mostly every time i try to do a wash i end up with water spot patterns, ie most of the paint ends up on the edges of where the wash was applied instead of in the cracks and such. i usually just put the stuff liberally on the whole surface that’s getting the wash, rather than poking at the seem lines and corners (1/72 scale models, seems to be the best approach). i’ve tried acrylic and thinner (so far the best), acrylic and water (the worst), oil and turpanoid (pretty crappy) and oil and mineral spirits (decent). i’m applying the stuff over either future or lacquer gloss coats. what am i doing wrong here? i’ve been trying to avoid enamels but if i’m using mineral spirits i guess i might as well give those a shot. any suggestions?
I know where you are coming from as I struggle with the same problem. I would suggest adopting the sludge technique (others will explain this much better than I there was a tempura wash article in an FSM this year) and wipe off the excess with a cotton bud or similar. I wouldn’t expect a difficulty even in this scale with applying locally around the panel lines and you are already more than halfway there by attempting this over a gloss coat.
I too have had problems with washes. On my most recent build (a 1/48th scale fighter), I initially tried the sludge wash but it ended up staining the surrounding surface, even though I had applied future and let it cured. I think my mistake was not adding enough soap/detergent to the mixture, so you might have had the same problem if you only mixed water and acrylic paint. I ended up using a wash of mineral spirits and burnt umber oil paints, and it worked great. However, I still try to add it to the corners or directly to the panel lines and not apply it liberally.
Hope this helps!
Mark
All I ever use is artist’s acrylics and water so I can’t speak for the other methods. I am pretty careful about getting the mixture in the vicinity of the panel lines I’m washing . Building 1/32 aircraft I’d spend more time getting it off than anything else if I didn’t.
When I had a similar problem with acrylic and water I found that adding a couple of drops of vinegar or Liquitex Flow Aid to the mixture helped a lot (thanks to Swanny and Domi for those ideas). Also note that I don’t use normal model-type acrylics but artist’s acrylics. I’ve used modeling acrylics before and they worked OK but the artist’s acrylics seem to work better. I personally use Golden brand acrylics, but the others should work well to.
Here’s a link to my method:
http://www.craigcentral.com/models/wash.asp
and here’s a link to Swanny’s method:
http://www.swannysmodels.com/Weathering.html
Both of them use acrylic and water.