Secrets of the Oil Wash

I have never needed to clean up after doing pin washes, useing a really fine brush i find the paint just flows down the panel line, though i have only used oils on armour and not aircraft.

But i use opils to do dot filters and other weathering and have never come across the issue you have. I always use a brush with a very small amount of thinners to remove excess.

I was using a Size 0 brush to do the pin washes, maybe it was too big.  I started off using Q-tips to do the clean-up, but those were just making a mess, then I tried dry paper towel.  That had the affect as stated above.  Then I tried dipping the paper towel in white spirits, then I tried paper towell in turpentine.  Really wasn't a huge fan of the white spirits eating through my varnish.  I'd really like to know what I was doing wrong.

I've tried and am not good at oil washes myself, but that said below are three products that have been recommended here over the years by folk who like and are are good at oil washes:

All purchased at my local Hobby Lobby, if you are in U.S.

None attacked my acrylic clear coat. Those clear coats would have been either Alclad aqua Klear (acrylic) or Future (once). I don't remember if I ever tried an oil wash over Vallejo varnishes. They dry funny IMO, I only use them for small detail brushed on clear coats and I don't know if that might be part of the problem or not.

I'd only use whatever I thinned the oils with to wash off excess.

Hopefully one of the oil wash experts will chime in. In the meantime, take my 2 cents for what they are worth,

Vallejo Gloss Varnish is described as polyurethane acrylic, but from the sounds of things just doesn't resist spirits very well.

Don't give up, try something else. I've had good luck with Future as a base, and oils thinned in Turpenoid, the one Greg shows on the right.

After reading Bill's comments, I'd sure be curious to hear a follow up, what happens after you try a different acrylic top coat than Vallejo, laskdjn.

Greg

After reading Bill's comments, I'd sure be curious to hear a follow up, what happens after you try a different acrylic top coat than Vallejo, laskdjn.

 

 

On my next model(I got an academy M1A1 Iraq 2003 in the works), I'm gonna try that Alclad Aqua Gloss

I'd suggest you try it on a wreck model.

Good idea, I got a paint mule I'll try it on first

Future is cheap, easy, available and most importantly works perfectly. It's all I use.

laskdjn

 

Greg

After reading Bill's comments, I'd sure be curious to hear a follow up, what happens after you try a different acrylic top coat than Vallejo, laskdjn.

 

 

 

 

 

On my next model(I got an academy M1A1 Iraq 2003 in the works), I'm gonna try that Alclad Aqua Gloss

 

I have been useing that on my armour kits for a couple of years after switching from Future. And on every one i have had patches of paint bubble up from the thinners. I have tried heavy coats, multiple light coats and everything else i can think off. My latest build was better, but i still had issues on some areas where i think i may have worn away the alclad when removing the excess.

The problem isn't the paint or the thinner. The problem is Vallejo has poor abrasion resistance. Don't use a paper towel or q-tips. Just use a clean brush that is slightly wet with spirit.

laskdjn

I was using a Size 0 brush to do the pin washes, maybe it was too big.  I started off using Q-tips to do the clean-up, but those were just making a mess, then I tried dry paper towel.  That had the affect as stated above.  Then I tried dipping the paper towel in white spirits, then I tried paper towell in turpentine.  Really wasn't a huge fan of the white spirits eating through my varnish.  I'd really like to know what I was doing wrong.

 

Yes, I think 0 is a bit too big.  You need as many zeros as you can get :-)  Lately I have been using a tool I first made for applying small drops of CA. It is a sewing needle jammed into a length of dowel, eye outward. I then grind the end of the eye in half, leaving a small fork.  Not much wash stays in the fork, so for long panel lines you need to re-apply at spaces along the line, but it does put down a tiny amount of wash.

This sounds like a damned if I do, damned if I don't scenario

Exactly the same thing happened to me , my first tank so I figured I'd try an oil wash thankfully I only tried on a small part but yes the same thing to the point I was able to pull my gloss coat off with tweezers. I too am about to go back to enamel I was really hoping to do the dot filters though . I've since pulled up what I could and sparayed the whole thing with future worse case scenario I have to repaint one panel . I was hoping to find something other than pledge to use as I've had leveling issues as of late .