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I've been reading here and watching videos, and have some questions about washes and glazes. I knew about washing as a technique from my teenage years (we're not going to talk about how many years decades ago that was), but pre-prepared washes weren't a thing then. Is there a difference between buying a wash and simply thinning down my paint with some water?

Also, what's the difference between a glaze and a wash? I thought at first that a glaze was thinned down with something like a transparent paint rather than plain water so that it behaved more like a transparent paint, intended to coat a surface rather than pool in the recesses, but then I saw other you-tube folks thinning down regular paint and talking about using it as a glaze (whereas my limited experience tells me if you thin down paint enough it turns into a wash).

Also -- ink vs paint wash. Any tips on when to use which? I picked up a bottle of black ink, just because. (do you *really* need a reason to buy something at the gaming store?)

I'm embarking on a grand journey to Orkdom, and to give you an idea of my experience level, I have painted one whole ork so far. In my youth I did some painting and got as far as basic "base-color, wash, drybrush" in my technique, but it's been a very long time. On the equipment front, I got this airbrush for christmas, have an assortment of cheap acrylic paints from walmart as well as a smaller sampling of vallejo game-colors, some vallejo primer (and air-brush thinner to go with it) and a single bottle of vallejo air paint (the boy wants orange space marines, and spraying that base coat seemed like the way to go. I'm thinking for my orks I'll be spraying the primer and brushing the rest on the infantry, though i suspect the airbrush will see more use on the vehicles).

I'm interested to see what other people, say, but I'l chime in with my understanding. Keep in mind that plenty of painters, and even some manufacturers, use these terms very casually.

Basically, the difference comes down to the amount of pigment, and the nature of the medium (the stuff the pigment is suspended in). Paint, especially Citadel paint, has a lot of pigment, and a thick, high viscosity medium. (this is why you're told to thin your paints, as they work best cut down a bit, while still having enough coverage). Inks have a thinner, lower viscosity medium, but the most pigment. Washes have less pigment and very low viscosity medium, which allows it to flow quickly into recesses. Glazes are the opposite, with high viscosity medium which causes the low pigment product to stay flat on surfaces.

In practice, washes are perfect for adding shade or depth. If you apply a wash, it will always accumulate in the points of depth anyway. However, washes do poorly over large flat surfaces.

Glazes are normally used to add layers of color. You can use them on their own for layering, or to "tie in" basic layering. Basically, when you put, say, a blue glaze over a surface, it makes everything subtly more blue.

Inks like glazes, only not subtle. Generally they are the basis for other applications (most washes start with ink), but they can be used raw to add very rich color.

So, prepared washes include a flow release, which compred to thinned paints, cause the wash to really flow into cracks. Of course, you can make your own washes from Ink, matte medium, flow release, and water.

TO add to polonius.

Washing is a Technique, they just advertise products as washes. I dont think just watering down a base paint will give you the same results. You need to use Mixing Mediu/Lahamia Medium for GW. Otherwise you will get the tinting or coffee stained look on your washes.

You can make washes with the medium or pledge floor care "magic wash" with 4 parts water to 1 part pledge then take that with 50/50 mix of paint.

I like inks, they are rich in color, and can be shot through an airbrush for cool lighting effects on Zenithal primed models. They can dry glossy so get some matt medium.

As far as airbrush goes...welcome to the club.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you get some Vallejo Flow Improver. I airbrushed without it for about a year, finally gave in and spent the money for a bottle, holy cow, so much frustration gone. It is so worth it.

Flow improver is not the same as thinner. Thinner is like windex or alcohol and accelerates the drying (this made lead to the tip of your airbrush getting clogs.) Make sure you brush the tip frequently to keep it clean.

Flow improver actually slows the drying time. Makes the paint stay wet longer, flow better. I use 2 drops flow improver per 10 drops paint roughly. You can always add more. ALso add a bit of water as well.

With the cheap applebarrel walmart acrylics that crap is THICK. You need to use flow improver and water.

Vallajo primer can clog as well. Make sure you dilute it a bit as well. Clean it right after, the primer is extra gunky.

For the orange, you might be able to go get an orange ink and spray that over a zenthal primed marine for some cool shading effects. Then come in and brush work your trim and gun and eyes and your pretty much done.

Inks are liquid pigment, literally like that in a pen or marker that can be thinned further with water. Inks dry very glossy, settle a little bit in the recesses but they also stain the raised surface a lot. You can buy these at most art stores for calligraphy etc and work just fine for miniature painting, just make sure you get a decent quality India Ink.

Washes are ESSENTIALLY just very thin paint, you can mix your own out of paint or ink or a mix but most out-of-the-pot washes like you'd get from GW/Army Painter/Vallejo are specially formulated to be washes and often have some additives or flow improvers built in to them. They can be further thinned down with water (not great) or acrylic medium (like Lamian medium, matte medium, Future Floor Finish etc). Acrylic medium is MUCH better than water for thinning washes. Most modern washes and will dry with a matte finish, but it depends on the particular color and brand. Washes will stain the raised areas slightly but mostly settle into the recesses of a miniature. A Pin Wash is a technique, not a product, it is a very targeted wash only applied to the very recesses.

Glazes are also more of a technique than a product (although some paint companies still make designated glazes). It's also more for advanced painters trying to achieve a very specific look or to minutely adjust an already painted area of color. You can make a glaze out of a wash or a paint with a lot of thinner, and there's 2 common uses. First is a thin-but-even coat over a finished area to either tint the color slightly (this type of glaze is also called a Filter in traditional modelmaking) or to tie your highlights and shadows together. This is the most common type of glaze, very usedful if you over-highlight a model and want to tone it down a bit or to help smooth out your transitions between painted layers. The second way is to paint a thin, targeted layer exactly where you want it, let it dry and paint another thin targeted layer, let it dry and continue to do so over many multiple layers, slowly building up a solid shadow with many many many transparent layers of the same color. Time consuming, but it gives you VERY smooth blends to your shadows. For either of those ways you don't want to flood the area like you do with a wash, you paint a layer of it like you would a layer of paint and let it dry completely, then apply another layer of glaze until you get the desired result

And that's just acrylic washes and inks, there's also oil washes, enamel washes, pigment washes, clay washes. All do similar things, but the application is different. Most can all be used to achieve a similar final effect, but some are easier to get there than others. All depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go

If I'm diluting paint to make my washes, am I better off using water or airbrush thinner? Is there something else I should pick up instead for that purpose? (those are just what I have on hand for immediate use, and I've got a couple of grots whose primer is drying that I'd like to try some washes on tomorrow)

<edit for clarification>I'm speaking of brushing on the washes, not using an airbrush -- just wondering if airbrush thinner would make a better solvent for thinning brushed paint than pure (distilled) water</edit>

IIRC Inks are definite a type of liquid pigment
washes are liquid pigment that is thinner with a ting of flow improver that helps it pool (i recall a diy wash that is just ink a flow improver and acrylic medium)

Glazing is using normal paint, thinning it down and controlling the pigment it self using your brush stroke to push and pull it into the places you want.

washes will tint your surfaces but generally pool into the recesses better.

Inks can be used to fully tint your surfaces and wont pool as much. (great fun on plasma coils by going over your power color over white)

Coh Magnussen wrote:
If I'm diluting paint to make my washes, am I better off using water or airbrush thinner? Is there something else I should pick up instead for that purpose? (those are just what I have on hand for immediate use, and I've got a couple of grots whose primer is drying that I'd like to try some washes on tomorrow)

<edit for clarification>I'm speaking of brushing on the washes, not using an airbrush -- just wondering if airbrush thinner would make a better solvent for thinning brushed paint than pure (distilled) water</edit>

Regardless of if you are using an airbrush or hand paintbrush I would not just use water to make washes. You CAN dilute the wash a little bit with water, but you will get some staining and it will not flow as easily. THe best thing to do if you want to make washes for cheap is Future Floor Kleaner aka Pledge floor cleaner aka Magic Wash. You can buy a bottle for like $6. I take 1 part pledge to 4 parts water and make a mixture and keep it seperate. Then I take that and apply it to my paint or wash to thin until I am satisfied. I do a 50/50 mix of my magic wash mix and Sepia Vallajo wash for my nids. It helps the wash go father and does a slight tinting as well as recess shading (as washes are intended) for my mini. I just lather it on on and it tints the whole figure (which is bone primer) and flesh tones.

Note on the Pledge if you use pure pledge and paint (without water) I have gotten some yellow staining effects on lighter colors like whites, tans, khakis, bones, light yellow etc, so that is why i diluted it.

If you want the wash more pure wash use less cleaner.

You can also use "mediums" like Citadel Lamian medium or Vallajo matte medium, Army painter medium etc... Though it will cost more.

What colors are you painting? WHat washes are you making that they dont have made?

Glazing is a technique more than a product. It's using thin layers of thin paint with very little pigment to gradually build up and blend in a colour. Products sold as glazes can often feel a bit like washes, and indeed you can use washes to do glazes (though washes are typically dark colours, glazes can be either light or dark). But if you buy a glaze medium (I have Vallejo's) they often have a bit of drying retarder in them so that you get more working time to blend out the layers while glazing rather than just slopping them on like you would a wash.

If you're mixing your own washes a spot of glaze medium (in addition to flow improver and whatever diluent you choose) can be good for making the wash more manageable.

Admittedly I don't really use glazes much (though I use my glaze medium quite often), I tend not to paint "display case" figures so for me glazing is a time consuming technique that doesn't offer me much benefit. If I do want to blend colours I tend to use oils rather than glazes with acrylics.

Inks can be used to fully tint your surfaces and wont pool as much. (great fun on plasma coils by going over your power color over white)

I'd say in general inks pool just as much as washes, it's just they have a much higher colour density so both the crevices and the raised surfaces get tinted more. Though it does depend on the specific ink you buy, these days I mostly use P3 and Vallejo inks and they do behave a bit differently.

Inks can be a great way of speed painting because they give a lot of colour depth in a single coat. The skin on this dude is just a brown ink straight over a light grey primer, I just highlighted the face/tail/hands to add some contrast, but was really quick to do and gives adequate results for a table top quality model.



Likewise the green skin and brown shirt on this dude are both done with inks over a light grey primer (admittedly I don't think they turned out quite so good, but still not terrible given it's just 1 layer of ink over primer) and the pants were done with a Sepia ink thinned down with water and flow improver (for future models I just swapped to a Sepia Wash from Vallejo because it's less hassle and easier to avoid tide marks).



On this guy the flesh was done with a brown wash (Devlan Mud I think) while the brains were done with a brown ink,

Thanks, guys. There's not a particular color that i'm trying to create that's not available as a wash so much as just I don't happen to have the ready-made washes on hand. I'm planning to hit the store sometime soon to pick some up though and give them a whirl.

I can only speak to GW'S products as, whilst I've been loving my Vallejo paints, I've only tried GW washes and glazes. Recently got back into the hobby and been trying to up my game.

Washes are what they always were. A good way to add shadow in the recesses and darken down a too shiny base coat. I tend to use them as an alternative to drybrushing over more awkward areas, or just when I can't be bothered. Also find them useful at adding a dull layer over paint that's too shiny and bright. I like my models to look battleworn usually. A bit of Agrax Earthshade on a models boots goes a long way to making it look like they've been slogging through the mud for a while.

Glazes were new to me, but after hearing good things about them, tried out a few. First was Waywatcher Green on my Orks' skin. It tied together the various greens I'd drybrushed onto their skins and made all the models I'd painted over the weeks, with their non-recipe mixed shades, look like they worked together a lot better than I'd hoped. That's a technique that hasn't worked quite as well with the red Bloodletter glaze on my Blood Angels.

I have found a great use for them though: Power Weapons! (and eyes too, anything glowing basically) I like doing a layer of a light colour - used a mixed sky blue/turquoise for my Exodites with the green glaze, orange with the red glaze over it for my Harlequins and white base with a few layers of Guilliman Blue for my BA lightning claws. The glaze over the top leaves the base colour as a highlight, and the two extremes blend really well together.

I've tried GW glazes on gems and glowing eyes to varying degrees of success, but for something really shiny I prefer a chrome silver or gold with a Tamiya clear colour over the top. The Tamiya paints are much tighter, more of a gel texture that sits where you put it and flows very little, meaning you don't need to go over the mounting for the gems and the metallic base gives them a nice shine.