Need large amounts of brown wash - any ideas?

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**Kosake**

Hi everyone!

I'm currently basing my demons and gathering experience for that large gaming board project I've polled some months ago. Everything is taking a nice enough shape and I think I'll be releasing some tutorials or get around to make a PM-Blog. For now, it looks like I need a lot of brown wash. I use agrax earthshade, but for what I'm planning to do, I'll probably kill like 3-4 pots and would rather have a cheaper substitute. So, do you have any good ideas? My plan was to get either dark brown paint or tinting paste from the hardware store, but they didn't have either and I ended up with an olive wash, of all things.. So, long story short, does anyone have an Idea how to create large amounts of cheap brown wash?

**kb_lock**

Would an oil wash do the job?

**Tannhauser42**

You could get a bottle of brown ink (the kind used for fountain and calligraphy pens) and mix up your own wash.

**Kroothawk**

Quickshade is more expensive (esp. as you also need a matte varnish). But they also sell Strong Tone Ink, which is 45 cent cheaper per bottle. Not sure if that is worth the hassle.

**Kosake**

Hm... I'll see what I can get my hands on. Since i'll be covering about two square meters with the stuff, it better be something cheap...

**Grimtuff**

Vallejo game color sepia or smoke inks. The pigments are incredibly strong in them and they last for ages. Smoke esp. lasts for a long time in my experience.

**Ifurita**

Find Liquitex Burnt or Raw Umber (Soft Acrylic), mix with water or airbrush thinner until thin enough to apply as a wash. It's like $7.99 for a 6 oz bottle.

**tomcat31**

Try local art shops, they sell drawing and calligraphy inks, which work out around a quarter the price of gw washes.

**Mecha_buddha**

Easy version

Vallejo makes Model washes in 35ml flip top containers. If your local hobby store can order vallejo paints they should be able to get these. Its roughly 3 times the size of a GW wash and comes in at about 1.5 times the cost of one pot (Im in Canada, GW paints are $5 for a 12mL pot here).

Color chart here http://cdn.acrylicosvallejo.com/da452dd99dbe2199bcad5462114f55bf/cartacolor_ModelWash.pdf

DIY version

Acrylic ink + water+matte medium+flow aid

The initial cost will be more but you could basically make a pint at a time of wash. Search is still buggered, there was a thread here on dakka about how to mix them.

Here is a link to a video and a blog post with recipes and how to. http://www.awesomepaintjob.com/index.cfm/resources.recipes

Hope this helps

**Kosake**

Thanks everyone! That stuff is now pretty high on my priorities list.

**sing your life**

How bout the Army a Painter strong tone quick shade?

**HairySticks**

ink; http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/colours-liquitex-professional-acrylic-inks.htm

medium; http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-liquitex-matt-medium.htm

flow aid; http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-liquitex-flow--aid-flow-enhancer.htm

done

**timd**

Mix cheapo craft paints to the color you want thin with water and Future acrylic floor finish (as a flow aid).

**James811**

Either thin dryad bark (probably 1 pot with 3 pots water or maybe a little more and I think that will be ok). Me personally, I'd just buy 3 pots of earthshade of that's what you've been using to save any mistakes or hassle etc but that's just me

**Solar Shock**

actual mud?

Would that work? just taking soil/earth and mixing with water? on a large gaming board id imagine that with a few layers you'd get a good brown wash going?

**Yonan**

Vallejo sell 200ml bottles of wash for about $10, as opposed to GWs $4.50 for 12ml.

**MadMaverick76**

I use wood stain...specifically Minwax wood stain.

It comes in different shades and colors. It is a little strong, but a quick diluting can get you the level of darkness you seek.

It is also pretty cheap. I think a quart runs around $6.

**Solar Shock**

MadMaverick76 wrote:
I use wood stain...specifically Minwax wood stain.

It comes in different shades and colors. It is a little strong, but a quick diluting can get you the level of darkness you seek.

It is also pretty cheap. I think a quart runs around $6.

that was my second thought! - but mud came first

all about the use of anything other than intended products

**poda_t**

I'm tempted to say go to a fancy art store and get a brown ink and a black ink. Mix the two together and add water to desire, and you can get the tone you're looking for. I'm using black india ink, and I'm actually pretty ok with how it's turning out on the dragon I'm working on.

crummy image, crummy WIP, but wherever you see red that's been shaded, it hasn't been: it's just browny-red, with dark red on that, and bright red on that, hit with black inda ink, and then edged/highlighted with more bright red.

**MadMaverick76**

Solar Shock wrote:
MadMaverick76 wrote:
I use wood stain...specifically Minwax wood stain.

It comes in different shades and colors. It is a little strong, but a quick diluting can get you the level of darkness you seek.

It is also pretty cheap. I think a quart runs around $6.

that was my second thought! - but mud came first all about the use of anything other than intended products

I have an IG thread where I used it to great results. Just need to use matte sealer.