Pzjgr

Hey I need advice on wash, I'm repainting one of my Tigers in Tamiya XF-60 (Dark Yellow) and XF-64 (Red Brown). I'd like to use Tamiya Acrylics for the wash. What colors should I use to give my model a weathered look and tone down the contrast? I was thinking of using this guys method on his King Tiger....XF-1 (flat black) and XF-10 (flat brown) and thinner for the main wash 1:1:10 ( http://www.naritafamily.com/howto/ki...hoto_frame.htm ). But his is for a three tone camo, would it work for two tone camo?

Thanks,
Pzjgr

EugeniRUS

EugeniRUS

If you paint with enamel paints (XF) and wash the tank with enamel thinner (X-20), then you will destroy the base colours!

"But his is for a three tone camo, would it work for two tone camo?"  Yes, it will. It does not matter how many tones you have.

thomasjohnmurphy

use oils for a wash. I just use a pin wash (lightly wet the entire are with paint thinner and then wet a thin paint brush with the wash and touch the parts on the tanks I ie bolt heads, groves etc) that you want darkened. I would have posted a pic but it looks like my wife has deleted all my tank pics You can see a number of my tanks in the photo section here to see what I am referring to

YHR

Another method is to use acrylic paint thinned with water, and add some liquid dish detergent. This reduces the surface tension of the water, and makes the acrylic act more like an oil wash. Great thing is water clean up, and whatever you do can easily be removed with windex.(as long as you have a dullcoat barrier coat on your primary job, otherwise the windex will take that off too.)

streetsquid

Duane,
All good advice in the previous posts. But I think the most important peice of info there is to make sure you seal your base colors before adding the washes. Some people prefer to seal with a gloss coat as they feel it allows the washes to flow more evenly and easily, then once the washes are done seal everything with a dullcoat or flat. Also make sure you put your decals on prior to washes. You want all of your decals wo look like they are painted on so weather tem the same way you do all of the other painted surfaces and they will blend in and look more like they are painted on. That being said you have three bascia choices as most have pointed out above.

1. Oil paints: many choose this to go over the top of acrylic paints because you can add the wash without adversely affecting the acrylic paints underneath (but sealing the paints you eliminate this problem anyway) secondly lots of people like the way the oil paints flow, and the richness and pigmentation is really high lending themselves to a darker or pronounced accent or outline of the details.

2. Acrylic paints (ie Tamiya -Black or Red Brown): Some also use this but like YHR mentioned you would do well to add a few drops of dish detergent which acts as a "wetting agent" which breaks the surface tension of the paint and allows it to flow smoother and farther due to capillart action. I've triedusing acrylics I just find it more difficult to control the opacity of the wash, so some details come out darker and others are not as defined pr pronounced. The wash ends up being somehwat blotchy or modeled in appearance. The one huge advantage over oils is that if you seal your base colors you can always easily remove the wash or an area of wash with Windex without affecting the Tamiya acrylics underneath if you don't like the results

3. Water Colors: For me this is the oprion of choice. You get fine grain pigment of oil pints, lots of flexibilty in colors, easy to use, lots of opacity and color control, won't harm any paint regarless of what it is, can be taken off with straight water or even just a damp brush, plus like nothing else even if it's completely dry you can push and move the paing around. For me this stuff rocks, and you've told me many time you like the "look" of my tanks.

Whatever material or method you choose I will offer this. Stay away from straight black. IMHO weathering looks best when it's subtle and blends into the tank, even when it's heavily weathered. You don't want details outlined in black as they appear too stark and become so visible they look outlind which doesn't look as real.

Mix your colors for washes, mix the black and red brown, or add a bit of white to create a dark charcoal grey. Use your base color to cut the black and make it blend into the surrounding paint color. You want the wash to help bring out and accentuate or compliment the molded details you don't want the wash to become the focal point of the finished paint scheme.

Craig (Squid)

SteelFist

Tamiya XF range are acrylics not enamels. The Tamiya thinner X-20A is not enamel thinner its for acrylics.

Pzjgr

Thank you all for the help! Craig what kind of gloss/satin coat should I use for acrylic? Should I put on my decals before the gloss/satin coat? (In your guide you never mentioned putting on a gloss coat). I think I'll use YHR's method (Thanks YHR), reason being is I've got all the paints ready, I don't want to spend anymore money, what that guy did with his King Tiger looks really good to me and he tells me the protions (1:1:10). I do have somthing to pratice on before I commit to this though, it's a tri color camo that I'm going to use on my Panther when I complete my Tiger. Wish I had a camera to show you guys but I'm copying Chris Wauchop's Panther G paint job here: http://www.missing-lynx.com/gallery/...glatecw_1.html
If the acrylic wash doesn't come out the way I'd like then Craig which colors for water color would I use and who makes them and where do I get it? (edit, doh looked at the picture of your guide and shows who makes the water color). Please help me out here and be specific on which colors you would use (I've never done it before), ie Ivory Blue and Yellow Ochre and in what protions (I'm pretty dense here when it comes to mixing).

Thanks all,
Duane

thomasjohnmurphy

ALWAYS gloss the area where you are going to put on your decals. Then seal them after they are set and dry. You can the mat the area with a coat of flat clear

streetsquid

Duane,
As Thomasjohnmurphy says you should always use gloss BEFORE you put down decals.

If you apply decals over a flat paint you can get what's referred too as "silvering". This is caused by air trapped under the decal which makes the clear carrier film around the printed center of the decal very apparent. The air becomes trapped because of the nature of the flat paint. If you were to look at flat paint under a microscope you would see the surface is actually made up of millions of high and low spots, or peaks and valleys if you will. The decal sits atop the peaks and air is trapped in the valleys.

To avoid this unsightly result and make the decal look like the markings are "painted on" as they truly were done on the 1/1 scale vehicles, you can do a couple of things.

1. Use a gloss coat (which minimizes those peaks and valeys) which gives you a much smoother and even surface for the decal to sit against.

2. When applying the decal, first wet the area on the vehicle with diluted white glue or Future Floor Polish creating a liquid pillow for the decal to nestle down onto, these will also fill the valleys. Blot the decal softly with a cotton swab (Q-tip) or cotton rag to squeeze out the excess liquid.

3. If you choose not to use the white glue or Future underneath the decal, use a good quality setting solution that will help settle the decal down onto irregular surfaces. Again this will help immensely in making the decal look painted instead of an applied printed film

4 Once the decals are completely dry protect them with the clear flat of your choice and weather them the same as the rest of the painted surfaces of the vehicle

I'd encourage you to go back and reread my painting guide, there is an entire section on there that does talk exactly about this subject. I personally do not like to spray the entire vehicle in glass coat, so I choose instead to use a brush to apply Future Acrylic Floor polish to specific areaswhere the decals are going to go. You can see the Future being applied in the photos below.

As far as water colors go; Any good quality water colors would work and you don't need many colors. You can buy a complete set like shown in the pictures (Those are made by Reeves) or individual tubes. Individual tubes will set you back about $4 each and set like that will run about $18 at Michaels Arts and Crafts Store. You don't have to buy the whole set, but the main colors that you can use on almost any base color would be Payne's Grey, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre. With combinations of those four colors you can weather anything. Once you decide which method and materials you want to use let me know we can talk on the phone or set up a day to get together and I'll help walk you through the process.

Craig (Squid)