So i've started my first attempt at painting miniatures. I'm painting The Protectorate Of Menoth army. Instead of doing the ivory/off white scheme. I wanted to do a sandier Crusades meets Lawerance of Arabia look. I used Tamiya Red Brown as a first base coat, 2nd base coat of Desert Yellow toned down with some white. It's a fine color but...its kind of bland. Is there a wash I can use to give it a lighter tone or bring out some sort of tip. It just looks too much like sand stone. I dusted it with Tamiya sand weathering make up kit..but still didn't give it too much of a noticable difference. Partly because the paint and the weathering was almost the same tone. http://s83.photobucket.com/user/tenchu_11/media/Menoth/IMG_0615.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 http://s83.photobucket.com/user/tenchu_11/media/Menoth/IMG_0614.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

While I'm not an experienced figure painter, here's a tip I picked up. In the lower recesses, valleys between the high points of the cape, or the crinkles, put a darker tone of the desert yellow. You can then place a lighter tone of the higher points of the cape. Of course it also depends on how detailed the cape is, and if it's mostly flat and non-curved this will likely not work.

Hi Javier,

There's a couple of things you can do. You can take the base colour of the capes, darken it a little with some brown, thin it down and paint it into the recesses. Wait for it to dry then paint in another thin layer, building it up until it's as dark as you like. I used that technique for my capes in the attached pic, lots of very thin layers.

Easier though is to pick up some Army Painter wash or something similar, GW makes them as well in several shades. They are paints suspended in varnish so that you just slop/paint it over the whole area and it gathers in the recesses. The benefits of a varnish suspended wash (glaze) is that it doesn't leave tide or edge marks as much as a straight thinned paint wash does.

If you have some varnish you can also make your own by adding any shade of paint to it.

cheers
Brent

what would be a good shade of wash for browns and tans?

If GW either Seraphim Sepia or Agrax Earthshade.


If Army Painter either Strong or Dark Quickshade.

Their website is here, it's a bit tricky to navigate though, http://www.thearmypainter.com/gallery_presentation.php?GalleryId=190&Gallery=Viking Berserkers&page=1

I used the GW Earthshade...it's Amazing.

HTH