Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I just made that term up to refer to one who doesn't just wash over an entire area (e.g metallic areas for a troop like maybe a black legion shoulder pad with detailing on the face of it ), but instead selectively washes only areas where its more necessary, like for e.g, just washing rivets on a metallic piece but not the whole thing. So what i have never been able to really understand fully is, if we just wash the rivets for e.g on a metallic area and we eventually come to a detailed area on the face of a shoulder pad i dont understand how i am suppose to only wash all the very small crevices that you can barley see and the large amount of recess areas with out there being a visible ( no matter how small ) finish line where the part of the shoulder pad that i havn't washed ( the flat panel around the sides ) and the start of the detailed face area begin ( where wash ended ).

So i know i could just wash over the whole metallic area like most people seem to, but i have also seen other people "selectively washing", but the problem is i ave not seen any one selectively washing the particular shoulder pads im doing so i cant understand what they would do when coming to this type of area. Like when selectively washing just rivets, that's fine because there's no straight finish line, its more of a rounded finish which works out well.

I have had an issue with this question from almost the start of my entry in to this hobby, and no matter how much i try to make sense of it i cant. I think maybe to get rid of the flat finish line i should feather or some thing but, the shoulder has so many crevices it just doesn't seem ti makes sense and seems like a time waste.

This is going to be a challenging thread mainly because i will probably have difficulty understanding what people mean with what they are saying, unless its explained in very basic terms, and just since i have this sort of "mental block" where i cant figure it out, or i dont feel i have figured it out to the point of fully understanding, and this makes me depressed and unable to do any painting at all until i solve this issue lol.

yea you defo need to paste a photo of what you are talking about

You need to post a photo with the component you're having difficulty with so people can understand, because I can't really picture what you mean from the description.

The basic premise of the technique is using a small brush to get the ink to channel directly into the recesses using capillary action.

Washes will always leave a demarcation line on flatter surfaces. The only way to avoid this is to feather over it with your base colour.

You could always use a gloss varnish. Before applying inks, although I personally don't like this technique as the ink becomes too stark and you get the opposite problem where it doesn't have enough transition. And then getting rid of the gloss finish is a pain in the arse. A satin varnish is better in my opinion, but I rarely use that technique anyway.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
You need to post a photo with the component you're having difficulty with so people can understand, because I can't really picture what you mean from the description.

The basic premise of the technique is using a small brush to get the ink to channel directly into the recesses using capillary action.

Washes will always leave a demarcation line on flatter surfaces. The only way to avoid this is to feather over it with your base colour.

You could always use a gloss varnish. Before applying inks, although I personally don't like this technique as the ink becomes too stark and you get the opposite problem where it doesn't have enough transition. And then getting rid of the gloss finish is a pain in the arse. A satin varnish is better in my opinion, but I rarely use that technique anyway.

It doesn't matter( did look for a picture literally cant find one ), as long as you know what i mean by a highly crevice d metallic area area with lots of very shallow crevicing that makes it difficult to selectively wash each one and have it sort of looking nice or sticking out, but as you say i should just feather with the base, or maybe really washing the whole thing is technically the best for a smoother transition. Also why do you say, "you could always use a gloss varnish" then full stop then say before applying inks?, do you mean wash and you are using the word ink instead?

Its a chaos space marine shoulder pad with a face looking thing on the face of it which connectets to the flat panel border that usualy goes around a space marines shoulder pad



edit Also do you think i should stop using nuln oil for washing my gold? or is it common what im doing.


edit Any way i am feeling better with what you told me about feathering base, i had thought of that but had no idea if i was right or not.

Thanks so much guys, might pose another similar question here if it comes up.

selective washing
have a look at this video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74p9eGwRAog
5:05 is where he begins to do a recess wash. it looks way different after

 STG wrote:
selective washing
have a look at this video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74p9eGwRAog
5:05 is where he begins to do a recess wash. it looks way different after

Ok will do thank you sir/

lol ive just read your post fully and thats not helpful at all.
yea if you want us to help you would need to upload a picture of the part you are struggling with so we can advise

 STG wrote:
lol ive just read your post fully and thats not helpful at all.
yea if you want us to help you would need to upload a picture of the part you are struggling with so we can advise

Its so hard to find on google images, is there a place to view all CSM shoulder pads? Ill keep looking though.

Here it is but you cant see it properly, on the top of its head there are sort of like fore head wrinkle marks that are very shallow crevices.

Second picture with red circle is different then what im talking about, but its similar as in it connects to the shoulders border.

I think I know what you mean now. So the face is almost emerging from the surface of the pad. In that case, just apply your wash to the face area, clean up while it's wet, then when it's dry tidy up using your base layer. I think you're over thinking the whole process a little and getting tied up.


Regarding your question on my last post, it was a typo, and I was using ink interchangeably with wash. I was referring to the technique of gloss varnishing before applying washes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Regarding washing gold, I'd use a brown rather than a black. You can also use purple or red for nice effects

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I think I know what you mean now. So the face is almost emerging from the surface of the pad. In that case, just apply your wash to the face area, clean up while it's wet, then when it's dry tidy up using your base layer. I think you're over thinking the whole process a little and getting tied up.


Regarding your question on my last post, it was a typo, and I was using ink interchangeably with wash. I was referring to the technique of gloss varnishing before applying washes.

And i can leave the rest of the border thats not apart of the face un washed, which will leave a finish mark which i would fix with base restore? ( since im trying to keep the orginal gold color not tinted over all the model.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Can you please tell me what would you do? wash whole thing including all the bordeR?

Yeah just clean up any wash marks using your base metal. It's hard for me to envisage now as I use a combination of metallic and non metallic colours to create my metal areas. You could of course just wash the whole shoulder pad, then clean up the flat surfaces using your base metal.

Yeah. The people i had seen doing it don't restore any thing, so maybe they are not fussed about any finish mark since its hardly noticeable so that's why they don't do it. Any way i think i get it now so thanks, but can you convince me what way would be the best ( i know it depends on the individual ), selective or all over?

Thanks heaps.

Well selectively washing areas is a more advanced technique, but it really depends, if you're happy for a tabletop standard then wash the whole thing before touching up.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Well selectively washing areas is a more advanced technique, but it really depends, if you're happy for a tabletop standard then wash the whole thing before touching up.

Yeah, hey i have another question not related to this thread, hope thats cool. So what's wrong with spray painting the base of a large model ( rhino for e.g ) with your main base color lets say black for e.g instead of hand brushing it on when people with air sprays do the exact same thing, at least this way you get less brush marks, and any mistakes would be minimal.

Cheers queen


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I would just like to take the time to personally thank you queen for your help, its been a pleasure.

There isn't a problem with that? I don't see why there would be

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
There isn't a problem with that? I don't see why there would be

God i don't know that's a great question, maybe i should have asked this before hand brushing 7 rhinos. What would you do if you didn't own a hair spray?


( i intentionally said hair )

 Stormatious wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
There isn't a problem with that? I don't see why there would be

God i don't know that's a great question, maybe i should have asked this before hand brushing 7 rhinos. What would you do if you didn't own a hair spray?


( i intentionally said hair )

I think that this isn't done for a few minor reasons, which add to up most people just not doing it.

One, that whatever you spray it with will likely not be the same color as you brush on. Which means that you can't really touch it up if you missed a spot, or need to clean up a mistake with another color, and so on. Two, even if you accept that, getting the colored primer you want is "relatively" expensive. Personally, I'd never buy GW price spray paint. Three, well, OK, maybe there are only two issues I can think of off the top of my head...

I don't think it's a bad idea, just one that likely isn't exactly perfect.

You mean getting the base i want not primer?

Thanks.

 Stormatious wrote:
You mean getting the base i want not primer?

Thanks.

Yeah, I don't know why I defaulted to saying primer there. For example, GW Chaos Black spray is not the same "color" as Abaddon Black. Vallejo now makes sprays, but I'd imagine the same is the case for their colors with respect to the actual brush on paint's color. It might not be drastically different, but it's probably slightly different.

I don't think it's a bad solution to the problem, just likely not a perfect one.

Yeah, well i cant imagine why doing it the other way how thats better. Either way you will have some brush strokes, but one gives you more then the other, and the other is very minimal if your careful.

If you're trying to crank out armour I would definitely rattle can the lot. I only paint singles really so I do the whole pre shading panel lines etc. Never painted black tanks either so...

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
If you're trying to crank out armour I would definitely rattle can the lot. I only paint singles really so I do the whole pre shading panel lines etc. Never painted black tanks either so...

How do you pre shade panel lines? or what do you mean by that exactly?

Thanks

 Stormatious wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
If you're trying to crank out armour I would definitely rattle can the lot. I only paint singles really so I do the whole pre shading panel lines etc. Never painted black tanks either so...

How do you pre shade panel lines? or what do you mean by that exactly?

Thanks

It's generally done with an airbrush. You prime the model in a light colour and then spray black / darker colour into the recesses - e.g. lines between body panels on a model aircraft. When you then airbrush the colour on top, the layer of paint is thin enough that the dark colour in the recesses shows through and acts as a shade. You'd struggle to do it without an airbrush, you need to apply very thin layers of paint for it to work.

Ohh i get it. Thanks mate.

I believe the term you are looking for is called "Pin washing" or "pen washing"

You are literally painting/drawing like with a pen a line where you want the wash to go.

On something like shoulder pads on marines people put a pin wash along the trim and the shoulder bell (flat surface part). This makes the trim pop more.

If you put to much wash on you can get a clean damp brush and use that to wick away the excess.

Also Army Painter Wash Mixing medium gives you a longer work time with the wash to prevent the quick drying coffee stain effect.

You can also do a gloss coat or pledge klear coat before the wash to help reduce the surface tension, thus making the wash flow into the crevices better.

What you're referring to 'selective washing' is actually how you should be using washes when trying to deepen the crevices.

Liberal application of washes are best suited for parts like muscle tone where the recess occurs in a gradient as opposed to hard edges like above.