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Hey there!

is it possible to apply washes with an airbrush?
I think it would be a lot smoother on larger models.

Yes and no.
A single thin coat will just alter the colour evenly. This is generally known as a filter.
Multiple filters will just darken the model even further.
A thick coat will result in shading but you run the risk of runs, drips, pooling etc so that one is out.
Applying the shading in the shadowy areas with multiple thin layers is a reasonable bet.
One more option is to apply a filter and then buff it off the raised areas before it has fully dried. This will look better after a few applications.

I love my airbrush and use it as much as I can. I've tried multiple different methods of wash through airbrush and have yet to find a method that I'm happy with. Save the headache and brush it on.

im mostly concerned with washing large areas.
my current paint scheme requires the whole model to be washed without repainting the areas afterwards.
(so basicly a "filter" right?)

If your intent is to equally change the color of the entire surface, it's a filter. If your intent is to darken the recesses only, it's a wash.

Filters are usually subtle and multiple colors are often used. Airbrushes are made for applying filters and more and more companies are making clear coats (aka ghost tints or candies) for exactly this purpose. You can also use regular paints in very thin coats. Washes are usually brushed in to the recesses only to create shading. They are typically a single dark color that creates a dramatic change in one or two coats.

These are just very broad guidelines. The best thing for you to do is to spend a few hours experimenting on a test model. The choice of paint, consistency, flow, air pressure, and distance from model will all change final effect. See what works for you.

You definitely can, some of the pitfalls have been pointed out.

It's not as easy as you first might think, as it can be very difficult to control pooling with an airbrush, and the airflow will want to blow the wash away from the surface and it will tend to accumulate on the other side of the surface you are spraying.

The plus side is you don't get brush visible brush streaks, but you more likely to end up with runs or tide marks.

I found the trick was to try and apply it quickly and keep the model wet (that doesn't mean apply too much, simply that you shouldn't dawdle, get the coat down quickly, the more careful you try and be the more likely you'll have problems).

To prove it can be done, the "skin" on these guys was white undercoat painted rakarth flesh then airbrushed with army painter strong tone wash (very similar to the old devlan mud), the "flesh" areas were then picked out with a regular hairy brush using a brown ink....



If you want to stain the surface more than you want the paint to go in to the crevices, consider applying a satin or matte varnish first. If you want it to find its way in to crevices, a gloss is usually better.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
You definitely can, some of the pitfalls have been pointed out.

It's not as easy as you first might think, as it can be very difficult to control pooling with an airbrush, and the airflow will want to blow the wash away from the surface and it will tend to accumulate on the other side of the surface you are spraying.

The plus side is you don't get brush visible brush streaks, but you more likely to end up with runs or tide marks.

I found the trick was to try and apply it quickly and keep the model wet (that doesn't mean apply too much, simply that you shouldn't dawdle, get the coat down quickly, the more careful you try and be the more likely you'll have problems).

To prove it can be done, the "skin" on these guys was white undercoat painted rakarth flesh then airbrushed with army painter strong tone wash (very similar to the old devlan mud), the "flesh" areas were then picked out with a regular hairy brush using a brown ink....



If you want to stain the surface more than you want the paint to go in to the crevices, consider applying a satin or matte varnish first. If you want it to find its way in to crevices, a gloss is usually better.

Hey not to hijack this thread, as I really haven't found a good way to Airbrush "wash" myself... but your Nids have the exact scheme I am looking for, can you share the colors?

Oh actually on topic: I don't "wash" with the AB, but what I have been doing to make my life easier is... paint the model with the Airbrush, then Gloss the heck out of it with the Airbrush, then I can use regular GW washes (hand painting) much more easily on large surfaces without worrying about the wash blending onto the flat area, just pushing it into the crevasses -- then again with the Airbrush I Matte Varnish.

Instead of wash maybe try minitaire ghost tint? It does try glossy however, so you will either need to use flattener with it or a flat varnish to bring the sheen down.

You can effectively make your own "ghost tint" or "clear" or whatever by mixing a very small amount of paint in with a couple of drops of varnish and then thinning it out to airbrush it. I sometimes shade models by mixing a tiny amount of black with a tiny amount of brown, mixing it with a few drops of varnish and then a few drops of airbrush thinner and flow improver.

You only need a very small amount of paint, it might be enough to dip a brush in your paint pot, wipe off the excess then stir it in. You're basically just trying to discolour the varnish/thinner mix.

With lacquers sometimes I forego the varnish and just mix a bees dick of paint in to several drops of lacquer thinner, again basically just trying to discolour the thinner, maybe around 5% paint and the rest is thinner and spray it very lightly from a decent distance away from the model. It works without varnish when using lacquers because lacquer thinner dries very quickly, so it's easier to avoid pooling. With acrylics or enamels you need the varnish to thicken up the mix a bit, if you just use thinners you'll end up with a puddle on your model.

If you use lacquers and no varnish, it does give a slightly different look to using acrylics with varnish, as the varnish has some body to it which gives the paint some depth, it's a subtle difference.

 Gunzhard wrote:
Hey not to hijack this thread, as I really haven't found a good way to Airbrush "wash" myself... but your Nids have the exact scheme I am looking for, can you share the colors?

Well the skin I mentioned in my previous post, white primer, thin coat of Rakarth Flesh (almost wash-like), then an Army Painter Strong Tone wash (used to use Devlan Mud). The darker fleshy areas are using GW's old "Brown Ink", you could possibly substitute a burnt umber artists ink, I intend to do that when I run out of GW ink. The armour plates are just very dark blue (I usually just mix a dab of blue in to black paint) for the base coat, then feather with long streaks using GW enchanted blue and then a light blue highlight. The claws are red, an almost-black basecoat (bit of red mixed in to black), highlighted in streaks with Mephiston Red then Blood Red then if I can be bothered a final edge highlight of blood red mixed with a fleshy tone (something like Dwarf Flesh).

I do the skin on the big bugs slightly differently just to give them a bit more depth. Instead of a thin Rakarth Flesh over white primer, I go for opaque rakarth flesh, that makes the strong tone wash a bit darker and allows me to go back over with rakarth flesh to highlight areas for more contrast. It adds considerable time to do that though, so only the big bugs get that treatment.