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Bringing Out the Details

How do I make a wash? In order for a wash to work properly it needs to be thin enough to flow around raised details but not so thin as to be invisible. I use burnt umber thinned approximately 80%. Try it out-if it looks too dark add thinner, if to light add paint. Let's say we're working on a relatively new aircraft kit with nicely molded interior detail.

You've read this article and you're ready to try this stuff out. You've opened your next kit-it's going to be your best yet right? Or maybe you got out one you just want to try this out on, that's great too. Let's say you've painted the interior parts their color and sprayed or brushed a coat of Future, clear acrylic gloss coat, or some other acrylic floor wax over it to seal in the base paint. Make your wash of dark brown or black by mixing some paint and thinner-I use an old paint jar, washed out, just to keep my wash in. Some will say take a wide brush and load it with wash and apply it over the entire area. NO! All this makes is a big muddy mess. Take a medium fine to fine brush and apply the wash only along the raised details. If you've done everything right so far when you place your brush tip in place the wash will flow along the raised detail. Don't worry if it's a little sloppy at this point-the barrier we put down over the base coat has another use later. In aircraft cockpits I generally wash on the underside or the internal structures where the shadows would be. This can get tricky when dealing with aircraft like bombers with lots of internal structures and windows. I always try to put the wash where I believe the shadows would be-opposite windows. This may also be continued on the cockpit floor and any bulkheads. Let it dry! This may take a while due to the thinness of the wash, again, be patient!