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I tried oil washing today with oil paint and white spirits after i sprayed on a clear coat, when i was cleaning up the wash with white sprits the paint chipped off on 2 of the 10 models..

is this normal? how to avoid it?

No experience on miniatures, but on canvas it's recommended that you allow the acrylic paint to dry a couple of days before using oil etc. on top, so that the acrylic reaches full hardness.

Did you use a lot of white spirit, or just a barely moist q-tip?

You must use a decent acrylic gloss. An enamel gloss can get eaten by mineral spirits, the acrylic resists better.

You must let the gloss cure properly. I suggest 24 hours if using Future / Klear floor polish (strongly recommended).

The surface needs to be quite shiny. If it's not, you probably need another coat or 2 of gloss.

You should use a relatively gentle thinner - white spirit is rather harsh - I like Daler-Rowney Low Odour Thinner. Works a treat.

You should not rub hard when cleaning up. Be very gentle.

Practice and awareness of your working tools / materials is key.

thanks, yeah i didnt wait long enough after the varnish, i used vallejo satin varnish.

i used quite alot of spirits on the qtip

im kinda gutted cause i put alot of work into the miniatures and its the airbrushed part that rubbed off.

so whats the deal with that floor polish? does it work just like a varnish? can i spray it through airbrush?

how glossy is it? if i go over it with matte will it dull it?

The stuff I have is years old, and they do change the formulation.

Google 'Swanny's Guide to the complete future' for full information.

But in short, yes, you can airbrush it, mix it with all sorts of stuff, it's quite shiny, cleans up with a little ammonia solution or windex. Superb stuff to have hanging around.

And yes, once you matt it down it's fine.
If you look through my previous topics for the WIP of the titan, the gloss for oils and decals on that was Klear.

When I do an oil wash i ALWAYS use testers gloss coat first.I let it dry for about 8 hours (which might be overkill but it works) Its just that hard of a shell and have never had a problem with it getting eaten away.

I use odorless mineral spirits for thinning the oils.

In fact here is a piece i did the other day just as I described with a heavy wash in a burnt umber.

 darefsky wrote:
When I do an oil wash i ALWAYS use testers gloss coat first.I let it dry for about 8 hours (which might be overkill but it works) Its just that hard of a shell and have never had a problem with it getting eaten away.

I use odorless mineral spirits for thinning the oils.

In fact here is a piece i did the other day just as I described with a heavy wash in a burnt umber.

Hey Dare,

Wow thats all just a wash? at first I thought you had done the salt weathering technique to reveal the umber colour underneath. Could you step us through the wash? As i'm almost finished a model and want to try an oil wash for the first time, but its also the first airbrushed model where I actaully think i've done a good job and am worried about ruining that

So gloss coats - to give it the slick surface
thinned oil - black? or Umber? - Awesomepaintjob on youtube uses a black and he's where i've been basing my techniques, but i've seen most other people use browns.
Apply wash with brush - how thin/covering do you aim for?
Wait - Awesomepaintjob says he waits till the wash is drying but not completely dry, still tacky is the term he uses
dipped/minimal mineral spirit on Qtip - then this to wipe away excess?

I also have An acrylic black wash, is this useable? I know you can use a watercolour wash instead of oil, i assume acrylic is also an option? simply doesn't need the spirits to clean it up at the end? replace with water?

No, don't use acrylic, as it contains a resin that cures it onto the surface. Oils are simply a suspension of pigment - you can lift the pigment by using a mineral spirit -and this is exactly what you're doing in the cleanup stage of an oil wash.

Generally, you're not covering the surface, you're simply applying it into the recess and capillary action does the rest.

Just get stuck in, it's the only way to learn. :-)

Solar Shock wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
When I do an oil wash i ALWAYS use testers gloss coat first.I let it dry for about 8 hours (which might be overkill but it works) Its just that hard of a shell and have never had a problem with it getting eaten away.

I use odorless mineral spirits for thinning the oils.

In fact here is a piece i did the other day just as I described with a heavy wash in a burnt umber.

Hey Dare,

Wow thats all just a wash? at first I thought you had done the salt weathering technique to reveal the umber colour underneath. Could you step us through the wash? As i'm almost finished a model and want to try an oil wash for the first time, but its also the first airbrushed model where I actaully think i've done a good job and am worried about ruining that

So gloss coats - to give it the slick surface
thinned oil - black? or Umber? - Awesomepaintjob on youtube uses a black and he's where i've been basing my techniques, but i've seen most other people use browns.
Apply wash with brush - how thin/covering do you aim for?
Wait - Awesomepaintjob says he waits till the wash is drying but not completely dry, still tacky is the term he uses
dipped/minimal mineral spirit on Qtip - then this to wipe away excess?

I also have An acrylic black wash, is this useable? I know you can use a watercolour wash instead of oil, i assume acrylic is also an option? simply doesn't need the spirits to clean it up at the end? replace with water?

It's a combination of the hairspray technique, then gloss coat and oil wash. If you click the link to my blog in my signature you can see it step by step so far.

As to your questions:

So gloss coats - to give it the slick surface - Yes it gives it a slick surface which is fantastic as the washes tend not to pool on your larger flat surfaces. It also protects the paint job underneath.

thinned oil - black? or Umber? - Awesomepaintjob on youtube uses a black and he's where i've been basing my techniques, but i've seen most other people use browns. I use what I feel looks best with the paint scheme and what I am going for. So rust gets an orange/brown, dirty grime/ exhaust gets black. I even have a yellow oil i've been trying to figure out how to use on a model.

Apply wash with brush - how thin/covering do you aim for? Go for thin in most cases. if you need build up you can always add powders to it later, and I recommend adding powders for more depth and subtle changes in color after the wash anyway.

Wait - Awesomepaintjob says he waits till the wash is drying but not completely dry, still tacky is the term he uses
dipped/minimal mineral spirit on Qtip - then this to wipe away excess? - Yep thats the way to clean up your mistakes. If you try to clean it up while still wet it will smear over everything.


Les over at Awesome Paint job is the man. I love his video's.

Wynterdyne is one of the top painters in the UK so his advise is always worth listening to.

winterdyne wrote:No, don't use acrylic, as it contains a resin that cures it onto the surface. Oils are simply a suspension of pigment - you can lift the pigment by using a mineral spirit -and this is exactly what you're doing in the cleanup stage of an oil wash.

Generally, you're not covering the surface, you're simply applying it into the recess and capillary action does the rest.

Just get stuck in, it's the only way to learn. :-)

Awesome advice you literally explained it to a technical level which is far better than a yay or nay But ok, as currently I was using an acrylic wash believing it was an oil wash, and then i was using a spirit (well my airbrush cleaner - which I now think might be a little too harsh), the results weren't bad, but not as nice as what i was aiming to achieve with the oil videos.

darefsky wrote:

Les over at Awesome Paint job is the man. I love his video's.

Wynterdyne is one of the top painters in the UK so his advise is always worth listening to.

Oh sweet! Yeh looking really nice, il have to go take a pic at its progress
I really enjoyed the hair spray technique, currently working on an interesting technique that you might have already tried.

So I attempted a double hairspray, First i used a rust colour, I then used the H&S with a silver over the top, to get a silver with rust effect. I then repeated but with my 'paint' colour, to get a 3 layer build up. However, imo the silver didn't work as great as i'd have liked, so im now looking at trying this;

- Silver base, using pigments to build up the rust. As I play orks, i like to use the pigments quite thick to get a nice real rust look. I tend not to apply any fixer, as it seems to make the powder lose its 3D quality, i simply use a varnish at the end to seal and hold.
- I then want to try using the H&S technique over the top of that, have you tried using it over pigments that have been sealed on? im a little worried that due to the pigments giving it a rougher texture that when scrubbing il remove the pigments too easily. Im also concerned that the pigments are going on a little early and are ending up 'flattened' under all the other layers.

any thoughts?
I likes to experiment But atm loving pigments more than anything, especially when you can order like a £2 pack of soft pastels and crush em, gona test out possibly doing as much of a model as possible with pigments for colours and blending etc. -- I used to absolutely love pastels at school

Pigments are generally the last step I use before sealing the model up. Keep in mind that varnish will tone down the color of the pigments.