Acrylic washes

I bought five MIG oil colors - burnt umber, dark brown, faded yellow, white & black -  for about $25 on eBay 2 years ago.  I've used less than 1% of them.  These will last for a lifetime.  Given typical kit prices, oil washes are extremely cost effective to me.    

I use acrylic washes. I just make my own with the acrylic paint I have on hand and some thinner. I put it down over a lacquer gloss coat and let it dry about 15 minutes and then take a swipe at it with a thinner dampened paper towel as per Swanny's weathering tips. I haven't had a problem picking up the excess during cleanup. Like Mikey, you're not gonna find me buying all these fancy washes. I have a hard enough time just keeping up on paint, primer and thinner.

Here's a Mirage I did a year or two ago with an acrylic wash in panel lines:

DSCF5994 by theirishavenger, on Flickr

Edit: I didn't want to sound close-minded to the thought of using other washes. On thinking about it the last hour after my post, it might be worth giving a second look. Maybe Christmas has me in a more generous mood. ;)

MikeyBugs95

I do use acrylic washes.... Why? Because I can't afford oil paints. I mixed my own black and rust washes out of Pollyscale paints. I also have some Vallejo washes as well. I do have 2 oil paints though.

hey MIKEY

are you in the states? if so is there a Micheal's craft store nearby? they always have 40% off coupons and sometimes all their paints are 40% off. i always get the middle quality oils. i have been using them for a number of years over MMA, TAMIYA and VALLEJO without a barrier and with no problems.

i have used acrylic washes over acrylic paint with ni issues too but oils are easier to remove.

I don't see a good reason to choose acrylic over oil washes.  Oil washes are really fool-proof because of their slow drying time.

Thanks everybody!

If you are going to make your own Acrylic washes, don't use Acrylic model paint because of the reasons you mentioned. You want Artists craft acrylics, such as Grumbacher or W&N tube acrylic paints. Swanny has a good tutorial on using these. But, like Jibber said, they still don't perform like oils do.

I like the Acrylic washes from Testors, the ones that used to be called Polly Scale and are now sold as CreateFX

The same trick works for Acrylic washes as we use for Acrylic paint in an airbrush, some Liquitex Slo Dri and/or Flow Aid.

You can get almost the same products in the Apple Barrell / Folk Art area of the craft paints section.

Rex

Jm I'm sure theres a way but why would you, with all the pre-mixed products and quality oils, theres really no need.