washes

try a water based wash like these from Flory models.

Buy direct from him. Very fast delivery also! Nice guy and the washes are great and water based. Check out the site too.

http://www.florymodels.co.uk/

Assuming its recessed panel lines...

Give the model a good coat of future- 2 or 3 coats is even better.  Once they are set try a wash using acrylics, water and soap.  About 85-90% water, 5-10% paint, and 5% dishsoap.  Apply that onto panel lines with a brush.

Dont worry about excess outside the panel lines, it will wipe off.  Let dry about an hour then use Cotton Swabs to wipe off any excess in the directions of airflow.  If the gloss coat is sufficient, the excess will wipe off with no problems. 

Good luck!

Use Tempera paint for a wash.. Cheaper and easier to use, especially for beginners, than any other product out there... It'll wash of with plain ol' water, even after a week, if you screw it up...

    I hadn't though of trying tempra paints as a wash.  When you thin it, do you yse anything to help break the surface tension?   I use pin washes on 25mm figures.  Being able to "edit" my washes after they dry sounds great.

While I haven't used the tempra paint method, I would said you probably just need to add a couple drops on dish washing detergent.  It's got a surfacant in it that ought to do the trick!

Paul,

First of all welcome back to the best hobby outthere and hope to see you around here on FSM in the future!

What did you use to paint the plane and glosscoat and what have you used to make the washes? If it won't come off (easily) it might be that your wash is too agressive (enamel based wash on an enamel based glosscoat is usually a bad idea for instance) or the paint coating is too "gritty". You really like to have a baby butt smooth coating of future so the wash runs in the panels nicely and wiping it off is easy.

As another cheap but very effective way to make washes is to use watercolors. Experimenting with the technique for the first time i wanted something that was fully waterbased so it would be easy to handle. At a local craft store i found a box of tubed watercolors in all the major colors for just about 3 bucks. Will last you a long time

Blob of paint in a cup....good splash of water and a tiny drop of dishwashing agent or shampoo and you are good to go! Will wipe off nicely with a q-tip treated with water or saliva. For some weird reason i always have better results with saliva.....

Hope this helps!

Richard

  Thanks for info.  I did try dishwash liquid once and even though I thought I was careful stiring it, I got a lot of bubbles.  I'm sure it was my techinque and I will give it another try with tempra and watercolor paints.  This sounds like fun.

You just need a tiny drop of dishwasher to break the surface tension. too much will make it bubble

Richard

If you use the dish soap with Acrylic paint and water it not only breaks the surface tension- it also diminishes the paints ability to bond with the surface of the model.  Use the formula I posted earlier and stir it up- the bubbles dont matter.  As long as you are doing it over a gloss surface the excess will wipe off with a Q-tip no problem.

Just as an addition- I have tried Tempera paint and had no luck- it does not dilute properly in water- you get specks of color etc...  maybe I did something wrong when I tried it- it was a long time ago- but I know the Water, Acryl paint, Dishsoap method works.