Panel Line Wash Thickness...

That actually looks very nice! Sometimes, it will take two coats of the wash in certain areas. If your wash is too thin, it will look like there is no pigment left in the panel lines. Next tip- Throw away your Future. Use a better Gloss coat. You need an acrylic gloss because of the oil paints, So I'd suggest Alclad Aqua Gloss or PolyScale clear gloss, or Gunze Gloss clear. A gloss coat has to go on thick and wet to be smooth, so an airbrush with a larger tip helps, and hold it a bit further away from the plastic, and spray it heavier. Overlap each pass at least 50%. You can also try hand brushing on the Future with a wide, softer brush, add a drop or two of Windex in the future. Mix this up in a small cup or paint pallet. You also need to make sure your basecoat of Tamiya paints is going on smooth, other wise a smooth glosscoat will do no good.

Thanks Nathan.  My base coat paint was really, really smooth.  That was another lesson I learned before this stage. :)  I also tried the MM clear gloss and but the results weren't noticeably better than the future.  I will look for some of the gloss coats you speak of.  Do you know if the Tamiya gloss coat is worth trying?  I love their paint.  

I'm continuing to play with the wash on the underside and practicing.  I'm getting better at it but it does take a lot of patience.  At least I know that worse-case I can strip everything down to the bare plastic and do it over. :D

Yes, Tamiya Gloss clear is pretty good. Just takes awhile to get the thinning ratio right.

That does look nice.  I'd found I had a lot of similar problems when I was learning to use a panel line wash.  Two things that really helped me figure out the look I was going for are: as Nathan says, a better gloss than future, I use Vallejo's varnish, and mostly spraying it from a single action airbrush.  For some reason, my double action (Aztek) gives me a pebbly finish, where my $30 dollar badger single action lays out a nice coat.  Spray it on wet, but not enough to run, it's a tricky balance to master.  The second thing that did it for me was allowing my oil wash to be a little thick.  I know, it sounds wrong.  I am using oil paint with odorless turps.  What I then do is take a clean brush DAMP with thinners (I brush the back of my hand, if I can see thinner coming off, it's too much) and gently clean away the excess wash with light strokes.  I don't work in one area too long, if I've made two or three passes with the brush in one spot, I move on and come back to it.  This way I don't 'work' through the gloss and paint layer.  That's just from my experience and a few ruined paint jobs.

Again, not saying this is the right way to do it, this is what's worked for me.  Hope that helps.

Thanks for the feedback AndrewW.  I think I'm starting to get the hang of the wash on this build.  Like you, it's on the thicker side.  I hope to finish the was tonight.  I'll post some pics when I'm done.

A couple of other questions...

1. Should I shoot it with clear again before decals?  I'm thinking most definitely...at least a thin coat.
2. How long should the oil wash set before I try to do something like sealing it.

Thanks!

You want your decals to go on over a gloss coat. I gloss coat, add decals, seal them again with a gloss or semi gloss coat, then do my wash. I wait 24 hours after applying my wash to flat coat.

On my last build I tried Liquitex Acrylic Gloss Varnish.  Using a wide brush I brushed on a few layers to build it up and it came out glass smooth and glossy.  And the decals really stuck right to it:

T3chDad,

How did your wash come out?

I've always had the same problems you described. I tried all the hints listed here and several others. Never could get any consistency. The panel lines would look great when I first applied the wash and then totally disappear when dry. When the panel lines did look good there would be a noticeable dark film/stain on the surrounding paint. I guess I kept getting the wash to thick or to thin, even though I tried to hit in between with the thinner/paint ratio. Never could hit the sweet spot.

I tried in all, oils, enamels, inks, acrlyics, etc. No go.

Out of frustration I bought a bottle of Testors Creative FX black wash and have had much better success. I do have to apply the wash 2-3 x but at least it working better than my home brews.

Mitsdude- Sounds like the finish was too flat and was soaking up the wash, or you waited too long to wipe it off, or it wasn't thin enough.

Washes that are too thick do not flow well along the lines.  Washes that are too thin do not give good contrast.  However, you can always build up the contrast by repeating the application.  Thus to me it is better to err on the side of the wash being too thin. It just takes more time to apply, it does not hurt anything.

I also posted these pics in my main build log thread.  I think it was a successful learning experience.  Thanks for the tips and comments...MUCH appreciated! 

Very nice panel lines.  You did that well!

Techdad,

First off, very nicely done!  To answer your earlier questions, I personally gloss, decal, gloss and wash, then a clearcoat over top of the wash.  This way, I wash through the decals as well.  The reason I do this is that what we use as decals would be paint on an aircraft.  That would weather similarly to the overall paint job.  Nothing looks odder to me than a worn craft with beautifully clean decals.  To answer your second question, I wait until I can no longer smell the oils or turps before I clearcoat after the wash.  Generally, I have found that is about 24 to 48 hours for me, but different mixes will cure at different rates at different temperatures and humidity.  Of course, this rule of thumb also varies with the amount of patience that I have on a given day.

Thanks to everyone for the complements and suggestions.  Hopefully the next job will be easier.