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I'm a big fan of using nuln oil as a shade on my models, but I want to try and make my own various colors of shades using my much more affordable paints.
Has anyone had success making their own shades by diluting acrylic paints? I've watered down black paint and had some success using it as a shade. Right now I'm using Liquitex Basics acrylics. They're basically budget paints, but I've got a big stockpile of them. I'll probably move to their higher pigment paints once I run out of my current supply. After undercoating a sentinel with black I quickly learned how hard it is to paint over with low pigment paints. I now base coat vehicles with gray and infantry with white, then darken them with nuln oil, and I've liked the results so far. Does anyone have advice on proper mixing proportions or other solvents?
"Bringer of death, speak your name, For you are my life, and the foe's death." - Litany of the Lasgun
What you are making are called washes by everyone except GW.
It can be as easy as what you are doing, which is just adding lots of water to paint. When I make my own, I like to add a little bit of glaze medium at about a 10:1 water/glaze medium. You can also do something like this:
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I just use water to paint on a case-by-case basis. Put a little paint on the palette, add water until it's the desired consistency, apply to model to varying degrees.
TheSilo wrote: Lol, yea, they used to call them washes. But I asked about washes at my local art store and got blank stares.
So do you recommend using inks instead of paints when mixing for washes?
Depends on how much you want to make.
In Les' video, he makes a big bottle of wash and using ink because it is more economical; a little bit of ink goes a long way. When I make washes (which isn't very often because I don't really like acrylic washes, and the handful I do like I buy) I like to put a drop of paint in my pallet, add a few drops of glaze medium, and a bunch of water until I like the consistency (if you take a brush load of the wash and touch it to a paper towel and it soaks it up, it's good).
d-usa wrote: "When the Internet sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending posters that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing strawmen. They're bringing spam. They're trolls. And some, I assume, are good people."
TheSilo wrote: So do you recommend using inks instead of paints when mixing for washes?
I certainly do, for what it's worth. Not only does the intensity of the color give you more mileage, the natural translucency of inks and their generally fine pigmentation make them pretty much ideal for mixing washes and glazes. Smoother gradients, less separation in the pot, and a lower likelihood of chalky finishes, tide marks, etc. (in my experience, at least) when applied.
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lahmain medium from GW is worth a look. i was always skeptical of their selling of ancilliary stuff like that, but it does allow the creation of washes and glazes by mixing your chosen acryllics.
TheSilo wrote: Lol, yea, they used to call them washes. But I asked about washes at my local art store and got blank stares.
In general art, a 'wash' is just a lot of dilute paint 'washed' over a wide area of the painting surface. It's not something you generally buy ready-made, with specific additives.
Like Scooty, I like making up my own (miniature painting!) washes with glaze medium: specifically, Daler-Rowney matt glaze medium. It's relatively thick acrylic gel that adds a nice amount of body and transparency to very thinned paint. Mixed to taste, and with a drop of some kind of flow aid or tension breaker, it can create washes a lot like the old GW ones. Haven't tried any of the new shades, yet.
Haven't tried it with ink rather than paint, either. I'll have to rectify that situation.
Also, agreed with Queen Annes Revenge that lahmian medium is interesting stuff.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/04 11:21:56
Also, agreed with Queen Annes Revenge that lahmian medium is interesting stuff.
That's because it's the same medium they use for their own Citadel Shades. You could thin out a Citadel Shade by around 50% and end up with one of their Glazes, IIRC.
My only real complaint about the stuff is the bottle it comes in. The way that bottle is, it's good for applying to matte things down and to add paint to make a bottle of shade. I've moved one of my pots into a dropper bottle, should make it feasible to put together washes on-the-fly for one-off projects.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/04 17:57:25
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Bronzefists42 wrote: I noticed that the plastic glue label recommends wearing something akin to a hazmat suit when handling the glue. I have been using it for years and never used gloves or anything nor do I know anyone who does. ShouldI be worried for my health?
Well, there's a slight risk of gluing something together with it. Only slight, mind.
I looked this up myself with the same logic as yourself in mind -"why pay full whack for what is essentially diluted paint?" . I found a few videos on making washes on youube, and asked one poster what the best mix is, (for Citadel paints). He said 1:1:8 paint: washing up liquid: water. The washing up liquid is opional, but it helps the mix run into cracks appareantly. Someone else I asked said 1:6.
A lot of other posters agreed that the only wash worth buying premade is Devlan mud, presumably becasue making it from scratch involves mixing 3 colours.
The nice thing about using GW's Lahmian Medium to create washes is that it behaves exactly like their shades - which do have a much different behavior than the washes that I make on my own. So, if you like their shades and just want more colors its a good idea to use that.
My own painting style is moving away from their shades. I've moved toward mixing transparent colors and washes using Liquitex Airbrush Medium. It's a lot like using one of their other mediums but you can skip the "add water" step because it's already pre-thinned. You can make washes that really do just drop into the recesses and leave little color outside of them using this medium and just a touch of color.
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