Opinions on washing

[absolutrudy]

I painted some Reaper ghouls last night. Basecoated them in VGC Dead flesh and then mixed 2:1 Dead flesh:Black as shade with a drop of flow improver and future floor wax with 3 drops of H20.

The effect came out crackly, and the shade didn\'t seem to dry effectively. Some of it dried on the raised areas.

Any suggestions on how to fix or what I am doing wrong. Thanks.

 

[StarFyre]

2 ideas...

If it dried on surface, it may either:

a) not thin enough for a true wash (as opposed to a glaze) so add more water

b) too much so it pooled and had no place to go except fill the cracks and then catch on the surface.

All I can think of...

Sanjay

 

[Ritual]

From what you\'re saying it sounds as if Sanjay\'s right, that you had not enough water and applied too much in one go. The wash should be VERY thin and applied in VERY thin layers. You should hardly see any effect from one single layer, but rather use many layers to build up the effect you\'re after. Otherwise you\'ll have no control of the outcome. Remember to let each layer dry completely before adding next one, or you\'ll mess up the previous layer when doing the next.

 

[vincegamer]

I think once you have hit puberty you should was daily.

 

[Equus]

Washing daily is good, as vince says.

As for your painting problems with washes, I usually dilute the heck out of my washes with VGC. Usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 6:1 or 8:1 water to paint, but I\'m a little excessive sometimes.

I\'m not sure about the \"crackly\" part. Do you mean the paint pigments are showing up inconsistently as well?

 

[Valander]

Originally posted by Equus
As for your painting problems with washes, I usually dilute the heck out of my washes with VGC. Usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 6:1 or 8:1 water to paint, but I\'m a little excessive sometimes.

I don\'t think that\'s exactly excessive when it comes to Vallejos, but more like required. I can\'t get a decent wash with Vallejo (Game or Model Colors) with anything less than 5:1, and I usually wind up closer to like 7:1 or even 10:1.

Not that I\'ve had time to do much painting lately...

As for the crackling, the main thing I can think of here is that you may actually have too much Future in your mix. That, and you may be applying your wash too heavily. With washes, it\'s important to use really thin coats of this really thin paint. You can always wash it again after it\'s dry if you need it darker. If you put too much on, though, you run a much higher risk of pooling and (in some cases) crackling.

 

[Einion]

Not drying properly - likely too much flow improver. This should ideally be added to the thinning water, not directly to paint mixes as it can prevent drying completely if added in very high proportion (same with retarder). I would try skipping the flow improver completely if you\'re using Future to make a \'magic wash\', the two ingredients are working in opposite directions.

Crackling - probably a reaction between the flow improver and the Future.

Einion

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally by Absolutrudy

Opinions on washing

I think it\'s a very good thing and more gamers should do it!.

As for the actual painting problem I think it\'s as others have said, the Flow Improver and the Future Formula are acting in opposite to one another.

Washes are in fact one of the best ways of adding shade and depth to a miniature but they DO need to be highly dilute in order to prevent pooling and the obsuring of detail.

 

[laurence]

Nice clean washes..

I\'ve always found that washes wind up really messy unless you apply your washes to the appropriate area very carefully. Also, try not to over load your brush.

Otherwise, you\'re probably best off painting in the shading much like you\'d paint any other area.

You\'re other alternative is to begin with your shade color as your basecoat and just add more & more lighter tints as you highlight.

If you\'re determined to go the good \'ol fashioned ink/paint wash I highly recommend \'Dannys Magic Wash\'. This stuff\'s great!

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/116

Peace

 

[absolutrudy]

another attempt

I tried what some of you mentioned earlier, thinning out my paint, but this time I felt like I had little, or no paint on the brush, and the darker wash color went on almost like a darker base coat consistancy. Does anyone dab their brush on a paper towel before they wash their minis. thanks.

 

[Equus]

I\'m no expert, by any stretch of the mind, but unless you\'re looking for pools of vivid color out of your washes, I think not feeling like you have much paint at all is fine. It works the somewhat transparent nature of the acrylics to your advantage. Most of the time, when I thin for glazes, I run my mixing brush over some newspaper to make sure I can see newsprint clearly through the paint, and my washes are usually only SLIGHTLY less diluted.

And for dabbing on a paper towel or paper or cloth, I almost always do that unless I\'m in some strange mood to drown my mini.