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I feel like a newb for having to ask this after a year of painting, but any tips for applying wash to large, flat metallic surfaces? I was washing the claws on my defiler just now and they frankly look like crap. badabb black over VMA steel paint and now I've got a splotchy, uneven finish. the wash beads up on the flat areas and trying to smooth it out/move it leaves brush strokes. I tried using secretweaponmini's soft body black wash on the other claw and got similar results. I feel like I'm forgetting something fundamental about applying washes

might look better once it's dry, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to repaint everything I just washed...

 varl wrote:
I feel like I'm forgetting something fundamental about applying washes

Yes, you are. Don't apply them to large flat areas.

Thinned out wash mixed with matte medium shot through the airbrush works excellent to shade large metallic areas since it won't show tide marks. After you get the basic shading done, go back with an oil wash or a pin wash for extra shading around rivets, panel lines, etc.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Thinned out wash mixed with matte medium shot through the airbrush works excellent to shade large metallic areas since it won't show tide marks. After you get the basic shading done, go back with an oil wash or a pin wash for extra shading around rivets, panel lines, etc.

genius. this worked out great to take down the shine a wee bit. what ratios do you use for this mix? I ended up using about 8 drops of vallejo thinner to 2 drops of matte medium and a couple brush-fulls of badab black, but that was a total shot in the dark.

You can even use the GW spray gun with thinned washes. Works like a charm.

Gravity will pull the ink down, so beware when you're spraying tanks - the ink will go down on the side.

 Seb wrote:
You can even use the GW spray gun with thinned washes. Works like a charm.

Gravity will pull the ink down, so beware when you're spraying tanks - the ink will go down on the side.

Well, no one should use the GW spray gun for anything because a real airbrush works so much better. But the point of using the matte medium in the ink is to give it more "grab" so it doesn't run all over the place and pool in places where it is unwanted. At this point, you aren't using the wash in a traditional sense, but more of a glaze to tint the underlying paint..

genius. this worked out great to take down the shine a wee bit. what ratios do you use for this mix? I ended up using about 8 drops of vallejo thinner to 2 drops of matte medium and a couple brush-fulls of badab black, but that was a total shot in the dark.

Yeah, a 4:1 mix is pretty good. You could even go thinner (like 6:1 or 8:1) depending on how much of a tint you are after.