, you have wait for it to dry, then go over it with a cotton swab moistened (but not dripping) with the thinner that you used in the original wash. At least, that's how John Plzak did it on the Abrams tank in his upcoming wash-n-drybrush how-to cover story for the July issue.

Hey josho, what do you mean with "discolour the painted surface around it". Are you saying that 1. the base paint became covered in wash colour too much, or 2. do you mean that the base colour is "gone completely" ?

Im no expert myself having built only 2 kits so far, but for the first case, it could be becasue your wash is too "thick". You want to have a tinted thinner, not a thinned paint.
For the second case, umm....if you use enamel for the base, you might try using arcylic for wash, or vice de versa.

Personally, i use emanel wash over enamel base. But i usually wait until about 3-4 days after base colour is applied. Then i use natural turp (or I also tried mineral spirit, and it worked as nice) instead of enamel thinner. It should not "attack" the enamel base colour if you put it right. It is better to have several light washes, than to have one big wash.

Hope that helps.

Hey all,

Thanks for the help. I do believe my wash may be a little to thick, it doesn't lift the paint, but I does stain the base coat around it and doesn't flow into or around details as nicely as I would like. I'll try thinnig it out a little more and see what I get.

Oh josho.... you might also want to try to gloss-coat your model first. That way, the wash will flow better, and you get better control. Also, with gloss coat, you can clean excess wash much easier.

If you have any more question, just pm me. :)