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Silly question probably

B
Cold One

Baggies

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Hi people how's it's going. This is probably a silly question to most people. But when painting do you wash your model first or highlite first???

Thanks in advance
 
Depends. I wash first cause I want my highlights to pop. If you want your highlights to be slightly muted and blend into the model better you should wash second.
 
Does pop mean stand out more, if you do that's what I want, when highliting do you dry brush or do you draw around each scale? I can imagine that would take a very long time!!
 
I wash my base color heavily to get nice shadows. Then I highlight and give a second wash to make it blend. Last I give a fine highlight. I tend to mix with drybrushing and painted highlights.
 
I've never had much luck with them actually. I should painting my minis lighter than I currently do because I find tha the washes darken the overall model quite a bit.
 
Personally, I don't care much for washes. Their results look good. But aside from buying GWs hefty prices, that means making my own.. which can be hit or miss as my painting skills aren't there yet. However, I absolutely loved working with inks. There are debates over this and Im not trying to get into that. Just relating my personal experience (or lackthereof) and preferences is all. :smug:

- Lord Cedric
 
Inks and washes are very differnet' I sometimes find inks more useful, other times washes. Also Lord Cedric, Vallejo has released washes now that are meant to be pretty much the same as GW ones. :)

As to the question, it really depends.. I start painting and see what I think will look best. I usually at least go base coat, one highlight, then wash. Washes do a good job of blending the highlight layers, so do look good when they go on top of highlighting. Then after they have dried you can look at the model and decide if you want to put a tiny bit more highlight on top or not.
 
I remember when Vallejo first came out. My buddy at the time was a hired mini-painter for the local store and switched almost all his paints over to Vallejo. Thanks for the tip Strewart. I'll give them a look.

- Lord Cedric
 
Inks and washes are very differnet'
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really? i have never seen anyone with a good definition for what is what.

GWs colors were called "washes" when i started playing, then they were renamed "inks" but with the same thing inside. now they are back to washes again. Sure, the current badab black is very different from the old black ink, but the old black wash was exactly the same as the old black ink. what is your definition of an ink and a wash?
 
technically its two different medias, one is based on acrylic (the new wash) and the other on ink (the inks) ink is an organic media. the difference is that the ink is more glossy and is more prone to "pool" as it doesn't really mix well with acrylic paints. that's why GW changed it for thinned down acrylic paints, its a bit more expensive to make since it require another step in the process of making it (thinning it down) than ink that naturally comes in that form. but it gives better results when painted on acrylic surfaces.
 
So thats the technical definition of an ink and a wash... As to the actual differences when you are using it; a wash acts more like a glaze. It darkens the entire model, changes the colour of it essentially. An ink does that to a degree, but it is much happier getting into the recesses and shading in deep while leaving the raised areas exactly the same as they are. It has a much stronger colour than washes so it will deepen the colour of the recesses a lot more than a wash will. It also should not be used straight from the pot like washes, it should be watered down for use.

The effect is very different. For example, the red wash looks slightly pink and shades things red a bit, a red ink can be used from the pot as a good blood effect because the colour is that strong. I found blue wash on my LM looked terrible, and had to stick with a blue ink, however, brown washes look good on the red scales.
 
An ink does that to a degree, but it is much happier getting into the recesses and shading in deep while leaving the raised areas exactly the same as they are.
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that is definitely NOT how my old citadel "inks" work :P they darken everything much more than the current washes do.
 
Yeah well of course if you put wash on something, and it runs off then a small amount is going to stay anyway and darken it a bit. I guess a better way to explain the main difference then is with surface coverage. Washes will cover fairly evenly, inks will break up and pool a lot more. They will still stain areas, but they will pool a LOT more than washes.

As an aside, if you add a very small drop of dishwashing liquid to an ink then it will give more even coverage and pretty much provide a stain. Useful for large areas like tanks, or full models like skeletons where the ink would have otherwise mostly pooled at the botom.
 
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