Washes

Welcome to the forum! Glad to have you here.

Washes are basically a very thin mix of paint or ink that is allowed to flow down the panel lines. Check out this link on Swanny's site:
http://www.swannysmodels.com/Weathering.html

or this link in the "Techniques" forum:
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11687

They will get you pointed in the right direction.

I tried to "run" a thin wash along the panel lines of my nearly finished Me 262 and while the effect looked great, I couldn't seem to clean up the points where I made contact with the brush. I only used Tamiya black and thinners but neither thinners nor water (they are water soluble afterall) on a cotton bud/swab cleaned as well as I'd hoped. Any tips?

last and first time i did this i used a waterbased black paint , painted over the lines left it to dry then used windscreen wash on a cotton bud to clear the excess paint off , came out ok

If the surface is flat you will have that problem. The surface **MUST** be smooth (not necessarily glossy but smooth) or the wash will get down in the grain of the paint. I had to repaint a section of my F-105 for that very reason. I didn't get enough Future in one spot to smooth out the flat base paint and I couldn't get the wash out, so I had to repaint it.

Acrylics are water soluble (I assume that's what you used) but that doesn't mean that once they dry water will remove them. Once acrylic has dried it is a form of plastic. If your base is acrylic as well, anything that will dissolve the wash will also dissolve the base paint so you must be very careful. You might try alcohol (very carefully!), Windex (very carefully!), or Formula 409 (very, VERY carefully). All three of these are capable of dissolving acrylic paint so be very careful or you may make things worse than they are now.

Thanks - look forward to repairing the damage - fingers crossed! Thought I had a good smooth coat of Klear (Future) on the kit. First time using it so I'll live and learn. Next question - this "sludge" wash I keep reading about - what products are used to make it? There seems to be a number of ratios mentioned and the products are not ones I recognise here in the UK. Thats not to say they don't exist - its just that after an abscence of 10 years from serious modelling I'm trying to catch up pretty fast!

First time on the forum and I'm amazed at the wealth of information at hand - kind of raises your own expectattions of what you're capable of!

you may also use a different type of wash alltogether, meaning if your base coat is acrylic, try using an enamel based wash. that way when removing exess wash you wont affect your base coat. the thinner you use for the enamel removal wont affect your dried acrylic base. you can use vice versa..enamel base and acrylic wash.

QUOTE: Next question - this "sludge" wash I keep reading about - what products are used to make it? There seems to be a number of ratios mentioned and the products are not ones I recognise here in the UK.

There is nothing magic in any of the washes. Ask 10 people what they use and you'll get 10 different answers.

I always paint with acrylics (I got tired of fighting fumes). For washes I use either artist's acrylic paints (I prefer Golden brand but any would probably work) or artist's water colors. I don't use a specific ratio, I just pour some water in a bottle, add a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent, and then add the acrylic or water color until the color is what I want it to be.

For applying it I use a Lowe-Cornell #7050 "Liner Brush" like this one:
http://www.lowe-cornell.com/ecommerce/detail.asp?
Vreturnpage1=browse.asp&Vreturnpage2=browse-brushes.asp
&Vreturnpage3=browse-shape.asp&Vreturnpage4=browse-narrow.asp
&Vid4=2&Vcat4=shape&Vlevel=4&id=72&browseshape=2

Edit ... I hate it when long URL's cause the page to get messed up. I edited the link above to prevent it from paking the page so wide you can't read everything. All of that should be on one line. Or you can just go to www.lowe-cornell.com, click "Product Line", then "Brushes", "Brushes By Shape", "Liners" and then "Miniature Brushes" to get to it.

The bristles are very long and thin and the tip will fit into a 1/32 scale panel line.

You have to keep the mix stirred up well. Every 2 or 3 minutes I stir it up good, and when I do there are a some bubbles on the surface from the soap. For some reason the bubbles seem to be the best place to poke the brush to get paint on it (I can't explain that one).

Get some on the brush, touch it to a panel line and let it run. If it doesn't pull itself along the panel line, add a little more soap. If it disappears as it dries, add a little more water and paint until it doesn't (too much soap). You can also use the brush to help it along the lines.

If there is enough soap in the mix, and the surface is smooth, the part that hits outside the panel line will usually pull itself into it. Just help the mixture along the panel line with the brush and the wash will pull into the panel line as it levels out.

I don't let things sit very long once it is applied, maybe 5 minutes at most, before I start to remove the excess. I use Q-tips (Cotton Buds to the Brits!) twisted very tightly, and just moisten them very slightly. Rub across the panel line (not along it) and if the surface is smooth the mixture will come right off.

Sludge wash is basically the same. Just let it settle into the corners and relieved areas and rub the excess off the high spots.

QUOTE: First time on the forum and I'm amazed at the wealth of information at hand - kind of raises your own expectattions of what you're capable of!

Like you I took a long time off from modeling. In fact, off and on for about 40 years. Last time I was building models the internet was not in heavy use so there were no resources like this one. Personally I could not do without it and cannot imagine building models without a resource like this. The level of experience around here amazes me, and if you have a question someone will have an answer.

Glad to have you with us!

QUOTE: Originally posted by mooseman Next question - this "sludge" wash I keep reading about - what products are used to make it?

Great question.

I use a sludge wash almost exclusively on my armor builds, but there is no "recipe" for a perfect sludge that will work for everyone. Some trial and error is normal. My mixture is about a 50-50 mix of liquid dishwashing soap and water in a standard Model Master paint bottle. To this I add anywhere between 10 and 30 drops of acrylic paint. The amount and color of paint added will depend on the darkness of wash I want as well as the color of the tank.

My kits are painted with MM enamels and coated with Future before applying the wash. Also, it is very important to allow the Future to fully cure - I wait AT LEAST 48 hours - before starting to apply the wash.

Once the wash is applied and allowed to dry it looks VERY messy - nasty! That's how it's supposed to look. The key is that the Future acts as a seal and prevents the wash from binding to the base paints. Now I start removing wash from areas that don't need it by using a moistened cotton swab on broad areas and a moistened paint brush on areas closer to where I want the wash to stay. The great thing about this type of wash is that if you don't like the effect, you just dunk the entire model in some cool water and the wash will completely come off. Don't use hot or warm water as it can dissolve the Future coat and even get down to the decals if you haven't added a dullcoat barrier.

Hope this helps.