I’ve mostly completed an old AMT star destroyer kit and I’m trying to figure out the best way to highlight the raised detail. I’ve got three wash products that I’m considering using: Citadel “nulin oil,” Vallejo black wash, and Vallejo pale grey wash.
I primed the star destroyer with flat white and tested the Citadel wash on a few areas. It actually did a good job highlighting the detail when I applied it almost like I was dry brushing. However, it also darked the area around the details very slightly.
I haven’t tried the Vallejo ones yet, but I’ve read that they are more like traditional washes that one applies and then removes the excess with a damp cloth.
Nice build on an old model. As for washes, I don’t think that I would use a black wash. It may be to much contrast. If you mix the black and pale grey to get a dark grey wash that may be better. Also a light dry brushing of the raised detail with a light grey almost white color would really pick out the detail. I am not sure what nulin oil color is, but if it is a brownish color that may be better. Looking forward to how it comes out.
Good advice there from Stephen. And as I remember didn’t the kit have some sort of cross-hatching detail instead of panels? Not even sure how you’d do that. You might try some pre-shading around the details maybe?
I’m having good luck with the Vallejo grey wash. I’m using it more like a stain, deliberately applying it to the flat gull grey finish. I’m still wiping off the excess, but there’s enough left for some subtle contrast.
As for the raised cross-hatching: I don’t think I’m going to cover the whole model. Instead, I’ll wash the vertical detail and leave the horizontal detail alone. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll post photos soon.
I’m pretty happy with the results so far. As I said above, I’m using the Vallejo light grey wash over flat paint. It’s putting a nice, but subtle contrast on the raised detail that looks like a shadow, but isn’t too much of a contrast.
This is difficult to photograph, but here’s two shots (I’m sorry that I can’t figure out how to insert inline photos from Google photos):
