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I've only just started using washes, in preparation for collecting 'Nids again. The colourscheme I decided on was Liche Purple (Carapace), and a medium blue for Exoskeleton (to be decided). I've noticed washes run into the recesses of models, which is really useful for creating a shading effect on the carapace. However, because Liche Purple is so dark, I'm struggling to choose which wash to get to exaggerate the shading. I already have Leviathan Purple, but it doesn't seem to make much difference.

My next choice would be something like Badab Black, but I wanted to ask the painters here at Dakka what would work best for creating a good shadow inbetween the carapace ridges. Recommendations for washes, or other methods of shading 'Nids would be appreciated! My painting looks way too flat and lifeless at the moment, so I'd like to improve.

Thanks for any help!

I uses washes for dark colors all the time. My new tank base color is shadow gray that I wash with a mix of chaos black and water so it's even stronger than badab black. if I used badab black I'd need 2 or 3 coats. WHat you could do is use your purple base coat, wash it with badab black and wait till it dries, and if it's not dark enough add another wash but maybe not cover the whole area and only add it more to the spots you want darker. And then lightly drybrush 100% purple back over the edges to get them to stand out.. or mix in a little bit of white for your drybrush part.

I usually use either Armour Wash (usually diluted to 50/50, but the pots are so old I think they've concentrated a bit) or a 50/50 of Chestnut Ink, depending on if the colors lend themselves more towards black or brown. The dark spots of a dark color trend towards black anyway, so it usually looks good.

I'm amateur at best though, so take it with a grain of salt.

Just use Badab Black. Be careful though, start in the recesses and work the paint up. You don't want an even coat, also don't want to see a black line where the wash ended.

Great, thanks for the advice everyone; hopefully I can use this to improve my painting (which currently isn't great, to be honest).

Something else you could try would be priming the model white and washing the carapace with a 50/50 mix of leviathian purple and badab black, then highlight with liche purple and then another mix to further highlight.

My local store painted all the space hulk nids practically just using washes, they came up at a very nice table top quality.

Just another tip.

Water + Paint doesn't make a wash. It just becomes watered down paint. Your mix will maintain the surface tension of water. Adding just a hint of dish soap to your mix will change the properties to make it flow more like a wash.

I've also heard of people thinning paint to a wash using isopropyl alcohol in place of water, but I haven't tried this method yet. I'd imagine it would dry VERY fast.

oh yeah.. my homemade washes are water + paint + matte medium. The medium seems to help the color get into the cracks and stay there real good.

You can get that stuff in any art store

What exactly do you mean by dish soap? Is it some kind of liquid for dishwashers, or just the plain old stuff you use for doing the dishes?



Obviously there's some difference in entymology here, in the UK this particular stuff is called 'washing up liquid'; as we use it to do the 'washing up'.

Tek wrote:What exactly do you mean by dish soap? Is it some kind of liquid for dishwashers, or just the plain old stuff you use for doing the dishes?



Obviously there's some difference in entymology here, in the UK this particular stuff is called 'washing up liquid'; as we use it to do the 'washing up'.

Haha yupp, that's the stuff!

Hypochondria has taken over in America. We have a soap for everything so it's named accordingly.

Also: Never tried matte medium though, I have a bottle around somewhere. I'll have to try that!