Hi,

I'm new to this forum, so maybe my question is very old.

Many people using turpentine and oil color to do wash and filter, I like to know why is it better than enamel paint? Thx.

I find the whole filter thing a bit of a 'dark art'!!

I think it's partly due to the drying time of the oil/turps mix, this takes quite a while to dry fully so giving you more time to work the paint and get the desired effect.

Along these same lines, what is the difference between a wash and a filter? I always thought a wash was a really thinned down color (enamel, oil, whatever). I thought a filter was something you put on a hose to keep out fine particles. So what exactly is a filter in reference to weathering/finishing?

Wash is easy to understand.

I think "filter" is like taking picture with a lens, instead using a camera, you apply that directly on a model., to vary the color of the model for some purpose.

And enamel maybe dry a bit faster, but they dont leave a mark like the turpentine tend to do. So I think people maybe use it for a better reason...

Then that would be called tinting or shading for us Yanks. I take it that the term 'filters' seems to be the wording in Europe for the same technique or effect.

i know this topicis a bit old but no one seems to have offered an adequate description of what a filter is as opposed to a wash. these two techniques have different purposes. here is a good feature on filters:

http://www.missing-lynx.com/rare_world/rw02.htm

until now i had never heard of it. thanks for the link