Does anybody have a "recipe", ratio for a wash? I want a black one.

Howdy sweaver

Welcome to the site.
I won't pipe in with a wash 'recipe' as such, because I'm sure you will get some very helpful suggestions soon.
What I will do is toss an idea at ya....try this; I used to keep a couple of old airbrush jars {because they had closable lids} with which I would clean paintbrushes. I would separate the blues/greens from the brown/reds, and since I used black quite often that would be mixed with both of these jars. This old, nasty, leftover liquid made some pretty good 'wash' solution.....it was all just a matter of applying the proper colour temperature tone to your project.

hth

Tread.

Interesting. Seems there is a modeling use for everything, even your wash water!

.....don't even get me started with what you can potentially use for rust, ash, and/or carbon deposits!........

Tread.

Making a wash is very simple: take a colour and mix it with some kind of thinner. Mostly oils are mixed with white spirit, or other mineral thinners..

I never use strict ratios, just mix by feeling. It is always interesting to keep a scrap piece of model or an old kit at hand, so you can test your mix before sending it to the battle field


Hope this helps,


Johan

I do the same thing Johan does. I squirt some mineral spirits bought at Home Depot (about a teaspoon or two) into a shallow bowl palette and then mix in some burnt umber or raw umber oil paints until it looks like coffee with only a bit of creamer in it. It's better to go light on a wash instead of heavy. You can always apply a second wash to darken things, after all. I flow it onto the model (mixing it constantly, as the oil paint tends to settle quickly) and let it dry for an hour or two. Then I wipe the model with a cotton swab dipped in mineral spirits to smooth out the color and eliminate it from areas where it doesn't belong. Hope this helps!

My technique, as it were:

After decals and details have been painted, airbrush on a glossy/semigloss coat ( I use Future). This allows the wash to flow into the recesses and panel lines vs. "staining" the flat surface.

Put some turpenoid or mineral spirit thinner into a small container/palette.

Add a pinhead size glob of equal parts Raw Umber and Lamp Black Artist Oils.

Mix thoroughly - the "consistency of black coffee" rule of thumb has always worked well for me.

Apply wash to crevices and panel lines/etc. Let dry for an hour or so and go back with a q-tip and clean thinner to clean up any "oopsies'.

Thanks for the great suggestions!

I use acrylics, so what would I use to clean up the mistakes?

Using acryl washes means that if yo're wrong you spoil the previous paint work in a way almost impossible to recover.
For washes I think the best solution are oils thinned in white spirit. In this case if you make mistakes you've got a reasonable (but not ethernal) time to correct them just removing the excess with another clean paintbrush thinned in white spirit.
On top of that I sugget you not to apply an acryl Tamiya wash (if thinned with alchool) over a Tamiya base coat, because it will come out. A good rule is always to use incompatible media to make washes, filters and so on...
Ciao
Fabio

Yes, I figured that. That's why my 'suggestion' was worded so........

Now, when it comes to oils {which is what most are using now}, you have just gotten some very helpful guidance from the brethren as I suspected {and stated} you would.

Tread.

PostScript: Another thing to keep forefront in your mind when using oils is; that you can increase/reduce/shift/re-shift/add different color/subtract/etc, etc the whole time using oils. Acrylics on the other hand allow none of these options......{except maybe adding more}.