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Hi Dakka,

I'm after some assistance please. Does anyone know a way or making a large batch of washes, in this instance Agrax Earthshade equivalent. I need to use it for a terrain piece (2 foot square) but not sure if I should just go and buy a few pots of the official stuff?

Any help would be appreciated

A thing a friend of mine used to do is use ink (like real inks from a craft shop) and thin them to the right consistency. I have never done so, but I generally do not use washes on terrain unless it's small-scale (on a base generally).

Now that I think of it, you could try the big bottles of acrylic paint found at most craft/hobby stores. Since acrylic is water-based, you can use water to thin them to wash consistency... provided the pigment does not separate out too badly.

Hmm, could give that a go, thanks for the tip Have you seen this done before?

The reason for using the wash is that it will mirror the pre-existing basing on my miniatures I'm placing on the terrain. It's for an Armies On Parade display, so want them to match up

My formula for the mini bases is:

Sand
Brown basecoat
Ochre highlight
Earthshade wash
Bleached bone extreme highlight

Something like this is the result:


So I'm hoping I can replicate it on a big scale without having to buy a horrendous amount of washes from GW.

Well, since it's armies on parade, I suppose you might well want to go ahead and just buy a couple large pots of the agrax at your FLGS.

Honestly though for terrain of all sorts I use cheap craft paint.

I have three colours I use to shade/wash the ground/rocks of my areas, depending what I'm going for. Usually I use a black, a burnt sienna and an umber colour. I don't measure much sorry! so it's more playing by ear, I put in enough water to get the consistency I want. You can always test on a side piece. I'll usually start with a black wash, then go to either the umber or sienna, mixed with black, then do a final of the brown I want, followed by a drybrushing - usually for that I'll use a khaki or cream to help it stand out a good bit.

You have to let the wash dry thoroughly between each application, which can take a good bit, but it works very well, especially for really large applications.

Why not create your own shade/wash with cheaper paints? Thinning them down enough isn't to hard. And it's hella cheaper.

Edit: Ah... to late, someone else said the same thing.

I've seen people at my local GW use the GW shades to wash the gaming boards.... Yeah... Not a cheap option.

I use Liquitex Soft Acrylics for my base washes

Thanks ks for the responses guys, looks like I have some options to consider!

I remember in the forgeworld masterclass book, they take some brown paints in a small spray bottle with water to make a ton of wash for their giant ork battle display.

here to jump on the "craft paint" bandwagon...yup, get yourself some burnt umber, or raw umber or something similar - a good dark, muddy brown...mix some up with a lot of water, until you're happy with the colour concentration/transparency, then add a drop of dish liquid/detergent (fairy, etc)

I make a lot of my own washes that way, and use them on most of the things I've painted, not just terrain, models too...and it gives you a lot more freedom over what colour washes you can get

(the drop of detergent acts as a flow aid, it helps break the watery surface tension, so it flows into cracks and crevices better than just plain thinned-out paint ...I make my washes in 25ml dropper bottles, and I usually use a drop of detergent for one of those, so, scale that up accordingly I guess)

Raw Umber (Liquitex) is what I use over sifted playground sand glued to the base of my models..

Les wash recipe..

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/261541.page

I use Liquitex acrylics (the kind that come in tubes), mixed with glaze medium and thinned with water if needed.

You can buy quickshade from army painter, in the big tin, as one solution. I think "Strong" is the same formula as Devlan Mud, which is very similar to Agrax.

When applying it, obviously, use a big brush.

But often, if it's terrain, you don't really need to wash -- you can just base coat the darker color, and drybrush it up.

do remember that the quickshade is glossy so you need to apply a mat varnish after it. Quickshade is a dip, not a real wash, but is does give great effects for things like terrain.

 Tjomball wrote:
Les wash recipe..

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/261541.page

This is a great wash recipe, I highly recommend it.

Well to be fair with army painter or walnut colored tinted varnish, you are basically setting the battle board in a good layer of Polyurethane (or whatever material it actually is) so any gaming you do will be on something super tough

also you could hit the whole thing with a can of matt varnish to knock the gloss off.

 Desubot wrote:
also you could hit the whole thing with a can of matt varnish to knock the gloss off.

I've heard that terminology countless times, yet for some reason this time it brought a very vivid mental image of someone vigorously bludgeoning their terrain piece with a varnish can ...and to be fair, that would probably dull the gloss a little I guess!

littlehorus wrote:do remember that the quickshade is glossy so you need to apply a mat varnish after it. Quickshade is a dip, not a real wash, but is does give great effects for things like terrain.

Desubot wrote:Well to be fair with army painter or walnut colored tinted varnish, you are basically setting the battle board in a good layer of Polyurethane (or whatever material it actually is) so any gaming you do will be on something super tough

also you could hit the whole thing with a can of matt varnish to knock the gloss off.

Yeah, agreed on both counts

However, just to reiterate: If you take something big, there is little advantage to painting it medium brown washing it dark brown, and then drybrushing it light brown. You'll save yourself a bunch of time and energy simply painting it darkbrown, then drybrushing it hard with medium brown, and drybrushing it again, more lightly, with light brown.

The latter is faster because it takes a while to do a wash and have it dry, while it takes nearly no time to hit a big object with a big drybrush. When you drybrush, you'll miss the recesses, which is effectively the same thing as doing a wash (the recesses are darker) on those big objects. An airbrush or spray gun speeds things up a LOT.

You can also use pretty big and cheap brushes to drybrush terrain.

Vallejo washes would seem a good idea; 200ml in Black or sepia:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0058HZJQU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472251888&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=vallejo%2B200ml%2Bwash&th=1&psc=1

Vallejo is also freakishly thick too btw. you can thin them to give you more value for the buck.

at least the wash i got is.