Re: The (Uber) Death Star Laser Tower Project
Ahoy mateys! We're awash in, uh, WASH!
I love washes, they do such a great job of bringing out surface detail and texture. I prefer using oil-based paints for my washes, they flow, puddle and dry so nicely. And you've got a good bit of time to work them before they dry. Water based paint washes look great when wet but tend to dry splotchy. Although I've been hearing good things about water based
clay washes. Going to have to try them out.
The wash for the laser tower was made from artists oil paints. The kind that comes in tubes. For this wash I used a mixture of Ivory Black and Burnt Umber to create a brownish black, which is a great overall weathering color for almost anything. The paint was thinned done with oderless mineral spirits but was still fairly concentrated, as washes go. The nice thing about artist's oils is you can apply them really heavy and then wipe most of it off, leaving paint mostly in the corners and recesses.
When using oil based washes it's a good idea to pre-moisten the surface of the model with thinner. This helps the wash flow, and keeps it from staining the surface as much. Thant's also why I sealed the paint with Pledge floor polish yesterday. Just apply clean thinner liberally with a big brush. Then I applied the wash, again quite liberally, working it into the panel lines and around all the details. The I wiped off as much of the wash as I could with a clean cotton rag, always wiping vertically from top to bottom to create vertical streaks. At this point there is still a lot more wash on t he surface then I want, but that's the nice thing about the
looong drying time of artist's oils, I can brush more clean thinner over the surface and continue to remove the wash as desired. During this process I also did some specific detailed streaking in places. Though this is really an overall wash, I'll come back and do more detail spot streaks and washes next. This wash will take several days to dry. There are fast drying artist's oil paints which are handy for detail painting but I prefer the extended working time you get with traditional oils. Who needs to be in such a hurry anyway?!
BTW, I'm shooting video of the entire painting process on this model and will be posting it someday.