I tried using a wash for the first time on an armor model all it has done is wrinkled the paint. I used a very thin enamil paint, model master. What have I done wrong? Any help would be great.
Did you protect your model with a coat of Future or any other clear coat prior to make the wash?
It is very forgiven when protected with Future cause you can always go back and remove the wash only.
I have had a bad experience with washing panel lines over the past few days. I’m currently building a Revell 1/72 Me-262, I painted it with Tamiya acrylics then coated that with Glosscote, thinking that i could put an acrylic wash over the top of it. However, using Isopropyl alcohol as the thinner, it ate straight through the Glosscote and started to affect the paint underneath.Then I tried a wash with Windex as the thinner, and it was quite difficult to remove it from the Glosscote. So, back to the drawing board for me.
When using Tamiya paint you can use a enamel wash without a clear coat. Flow thinner into the panel line then flow very thinned enamel into the line. Thinner wont harm Tamiya paint. Just dont use lacquer thinner it thins Tamiya very well and will remove it.
The general rule is to protect your paint job with a gloss coat that is a different type then the wah that you are going to use.
So:
acrylic wash over oil gloss
or
oils wash over acrylic gloss (my personal favorite, oil wash over a Future coat)
In the case of an enamel wash, you need a protective layer between the paint and the wash that is chemically different. I’m assuming you used enamels to paint your model, so you’d need a gloss coat such as future to protect the paint from the corrosive effects of the enamel wash.
I prefer using acrylics for all my painting, and then use turpenoid and oil paints for my washes as the wash won’t affect my paint in any way.
If I were to try to use acrylics for my wash, I’d need to put say an enamel gloss coat on first, so as not to craze or damage the acrylic paint.
The only axiom I learned frommy wasted days in insurance was KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
First. Let the base coat dry. Wait a couple days and work on something else. Life isn’t so short you have to rush things.
Second. Forget the sludge wash method. It’s a great way to have make you buy more models and paints as you ruin the finish and decals. I know there are people here who swear by it and have success. Doesn’t mean it’s the only or even the best method; it’s just their preferred method.
Third. Never scrub a wash on a model. Take a fine pointed brush and apply the wash at panel line intersections and at the base of raised detail, let it flow.
These three simple rules will allow you to place enamel or oil washes directly on enamel without problems. I’m not a big fan of acrylics as a wash due to surface tension. Again, KISS. if you have to have a doctoarte in alchemy and chant arcane chants to use a product successfully, it’s too complicated and there’s probably a simpler, more efficient way of doing it. If you’ve decalled your model, you already have a gloss coat, but that is not absolutely necessary to achive a successful wash effect…
A few folks have mentioned that you need a chemically different gloss coat between your base layer and your wash layer, but it seems like everyone is specific about this being a coat of Future.
When applying an enamel wash to a model with an enamel base layer, will any acrylic gloss coat do, or just Future?
Future is nothing more than just clear acrylic, which by it’s very nature is glossy.
Any gloss coat wil indeed do. It’s just that Future is very popular because it’s cheap, has good properties (very shiny and tough) and easy to use.
It seems that I forgot one important step, the clear coat. Any ideas on how if possible to salvage the model?
By now the paint is quite fully cured.
Your options are:
A Strip it and start he painting process over.
B. Prime and repaint over the existing paint and hope you don’t have too big a buildup uf paint.
C. Start over with a new model and chalk this one up to experience.
Re-read my post above.