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So I finally got some supplies for oil washing;



(theres was a 35% off if you got so many colours hehe)

My only question before proceeding to play around is the gloss coat.
I've got Liquitex Gloss medium/varnish (this stuff; http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-liquitex-gloss-medium-&-varnish.htm )
Will that do the job? I was thinking of going to halfords and grabbing a spray can of gloss lacquer?

I can airbrush the liquitex stuff. Just dont know if it being a medium / varnish means its not hard wearing enough?

I don't why it wouldn't work. Your best bet is to try it on a test mini or a piece of sprue. I use this, also from Liquitex:

I'm not quite sure what the difference is between the two or if there really is one. Just try what you and see hoe it goes!

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Yeah I had seen that varnish only liquitex product, they do a 'soluvar varnish' too .. I think one is removable, and one is not.
Or one is for flexible surfaces and one for rigid, I forget.

The Gloss medium/Varnish that I already have, I got a while back for mixing with paints - I know we tend to like matt finish in mini painting, but I do canvases, bikes, cars, guitars, laptops, pc cases, xbox cases and controllers etc etc Its more useful for that stuff that mini's in honesty. But Il give it a go and see how the white spirit treats it.

Will report back on how it goes I guess Price wise they cost very similarly. Except the gloss medium comes in a 946ml maximum sized bottle while the varnish is 473ml max bottle size. Sooo buying the 1L (close enough lol) Gloss medium would work out better value than buying two 473ml gloss varnishes.


Now 1L of medium or varnish is probably more than a lifetime supply for our hobby, but I would certainly use it all up on other projects too.

Yeah, I've had my 237mL bottle of gloss varnish for 2 years and I haven't made much of a dent in it, but I only use it for glossing before an oil wash.

I'm sure what you have work work just fine. Good luck!

I'l dig out something scrap from the bits box to test on. If it goes well.. I'l have a much easier time finishing all these deathwing that have been basecoated for well months now ... :( can never find the time to get back to them hehe.

Liquitex is great. However, I like the Satin Varnish better than the Gloss. The gloss varnish is just too glossy for an oil wash. Believe it or not, a varnish that is too glossy has tremendous drawbacks on washes. The pigment flows so easily that it will have a hard time remaining in certain crevices where you want the pigment to remain.

Also, the Winton brand of oils is good for doing stains, oil streaks and weathering. But it's very poor pigment quality for washes. The pigment is just huge, and very pasty. Get some Abteilung Oils from Mig Productions, or the higher quality Artist Line from Winsor and Newton.

 Chootum wrote:
Liquitex is great. However, I like the Satin Varnish better than the Gloss. The gloss varnish is just too glossy for an oil wash. Believe it or not, a varnish that is too glossy has tremendous drawbacks on washes. The pigment flows so easily that it will have a hard time remaining in certain crevices where you want the pigment to remain.

Also, the Winton brand of oils is good for doing stains, oil streaks and weathering. But it's very poor pigment quality for washes. The pigment is just huge, and very pasty. Get some Abteilung Oils from Mig Productions, or the higher quality Artist Line from Winsor and Newton.

:( This is not good news hehe.
I'l still try it out however, as I've just dropped £20 or so on these hehe.

I recently purchased a few tubes of the W&N "Winton" line myself. My purpose was for wet blending, since I was struggling beyond words to do it with acrylic and retarder. So far so good. What a huge difference with oils. So, my point is, if they don't work out well for washing (which I'm going to try at some point as well), you can use them for wet blending.

EDIT: I did find, rather surprisingly, the Ivory Black doesn't have the coverage I would expect from black. I may try the Lamp Black.

Gloss varnish works perfectly fine, I've been using it for a couple of years and have had no problem with getting a wash to go where I want and stay there. The same goes with the Winton oils, they have worked perfectly for making washes. Don't sweat it, it'll work out just fine.

Hi hairy that's the exact same combination I use and it works like a dream

Ahh thats alright then had a sliught worry that I'd kinda wasted the investment getting them; could easily have had a couple tubes of the top line of W&N oils, but these came in smaller tubes, and had an offer on at the time too!

I might get time to try it out over the weekend, but am somewhat busy. So we'l see. I do need something painted to test it on first.
May try and get some random object basecoated and glossed today so that the gloss is nice and dry for the weekend.

If I find the gloss medium/varnish combo product doesnt hold up to a white spirit and cotton bud rub down, I'l either order some of the other liquitex varnish, or get a spray can of laquer; although laquer is really hard wearing and might be a pita if I decide to strip the model later- most things that will strip laquer will melt the plastic in no time! Fair Power Spray is a maybe. As is IPA for that job.

Ultra Grey wrote:
I recently purchased a few tubes of the W&N "Winton" line myself. My purpose was for wet blending, since I was struggling beyond words to do it with acrylic and retarder. So far so good. What a huge difference with oils. So, my point is, if they don't work out well for washing (which I'm going to try at some point as well), you can use them for wet blending.

EDIT: I did find, rather surprisingly, the Ivory Black doesn't have the coverage I would expect from black. I may try the Lamp Black.

That is actually the first thing my brother explained to me when I started painting 20 years ago. And my mind can still not understand the logic behind both names: "Ivory black is the semi-transparent one. Lamp black is the opaque."

Now of course you can thin Lamp black down so much it loses it's covering properties.

If you stumble upon Rembrandt's "Sepia", I suggest you give it a try. It's what I use the most for washes.

Babaluma wrote:

Ultra Grey wrote:
I recently purchased a few tubes of the W&N "Winton" line myself. My purpose was for wet blending, since I was struggling beyond words to do it with acrylic and retarder. So far so good. What a huge difference with oils. So, my point is, if they don't work out well for washing (which I'm going to try at some point as well), you can use them for wet blending.

EDIT: I did find, rather surprisingly, the Ivory Black doesn't have the coverage I would expect from black. I may try the Lamp Black.

That is actually the first thing my brother explained to me when I started painting 20 years ago. And my mind can still not understand the logic behind both names: "Ivory black is the semi-transparent one. Lamp black is the opaque."

Now of course you can thin Lamp black down so much it loses it's covering properties.

If you stumble upon Rembrandt's "Sepia", I suggest you give it a try. It's what I use the most for washes.

I think its quite common for artists paints to include some opaque and some transparent colours. Although they normally make mention of it hehe.

The two blacks do have different pigments however; Ivory Black originally made from scrap ivory shavings (now charred animal bones), and Lamp black traditionally made from oil lamp soot. They both ought to have a slight difference in colour when thinned out enough to show it. (if they were the same.. then there wouldnt be two of them surely)

IIRC Mars Black has the best coverage of the three. I don't remember if it has brown or blue tone when thinned.