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I’ve started painting up a bunch of Leman Russ’s, and realised I’ve gone for a much lighter grey than all of my accompanying infantry, which are all heavily washed. I’d like to try darken the tanks down somewhat (I’ve already highlighted them), and read somewhere about filters, which seems like a potential solution.

I was wondering if for this purpose (darkening down the overall colour of large, flat surfaces) that this would be a workable idea? I’d be doing this by brush, and am a bit hesitant about applying what’s basically a thinned wash over said flat surfaces, as I know that’s a bad idea with washes usually?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I would hesitate before going washing your tanks with a brush. If you really wanted to tint them with a brush I'd pick up a few oils and a soft brush and do what scale modellers do to add surface variation by using yellows, greens and greys to change the tone of the panels.

Then use washes in the panel lines and rivets to give them a more weathered look.

Hope that helps.

I've used filters to change the tone of a model before, but I honestly wouldn't even consider using one without an airbrush.

Oils all the way, but bear in mind they wont really darken the actual colour scheme that much if you apply them properly. have you considered just leaving it? I mean you can still definitely apply the oil filter, but most military vehicles are different shades or tones than that of their accompanying service mens uniforms.

Cheers for the feedback! Sounds like I might as well leave it then, since I can live with the difference. Might have a look into oils then!

Burnt umber and raw sienna are good starting points for oil washes, and then you can go onto more advanced stuff and end up using all sorts of crazy colours for effects.