Quick but amazing looking washes for terrain?

[Pancreasboy]

Hey there all,

I have these terrain pieces (both small and large) to paint which I've mostly undercoated in their main colours...

I'd love to paint them so they look like this...

But before I launch into them, just wondering if you have any tips on how you get quick but amazing looking washes for terrain.

I usually paint base colours, then do a wash (watered down acrylic paint), then highlight or drybrush areas. But I usually find my washes are splotchy and inconsistent.

What do you use for washes on large terrain pieces (ie oil washes from art stores, or varnish from a hardware store, etc)?

Thanks in advance.

[has.been]

1) Base coat (You've done this)
2) Coat with a wood stain varnish. (Relatively cheap & quick. Different colours available)
3) When that is dry, pich out SOME details.
4) Dry brush with the Match-pot of choice, for the 'dust' effect. (picks out the detail)
5) Spray with your varnish of choice.

Hope this helps you.

[Burgundavia]

I usually paint base colours, then do a wash (watered down acrylic paint), then highlight or drybrush areas. But I usually find my washes are splotchy and inconsistent.

Try something with a glaze medium or a wetting agent or even just dish soap to cut the surface tension and avoid tide marks

[OSHIROmodels]

The inks/washes from GW work fine for me. Sometimes I thin them a bit with some flow improver if I want it a bit more subtle.

[2010sunburst]

Another trick to using acrylic washes on larger (especially flat) areas is to dampen the surface with clean water before applying the wash.  It stops the wash drying too fast and helps prevent the coffee staining you’ve described.  Adding a couple of drops of flow aid into the wash will help as well. 

[Pancreasboy]

Ok thanks all, I'll definitely look at trying some of those out.

Thanks for the help.

Oh and if you have any photos of your end results for me to compare feel free to post them here.

[ced1106]

> I usually paint base colours, then do a wash (watered down acrylic paint), then highlight or drybrush areas. But I usually find my washes are splotchy and inconsistent.

I end up using the premade stuff. Vallejo has dark and brown washes in up to 200 ml containers. Messy, so might want to transfer to eyedroppers.

Washes work best on texture. For flatter surfaces, I'm trying out a palette of dark wash, grey wash, black paint, and grey paint. Separate drops, mixed only as necessary. As said, water on the surface, shake off or whatever the excess. I'm lazy, so just used rinse jar water applied with another brush. Apply darker colors to recesses, grey to flat areas. You can also apply this wet palette after a splotchy wash dries badly. (:

[beefcake]

If you're after a really quick wash I just buy fence stain and dip in that.
Here's what I've done with a quick basecoat, dip in the fence stain then drybrushing shades of grey up to white.
Obviously you'll need to work that a bit but it is the quickest and cheapest wash I've ever done.

[Pancreasboy]

oh wow nice beefcake!

how are you dipping such large pieces?

[beefcake]

Just straight into the bucket,