Oil wash help!

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**sickening**

Ive been have some trouble getting Oil washes down. I'm using Mona Lisa mineral spirits with Winsor & Newton Oil colour 25 lamp black thinned to the point where it freely flows over a Vallejo gloss coat. Im getting a very gritty effect where it almost looks like wet ashes. After clean up it looks better. Is this normal?

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Make sure you thoroughly mix the wash to get any clumps of oil out. It also helps to put a dab of oil on a piece of cardboard to let it leech the linseed oil out. This will also help the oil dry faster.

The best advice I can give you is buy better oil paints. W&N oils are okay (I used them for a while) but they aren't nearly as good as some better brands. I have completely switched to Mig Productions "502 Abteilung" oils and have been very happy with the results.

**sickening**

I picked up the W&N oil paints after watching many tutorials on YouTube.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

sickening wrote:
I picked up the W&N oil paints after watching many tutorials on YouTube.

Yeah, and they're okay oil paints; not the best and not the worst. When I used W&M oils, I used Ivory Black instead of Lamp Black so you could give that a try.

Still, the best advice I can give you is to try an oil paint with a finer pigment. You'll see the difference.

**Tyronus Fruitridge Powers**

I watched a les video and in hi def you can see that the oils dry pretty grainy. Enamels seem easier and are about the same product just a little easier to work with imo.

Thats only if you feel you must use oil paints. I mean they are an alternative but I think you can get a pretty good acrylic wash and deal with less hassle many different ways. Buy a prepared one, use inks and turn them into a wash, take a color you like and make it a wash.

I like secret weapon miniatures washes. reaper makes a good liner. some people swear by p3 skin wash.

**em_en_oh_pee**

They don't dry grainy if you use the right thinners and whatnot.

Just takes practice. Get some junk models and try out various mixes. Also, remember the work time is extended, so you can dab and clean a lot more and do some good effects (look up traditional WW2 painting to get some ideas).

**granander**

Art the artstore they said that many paints do dry grainy if thinned alot due to the pigments. To a painter this is as it should be, doesnt mean the paint is bad but perhaps not suited for our application.

**em_en_oh_pee**

The W&N oils I use don't have that issue.

**sickening**

The burnt umber dries a lot smoother than the black