Washes for Vehicles/Ships

Burnt umber is a good alternative to black. On a grey base, dots of  white, yellow ochre, blue and burnt umber blended together works well.

Mike T.

Hey Stretch. I built that Star destroyer kit too. haven't painted it yet though. When I do, I'll definitely use washes.

Oils are good. There are some good tutorials on YouTube for how to make and use oil washes, i'd recommend you look there.

Second, don't use straight black - it's too stark. Try mixing black and a variation of the base color (medium grey) at about a 50/50 ratio. That will give you some darker places around the raised details, without making the model look like it's been dipped in a black wash.

I don't know how you painted it (the images don't show) but if using an airbrush you can get quite good results w/ post-shading and highlighting - this is sometimes called Color Modulation. Back when I started doing it we just called it shading.

You can also get some nice effects by mixing different shades of color into the wash - some blue for a cool effect, some yelow for a warm one.

In all cases, it's important to remember that the wash should be very thin - about one part paint for 20 parts thinner. It's better to under do it than over do it. You can easily add more paint, in thin layers - taking paint off is a real pain.

Helpful?

Here's an example of a tank I made with a snow wash that was weathered away. The weathering was done with oils. they just take longer to use as they take days to dry out.

Mike T.

You can use the technique called dot oil filtering. Here's a video of the technique. Mig has prepared filters for various base colors, but you can also just follow the technique shown in the video. Oil paints do not usually effect acrlyic or enamel base colors and can be easily wiped off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvTD7CbF8jw&feature=related

Mike T.

Have you tried a sludge wash? There was an article a while back in FSM about it, and it produces good results.

Mix your (acrylic) paint with a little water and some dishwashing liquid or liquid soap. Slather that over the lines and let it dry for a few minutes then rub it off with a paper towel.

It's easy, the ingredients are readily available at home and it is easy to erase the mistakes and start over if you need to.