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My suggestion would be to thin it down if you want to do this, or at least apply sparingly. it will make your marines look dirtier but they might also muffle some of the nice highlights and contrasts. what about a watered down agrax and also a watered down sepia wash. the sepia might look quite nice for weathered/rusting effects. works real nice on white marines for that death guard look lol

No, don't do it, it'll look like gak.

Well, it'll look exactly how exactly like what it is, which is you've taken a normally painted Marine and spooged dirty water all over it.

If you want your Marines to look battle worn, explore weathering powders and techniques such as chipping for the armour.

Agrax is the next model of liquid skill and one of the small number of GW paints that I actually fork out the money for because the way it flows is unique and very useful but I don't like using it like that on marines. I'd consider using pigments for dirtying up your marines, and/or textured paints like these Vallejo textures for mudying up their legs:


Sponging is also a great way to apply damage chips and rust.

That depends on the colors you're using on the model already. Personally, I think washing the whole model and just leaving it at that usually makes a model look muddy and gross. Not like actually dirty muddy, just muddled and hard to make out details muddy. If you use that then use the base colors again to bring the model back up to those while leaving the shade in the recesses, it can look really good.

 Random Dude wrote:
I've been thinking about using Agrax Earthshade as a final wash after highlights to give my marines a dirtier look. Do you think this could work?

Agrax Earthshade won't so much as add mud to your models, as it will just make them looking dingy. I'd recommend something simpler, like some burn brown along their knees, feet and lower trim, with highlights of a lighter brown. Paint chipping effects also make them look good as well. I've seen people use Earthshade to some phenomenal degrees, I just haven't been able to replicate their results.

I agree with Ninjakinshu. Did the same thing with the brown paint on my space marine but applied the brown as the first base tone before adding the other grey colors so the brown color blends in to the other greys. I've also used the Agrax wash to the bone colored parts on this space wolf model to add the gritty look to it. But I always finish with the highlight color.

Its the most overused stuff on the go right now and I have been badly guilty of it myself mch to my regret in a few cases. Particularly armored models, I completed some thallax awhile ago and over did the Agrax and it took alot of work to fix it.

I'm with the others pigments and powders need explored.

A black wash will achieve the same effect but look more natural if you're painting in dark colours. It will darken then without looking muddy, if that's what you're going for.

If you're going for a dirty look, agrax is great. For example, my Salamanders have a very distinct ash covered look from this paint. Thinning out really helps make sure it doesn't get blotchy and it works wonders on bringing out more burnished looking colors like bronzes and golds. I'm not a golden demon level painter by a long shot but the wash REALLY helped my guys look bad ass rather than just green. Picking out details after the wash again really helps too. The advice above is very sound as well YMMV obviously.

FM Argos

I use them both on my bike army / space wolves

here is an example of a grey hunter using agrax earthshade... it can work well with dark color schemes - I didn't dilute the wash for these but you do have to watch for it pooling (if it does I normally take a small brush and siphon off excess with the brush)







I wanted my marines to look gritty instead of polished so I went with the brown over black wash - I also have not went back and added high lights after the wash like I should have .... but I would consider this table top quality.

Do a test, and see if you like it.

Nothing beats testing it in person with YOUR model and COLORS.

I love using washes, but find many of them darken my mini too much or subdue the highlights.

I am working on a new scheme for some of my minis, and have about a dozen test minis out - do as many as you can to you find what you like.

It could work, but IMO you'd need to really reduce the opacity of the wash by thinning it or using a matte medium to reduce the pigment density and apply it very smoothly so it doesn't just look messy.

Basically like applying a filter.

Sometimes I mix a little bit of scorched brown or khemri brown in to all the paints I apply to a model (more or less depending on the colours) to dull down the colours and bring a bit of unity to the colours, I don't see why it couldn't work to apply a filter to the model after painting it in a similar fashion, but I'd suggest it needs to be done really really lightly.