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So, Im pretty new to painting and have been looking for tips on how to and which washes to use. Theres a lot of stuff on the Internet, but Im not sure whats right and there are some questions that are still unanswered First off, I see people use premade washes, some use homemade washes and others say to use various levels of ink(or watered down ink). I assume a well mixed homemade wash is the same a a bought one, but why do you use inks over washes or vice versa. Another thing that I am having a large issue with is color mixing. For example, I saw a Space Wolves tutorial recently, and the user wrote that he used a basecoat, SW grey then a few washes of leviathan purple, which is not a color I would suspect to be a good mix with grey. Is it done through trial and error? Is there a color chart that has a good direction for what colors to use.

FYI I have been working on a lot of orky stuff, so extra orky tips are appreciated as well. Thanks for the tips, as you guys get better so do I!

Hi there, most of us use test paints and washes, usually a piece of something to try out our ideas before we do the actual work on our models. It could be as simple as a piece of card stock to a test mini.

Washes are nice because they darken up deep areas and allow you to "dry" brush over them, giving more depth to the model or, as in the case of tanks, allows you to have a tank that look like it was actually being used, rather than a museum piece.

I like using Thrakka green wash on my orks. btw.

I like washes alot - especially for Orks.

My Warboss was painted using washes.

I pretty much just use the various GW washes now. I know of people that swear by the homemade ones but I find that GW has actually made a very good range of washes. As for which ones to use that will be a bit of trial and error. The way I generally use mine is basecoat followed by a wash then a highlight or two and usually another wash to blend the colors a bit. Sometimes I will even use a couple different washes to achieve a desired final effect.

kaiservonhugal wrote:I like washes alot - especially for Orks.

My Warboss was painted using washes.

That Warboss is 100% Badass. Would you be a saint and give a few sentences on how you did that. Its amazing.

I have a homebrew ink made from a couple different companies that I use for the base color of my army (Death Guard Plague Marines) and then I liberally apply Devlin Mud and / or Griffon Sepia and sometimes Badab Black depending on the depth of shade I am looking for. I usually cover the model w/ base ink, let completely dry, then hit it with a wash, let dry, hit it with a darker wash, let dry, pick out details, maybe a light drybrush, and depending on the model or unit a final lighter wash to mellow everything together. It works very well for my purposes on my Plague Marines. I have never used inks on my Orks, but that's mostly going to be because my painting skills were different last time I was playing Orks.

Admittedly I'm not very skilled at highlights or blending but I still receive genuine compliments for my inking, washing, and drybrush highlighting. It's all application and technique. I'll never rec' a Golden Daemon for my paintjobs but I'm mostly happy with the skill I have and make the most of what I can do.

That said, look into getting some sacrificial miniatures that you aren't ever going to seriously paint. Those work pretty well as test dummies for new techniques you are trying. Also don't hesitate to try new things. What sound alien and weird to one person my be your next step to becoming a great painter.

Sure - I used the new GW washes - Badab Black, Gryphon Sepia, Thraka Green, Devlin Mud, Blue, and flesh.

I primed the model white and then painted all the metal parts boltgun metal or brazen brass. Then I washed it all completely in Badab Black. Let this dry completely and check for air bubbles and any sloppy slips with the boltgun metal. Then I washed each specific area - sepia on the pants, thraka on the skin, black on the Hat (its not paint). Between changin out colors, I would wait for the washes to dry. The skin went 4 coats.

The thing with washes is the black undercoat is IMPORTANT and they will dry much darker than what you think.

I then went and picked out small detail with paint - the jolly roger, medals etc. Get as small a brush as possible for this and clean it thoroughly between colors.

Hi CDiablo,

i think in your case Natakue if your friend.

enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKX18Wi6OGc

why do you use inks over washes or vice versa?

The reason people use inks over washes (or rather wash using inks) is because inks tend to have a much higher pigment count than paints.

I assume a well mixed homemade wash is the same a a bought one

Well you'd be assuming wrong, a well mixed home-made wash is significantly better than the ones you buy, especially if we are talking about the ones you buy form GW.

GW used to sell ink washes, but now what they sell is acrylic wash with a ton of medium mixed in... basically watered-down paint. With what GW charge for a 12ml wash, you could buy half a pint of acrylic medium and just water down your own paint as you need.

Or... you could just water it down with water, which is almost as good. Actually if you get the consistency right it's hard to notice any difference.

Usually where people go wrong is they try to mix up a wash in pot, and they get it too thin or to thick and then they have a whole pot full of something they can't use.

What I do is I have a plate to mix paint on (yes an ordinary dinner plate). You should never paint straight out the pots ever, because you will always need to mix a tiny bit of water or thinner with any paint to get the consistency right. You need a nice surface to mix your paint on such as a pallet, though I prefer a plate.

If I want to make a wash then the first thing I do is put a few drops of paint onto the plate and mix the colour I want (if I don't already have it). The next thing I do is I drop a few drops of clear acrylic medium onto the plate but not near the paint. Then I dip my brush into the medium so it soaks up a little, and then mix it into my blob of paint from one edge, then repeat a few times. What you end up with is a blob of paint the has a range of consistency throughout. It is ordinary thick paint at one edge, and very watery and clear at the other. I might also mix in a few drops of water in the same way to spread it out. If you don't have acrylic medium you can just use all water.

Once you have got this far you can just dip your brush into the blob at any point to get the perfect consistency. Do a little test squiggle on the plate to test the consistency. Usually the consistency you want is where the paint is not too watery, but watery enough that you can see some of the white of the plate through the mixture.

Then just paint it liberally onto the area you want to shade. What should happen is the runny mixture will run into cracks and shallow areas, carrying all the colour with it (making them look shaded), and leave raised areas mostly just wet but unpainted. If this doesn't happen because the paint is to thick then all you have to do is get another drop of medium or water onto your brush and wash that straight on top. If it ends up so thin and watery that you can't see any colour, then just get a drop of the thicker paint (from the other side of your blob) and brush that over. If you end up with generally too much paint and water that it gathers into a big blob on the model, then just dry your brush and and poke the tip into the blob. The dry brush tip will lift the excess water back off the model. When you're happy with the effect set the miniature down and let it dry naturally.

Another technique I sometimes use is just to splodge thick paint on with a huge brush so that you can pretty much cover the model in a few seconds, then just dunk the model (base and all) into a glass of water, pull it out and set it down to dry. It's important to dunk the base too, as this allows the excess water and paint to drain all the way off the miniature (hopefully onto newspaper) that way it doesn't clump around the feet etc... This is great for speedily washing a whole army, though obviously it's only good for when you want to wash the entire mini in the same colour. Also seems to work better once the water gets a bit dirty after the first few dips.

It's worth experimenting on your own and see what works for you. Just don't go paying full whack for watered down paint.

CDiablo wrote:So, Im pretty new to painting and have been looking for tips on how to and which washes to use. Theres a lot of stuff on the Internet, but Im not sure whats right and there are some questions that are still unanswered First off, I see people use premade washes, some use homemade washes and others say to use various levels of ink(or watered down ink). I assume a well mixed homemade wash is the same a a bought one, but why do you use inks over washes or vice versa. Another thing that I am having a large issue with is color mixing. For example, I saw a Space Wolves tutorial recently, and the user wrote that he used a basecoat, SW grey then a few washes of leviathan purple, which is not a color I would suspect to be a good mix with grey. Is it done through trial and error? Is there a color chart that has a good direction for what colors to use.

FYI I have been working on a lot of orky stuff, so extra orky tips are appreciated as well. Thanks for the tips, as you guys get better so do I!

Regarding mixing colours (such as Leviathan Purple on Space Wolves); you find that if you apply your washes after the basecoat and before highlights, what you end up with is a model that only has the dark colour present in the recesses: This is quite good for if you want a strong contrast, which you obviously get with purple and blue (My DP's guns for example... though it's not quite as strong as what you'd get on a Space Wolf). The example you name isn't the only "crazy" combination you might have... Take using Dark Flesh/Ogryn Wash'd Tallarn flesh on a Deathwing terminator... sounds crazy, right? Well at first when you're painting the thing it looks odd having a brown/pink terminator that's supposed to be Bone... but then you get to the end and voila (apologies for awful pic, but look at the Terminator's legs):


In short, as I'm not the most colour-conscious/fashionable of people I can't give you a formula, but once you become aware of how good contrasts in recesses can look you'll get an instinct for this sort of stuff

LBursley has a nice tutorial up on youtube with his recipe for making washes. Personally, I just use GW's Thraka Green, Devlan Mud, and Badab Black. For my orks, that covers skin, leather, and metallics, respectively.

My ork skin recipe is as follows: Orkhide Shade to basecoat (GW foundation) -> VGC Sick Green coat (Snot Green, for GW) -> Thraka wash for shade -> broad highlights with thinned Sick Green -> final highlights with VGC Goblin Green (same name, for GW) -> final, thin Thraka Green wash (I don't let it pool, much - this acts more like a filter than a wash, providing minimal shading but helping to soften the transitions between color layers). Results is a rather intense green, without being overly bright. The variations in shade are pretty subtle, so if you want vibrant models with lots of contrast, wash more heavily, initially, and use starker, unblended highlights.