For a general oil wash I know its a very thinned out oil paint mixture. I bought 502 Abteilung wash brown to try this. Using the same mixture to try and pin wash I found it was too light. Am I best to have a more viscous mixture to darken the pin wash colour or shall I buy say black and thin that out accordingly so it still remains dark? I am painting German armour at the moment.

Regards

I would say you should try and add some more Wash Brown paint and see if it gives you the darker color you are looking for. If not try the black, possibly with a little bit of brown added. (You could also try a dark ready-mixed enamel wash. AK Interactive do a nice range, as do Mig Productions.)

Hope this helps.

-Karl187-

I use the same 502 Abteilung Wash Brown for my overall washes. In your case, using Wash Brown for your pin washes does not create the necessary contrast to your base wash. I use 502 Abteilung Shadow Brown for all my pin washes. It is a very dark brown, virtually black, color, which works very well with the wash color. It really makes the details "pop". Try adding black to your wash brown to create the contrast. Also, your pin wash should be slightly thicker than a regular wash in consistency. You want it to be able to run freely around a detail, but not so thin that is wants to flood everywhere else.

Kirchoff

Thanks for the advice. I might try out that 502 Shadow Brown oil paint. What brushes (brand) of brushes do you recommend for applying pin washes? Saw some youtube videos and they were very fine tipped.

Rob:

Hi!

As a relative new-comer to washes, I offer no true expertise, but... I have done them on every recent build, and, FWIT, I do German... I like the raw and burnt umbers and darker browns as general washes (very thinned and layered over the whole build to shade and filter a little). I use the georgian oils and artist-grade turpenoid for this.

For PIN washes, where the point is to accentuate bolt-heads, seam lines, hinge details, etc., and where you (OK, I) apply this with a trimmed spotter brush or maybe a piece of sprue-hair to the specific target and let the wash run in on "capillary action" - I go with really dark browns and mars-black oils in turps. The wash may not want to be quite as thin as that used on "whole-build applications. You want to apply minimal amounts so that the pigments are deposited only close-in to the detail or feature you are picking out - so a little thicker wash and being very sparing with the applicator works.

Hope this helps!

Bob

Yes, a fine tip is recommended as the idea is to place a very controlled amount of paint to the detail, allowing capillary action to draw the paint around/in-or along it. The finer the tip, the more control, especially when you have the wash "dialed-in" with the proper consistency. I personally like using a set of Andrea 3/0 and 5/0 brushes I found online. From their economical "Junior" line, each brush cost just few dollars and I have been using them for over a year now. Of course, that's all I use them for so they should last awhile. Any brand should work as long as a fine point can be maintained while holding enough paint to do the job.

Good luck!

Kirchoff