Recommended Washes

[leegwonfu]

I'm rapidly running out out of my favorite GW washes ( Devlan Mud and Gryphon Sepia) and am generally running low on all of my remaining GW washes. I wanted to know if there are any replacements out there that work as well as GW's washes from that line. I haven't tried the new GW washes yet, and don't have any idea if they are of the same quality or not (I've heard that they aren't).

I do have (and use) the Army Painter tones, but I'm looking for a variety of washes in different colors. Can anyone recommend a line of washes? I really like the way that GW's previous line of washes lays on a fig. Are the new ones the same? Better? Worse? Or are other brands better?

Thanks,
JP

[Fitz]

For ultimate flexibility, I'd recommend trying good quality transparent artists watercolours. You can thin with meths or windex instead of (or in addition to) water to get the wash to wick along panel lines and so forth, and the addition of a little matte acrylic medium will ensure that the dried wash is water-resistant for further weathering.

Tubes are probably easier to manage than pans, but I've used both with equally good results. The best thing about them is that the range of colours (and intensity of colour) you can achieve is just about infinite.

One word of warning: don't go getting cheap when you buy the paints. Top quality paints are a much better buy, and will give much better results, than el-cheapo "student" grade watercolours.

[Mitch K]

For ultimate flexibility, I'd recommend trying good quality transparent artists watercolours. You can thin with meths or windex instead of (or in addition to) water to get the wash to wick along panel lines and so forth, and the addition of a little matte acrylic medium will ensure that the dried wash is water-resistant for further weathering.

Tubes are probably easier to manage than pans, but I've used both with equally good results. The best thing about them is that the range of colours (and intensity of colour) you can achieve is just about infinite.

One word of warning: don't go getting cheap when you buy the paints. Top quality paints are a much better buy, and will give much better results, than el-cheapo "student" grade watercolours.

Ditto this. Another alternative is to use acrylic inks, like those made by Daler-Rowney or Liquitex.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

The new GW washes are very good.  They are slightly different to the old ones but just as good.

However, there is one big problem - the bottles are tapered and the lid opens to the full diameter.
If you knock a bottle over, which is very easy to do, it empties everything out.
The old ones had different design which worked better.

I now put a big blob of Blutack under the bottles when I use them.

Mick

[leegwonfu]

For ultimate flexibility, I'd recommend trying good quality transparent artists watercolours. You can thin with meths or windex instead of (or in addition to) water to get the wash to wick along panel lines and so forth, and the addition of a little matte acrylic medium will ensure that the dried wash is water-resistant for further weathering.

Tubes are probably easier to manage than pans, but I've used both with equally good results. The best thing about them is that the range of colours (and intensity of colour) you can achieve is just about infinite.

One word of warning: don't go getting cheap when you buy the paints. Top quality paints are a much better buy, and will give much better results, than el-cheapo "student" grade watercolours.

Never thought to try this. I do have some quality watercolors (been dabbling in it off and on for a bit). I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle of mixing everything and bottling it up, though.

[Varangian]

Secret Weapon Miniatures has a series of washes. They're fantastic.

[infelix]

The GW ones are indeed very good, even after the recent change. Vallejo's doesn't work very well for me at least. The Army Painter's are more or less the same as GW's Devlan Mud and Badab Black and works really well. I haven't tried the Secret Weapon's yet but I have some on the way here.

[freewargamesrules]

I've started using the Coat D'Arms blank wash and am very please with it.

[leegwonfu]

Thanks people. I'll pick up a couple of the GW and Army Painter washes the next time I make a trip to the game store. If I'm not satisfied with one of them, I'll try the watercolors. Coat D'Arms paints are not easily found over on this side of the pond, I'm afraid, so they're out for now, but I'll keep them in mind.

JP