Alternatives to washes?

[-Ice]

I've read through that link and it was just mostly about making paint stay wet longer by a "mix" and a wet palette. I'm not quite sure how you think that'll help with washes.

I do have that tutorial (I subscribe to Miniature Mentor) but I've yet to watch it. Anything specific I should watch out for in the tutorial?

 

[CarbonCopy]

Anything specific I should watch out for in the tutorial?

He's trying to push you to wrap your brain around the concept of Glazing ... which you are already doing.

A wash is random, typically heavier and applied to the entire surface.

A glaze is, more or less, a controlled wash -- a transparent layer of color applied in a controlled manner to tint the layer beneath. It can be applied to the entire surface, or layered in a controlled manner to specific areas. The more transparent layers you add, the stronger the effect.

A glaze is useful in that you could be shifting color darker, or from one hue to another (green to blue, for example).

 

[gohkm]

A wash is, indeed, random and heavier, but it need not be applied to the entire surface. Merely flooding recesses will do. One would still want the original basecoats to show through the wash; washing an entire surface would diminish that goal, and would be wasteful as well.

But CarbonCopy's definition of a glaze is excellent.

 

[CarbonCopy]

A wash is, indeed, random and heavier, but it need not be applied to the entire surface. Merely flooding recesses will do.

True.

But I always got tide pool rings when I did that. I think I switched over to what I would eventually discover to be glazing right after that (not knowing the terminology).

 

[gohkm]

One can get around tide pool rings by adding some dish soap to the wash mix. That's how I still do it - albeit with much greater restraint than I used to . Nothing like a soapy mini to make one realize that if one drop of dish soap will break up water surface tension, 10 drops of the stuff won't be 10 times as effective .

 

[-Ice]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Funny thing happened to me last week though. I came by the GW store to buy some more paints for my basing project and I spoke to one of the guys who did the display models. He showed my how he washes and touches up... and he based with a Foundation paint (Mechrite Red), washed, and then re-applied the base. I knew Foundation color paints cover well, better than the Color paints, from my "tests" on the bases, but it never occurred to me to use it on my minis because I didn't like how "dark" Mechrite Red looks. However, when the GW guy did it, I was suprised how after 1 or 2 applications, the mini was clean again!

I've just finished a new mini with a base of Mechrite Red, a Thraka Green wash (GW guy says it was on the White Dwarf magazine as the "recipe" for the codex Blood Angel pictures), re-apply base, then 50/50 Mechrite Red and Blood Red. So far, I like the results in the sense that it gives me the dark colors in the recesses and red color on the armor and the application is easy and time-saving (and yes, I know lots have suggested this exact recipe, sorry for not recognizing it earlier), but I'm still not too happy with the brightness...

So, I'm still searching for the proper recipe, but at least now I know what I can use to clean up washes - Foundation paints!

 

[freakinacage]

I've just finished a new mini with a base of Mechrite Red, a Thraka Green wash (GW guy says it was on the White Dwarf magazine as the "recipe" for the codex Blood Angel pictures),

what he said may be true but be aware that there are several eavy metal painters here who are very helpful and obviously more in the know

 

[-Ice]

Haha, sorry about that, didn't mean to offend. My point was simply that even though I knew Foundation paints cover nicely, I didn't think it'd cover the wash as well until he showed me and I was like, "how the hell didn't I realize that?" Remember, my main complaint was that I spent too much time cleaning up the wash so even though I may end up with a bright mini, I get so frustrated building the color back up. With the foundation color, even if I make a mistake of painting on the recesses, I can dab a bit of wash on, wait for it to dry, apply the Foundation paint to clean up (again, one or two passes!), and I'm back in business!

EDIT: I've just painted an assault space marine and though he's not too bright-colored, I had so much fun painting him. Why fun? Because even if I made a mistake, I could fix it easily! Now I'm spending more time "painting" than "cleaning up".

 

[freakinacage]

offend?!! lol you'd have to try harder than that!! i was just pointing you in the right direction is all. i don't know what your gw employees are like. mine vary from imbeciles to half intelligent gw fanatics to decent fellas. the decent ones don't often last long...

 

[-Ice]

Surprisingly, this guy seems like solid painter as he does most of the store pieces. The other two make painting sound so easy but I've never liked what I've seen them do and they could never answer my questions satisfactorily.

 

[Aulbath]

After basecoating and washing I re-established the basecolor by careful mix of dry- and overbrushing. Getting a 10-man squad of marines ready for detail painting and some sharp edge highlights was a matter of very few hours. It took me about 4-5 evenings to do the ones in my gallery. Personally, from a "speedpainters" pov, I think just using washes to get the recesses shaded is a bit of a waste of the capabilities of the GW washes. In most cases I already paint in some highlights or a layer of brighter color, thanks to the glazing-powers they make some nice and easy color transitions (which helps making later highlights a tad bit smoother too), if you have relatively static/stoic poses it also works well on Space Marines.

Thinking about it, this could have been well fitting in your other thread... oh well.