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Hello everyone ,

Recently i have been trying to find a way of painting grey knights in a way that suits me. I found that using Mithril silver as a base gave me the colour i wanted , i wanted to wash over this with Badab black but found that once the wash had dried i had streaks and lines in the finish of the wash where i had brushed it on. Would someone be able to help me on using it in a way that i can get a nice even coverage without brush lines and patches on the surface.

Thanks in advance.

~UnDeAd~

The best way to fix it is to eliminate the brush strokes. If you spray the silver on then you will get a much smoother surface and the wash will behave better. Maybe someone else could recommend a good silver spray.

Another thing you could do is spray Gloss varnish over the silver, let it dry fully (probably over 24 hours) and then wash over that, it should smooth out the surface a little and make it harder for the wash to stain flat areas. If you don't want to keep the gloss finish you can get rid of it later by applying a Satin or Matt varnish over the whole model at the end.

Lastly you can try drybrushing (or just selectively painting) silver back over the model after the wash is dry, that will usually smooth it out a tiny bit too.

Use thinner coats of silver, then thinner coats of the wash. Water both down a little if needed.

@ Smacks , I have sprayed the silver on and it is a nice even coverage no brush lines in the silver thats what i thought it may have been first of all :/

@ nectarprime , The silver paint was thinned so that i could use it with my airbrush , could it be that my wash has been sitting and could be slightly thicker ?

Thanks for the help guys ~UnDeAd~

~UnDeAd~ wrote:could it be that my wash has been sitting and could be slightly thicker ?

Thanks for the help guys ~UnDeAd~

It could be...

I can't say I'm really a fan of GW washes. Especially Badab Black. I've always found that it just make things look dirty rather than shaded. A redshirt told me that they had stopped using inks in the washes, and started using acrylic with lots of medium.

I stopped buying wash there anyway. Acrylic medium is fairly cheap, and I don't really want to pay GW full price for watered down paint when I can just dilute it myself.

You might want to try mixing up your own wash too. Paint and water works just as well as GW wash usually, but you can also add a bit of Fluid Retarder or Flow Improver or other mediums. A drop of washing up liquid can also be mixed in to break surface tension. Generally experiment. I usually find it helps to wet models first before washing them, and wet the base too so that excess water can drain all the way off.

Might also be worth looking around for inks, some inks have super high, super fine pigment count so they make amazing washes. I'm not really sure what else to suggest...

Good Luck to you anyway.

Apparently the Army Painter Platemail spray gives good results when washed.

@OP Im pretty sure the things you mentioned is due to washes drying / pooling in undesirable way.

Use flow-aid or future floor wax mixed with wash to fix the problem.

LunaHound wrote:@OP Im pretty sure the things you mentioned is due to washes drying / pooling in undesirable way.

Use flow-aid or future floor wax mixed with wash to fix the problem.

+1 also, I tend to do my wash with the model upside down, I find it is less streaky, maybe you are applying a bit much of the wash, make sure it's a even coat on the model, makes the world of difference.

I get best results if I dilute GW washes about 1/3 wash, 1/3 water and 1/3 Vallejo Glaze Medium.