Ok, slow down a bit here. Me zinks zere beez zomezing mizzingk hera.
Alright, acrylic paint over enamel - so far so good. How much soap/thinner/paint are you using? that can be the critical problem. Too much of any of the three and it’s a problem. A ball park ratio would be 75 thinner, 25 paint and a drip or two of liquid soap.
You use the wash like you would paint a fine line. On raised details, you don’t want to slap it all over the model. You can just ‘paint’ on the wash where you need it. You should let it dry a bit. use a damp Q-tip or paper towels to wipe (wash off) any excess. If you are sure the enamel is cured, you can help get off any stubborn wash using isopropyl alcohol instead of water on a rag or Q-tip. Be very careful though, if you scrub too much, you can remove enamel paint.
It’s a difficult task doing this over raised panel lines. But like anything, it takes practice. This method is is better suited to recessed lines, but is very easily adapted to raised. It can look great when done and even better than recessed lined models.
To keep the wash from looking out of place, try using neutral colors or ones that accent the base color. Black is a stand out color against white. I use a medium gray wash over white to create lowlights. Be artistic, after you are finished the wash (clean up and all) give the raised lines a drybrush with a lightened shade of the base color.
I avoid using acrylic washes. I think they dry too fast and leave a blotchy mess. If I base paint with enamels, I’ll spray a heavy acrylic clear coat on the model and then use enamel washes. For armor models, I do apply the wash over the entire model and then wipe off the excess. Work in small areas at a time. Don’t try to apply the wash over the whole model at one time. It will dry and look blotchy. Work on one panel at time.
Belcher, are you applying the wash over a gloss coat?
If not that could be part of the problem, as without this it can be difficult for the wash to flow into the nooks and crannies you want it in.
Have you thought about trying water colours?
I have used these for my washes for several years, and find that they are easy to apply, and can be washed off with water if you are unhappy with the results. They can be wiped off flat areas with a dry kitchen towel or Q-tip.
I use two tubes of artists water colour paint, one Lamp Black, the other Burnt Umber.
Any weather you apply, whether it be a wash, or dry brushing needs to be blended into the rest of the model to obtain a coherent finish. In order to achieve this, always apply a dilute coat of Tamiya Buff, misted lightly over the upper surfaces of my model, this just heps to pull all the effects together. as well as toning down decals etc.
I’m building vehicles and airplane models. I tend NOT to use Acrylics for washes. It simply doesn’t work very well in my experience.If I have to do a wash over enamel, I use watercolors.
The one part where acrylic washes work well for me is with 1/72 tank tracks.I airbrush them with an enamel color, e.g. a dark Model Master Metalizer. Then I’m applying 5-6 VERY THIN (yep, as in 1:20 thin) washes with different earth tones, starting from dark earth to a light ochre color, applying them randomly over the whole tracks and wiping em off partly also randomly. Gives a nice “random” dirty look to the tracks. This is then followed by drybrushing with the base color where the dirt is not supposed to show so much and then with lighter silver colors and graphite.
Regarding your Problem: It depends what you try to achieve… IF you want to change the overall and whole color of the model and get a (very) dirty look, then apply it liberally all over.
If you want to just make the details, like rivets etc. more visible, just apply a small bit e.g. around the rivet (detail wash).
You have to blend this in then, as was already suggested. This might be done by “dusting/buffing” with e.g. very much thinned tamiya Buff, although I don’t like this too much.
Sometimes, even the application of the flat clear laquer after the wash is enough ( you “should” apply the wash on a gloss or satin finish).
Another method would be to apply an overall filter after the wash, with a very much thinned color.
However… my experiences with acrylic washes aren’t really good, except for very easy detail washes like e.g. in the panel lines of an aircraft. Or the “tracks” example mentioned before.
Normally I use Oil colors and non-smelly gasoline.
I experimented with washes until I found a method that works for me. I never had any luck with acrylics. I believe the pigments were to coarse so I switched to oils. The only problem with using oils over enamels is the mineral spirits will “lift” the enamel. One way I found to avoid this problem was to use a pin wash. Applying the wash to certain areas such as panel recess lines, rivet heads, etc… Very time consuming. After applying the pin wash I then would drybrush to blend everything together. What I’ve recently found is that oil washes work great over a base of acrylics. A sealer coat isn’t even necessary. Very easy to do and seldom a need for a pin wash. The base stays put and if I don’t like the color of the wash, or I’ve applied it to heavily, I just use mineral spirits to remove the excess with a brush. Then drybrush to blend.
I tend to agree with the other guys. Acrylic washes are more trouble than they’re worth. It takes a lot of effort to get from this:
to this:
Protect your paint job with a few layers of Future, let it cure for at least three days, and use an oil wash instead. Much more controllable, and if you don’t like it, you can wipe it off with a cloth dampened with turps, and start over.
Water colour washes have similar advantages, but, in my experince, tend to be more fragile.
Alternatively, and especially if you’re doing detail areas such as aircraft cockpits, you can spray everything a darker shade to start with, and then use the base shade, and laighter versions therof, to lif the areas you don’t want to be in shadow, using either thin airbrushed filter layers, or dry-brushing. For the latter, acrylics (well, not Tamiya acrylics) work fine.
To make an alteration to an existing phrase: Washes are like @#$holes. Everyone’s got one. Through trial and much error, I’ve settled on a standard wash that has worked well for me in about 90% of my situations. Now as has been mentioned the key is the gloss coat on tip. Once it’s glossy enough for decals, put your decals on and gloss it again. I use a wash of about 75% mineral spirits 20% willpower and 5% oil pants. Lateley I have been mixing about 65% burnt umber and 35% black (Though this varies depending on the base color and the overall affect I want) But with only a few root colors you have an entire spectrum of options. The only finish I’ve found this mix does not work well with is testors Metalizer, The mineral spirits pulls that finish off like no other.
Easiest wash method, if the others are aggravating you, is to use PASTELS. Yep, that’s right! Make sure you’ve got a nice gloss finish on your model, acrylic or otherwise, it doesn’t matter. Next, get some chalk based pastels (not oil) and grind the colour up you need. Mix it with water, put on your model. Let it dry - which will take all of a minute - and then remove it in a similar method to most other washes, until what’s left it what you want. The nice thing about pastel washes is that you can perform the whole operation very quickly, and remove them easily without damage to the model if you make a mistake. The bad thing is that they come off easily so you will have to seal them.
Another type of wash you might try is PRO MODLER WASH. Comes in 3 colors. Black, a tannish color and an off white. Used like water colors and is water sol. If you dont like, wash off with water. Basickly just apply it all over, wait for it to dry and using something litely damb, wipe off . If you do a search on this in this forum, you can find several hits on it. I used it on my big F105 and think it worked great!..Harv. PS…One of our members developed it, I think
I’ve used Black Detail wash with zero issues. Yeah, they’re acrylic but I use it on top of enamels. I don’t think they dry too fast - at least not to me anyways. I let it dry for less than 3 - 4 minutes before wiping away gently to my liking. I wipe using an almost dry small piece of cloth. Sometimes I’ll use a Q-tip. Everyone has their own methods and yes washes are @$$holes but it takes a bit of pracice to tame it to get that look you want. Good luck.
