I have just finished my first model for years and want to use washing for the first time for creating shadows. Drybushing for highlightning should be no prob. I have used this technique on many tin-miniatures

The Kit i finished is a vietnam era "PBR 31 Mark II" Patrol Boat and it looks a way to clean.
I read a few articles on washing, but the only effect is that i'm totally confused now.
As i used Tamiya Acrylics for base painting i figured out that the washing should be made with oil color.
I already own "Ivory Black" but in many articles "Burnt Umbra" and "Burnt Sienna" is already mentioned. These are brownish color and I'm not sure to use these colors for a boat that is not made of metal but of plastic.

Another question: Should the whole model get a wash of highly thinned oil color (i read something of a ration of 1:8)? I asked that because half of the model is in hull read, the upper half in oliv drab.

Hi Foxy. Raw and burnt umber are really effective washes for WW2 era vehicles. It dries and gives a nice weathered look, especially in crevices and corners. Burnt sienna dries to give a rather rusty colour so could be effective on your piber also.
Washes over the the whole boat should be really thin .......... dirty thinner rather than thinned oils. I use tops of bottles for my washes. Half full with thinner .... humbrol enamel thinner is my favourite... place a dob of oil paint (about the size of a pea) on some tissue and with your brush stab the oil paint and then clean in the thinner. Stir around and when you stop seeing the bottom it is starting to get there. Using a wide brush, cover the whole area. There shouldnt be any visible brush strokes ... use cotton tops to dry up extra wash. When dry you can make a new wash and make the consistency a bit thicker and use this for pin washes... along seems and around bolt detail, etc.
I usually start with an overall black wash and then pin wash with raw umber and then finish with some burnt sienna and a touch of raw umber as the last pin wash. Sometimes even thinning the last one and using it as a wash on rusty areas.
This is a quick explanation of my method, and is only one version. Everybody has their own way. No one single method is right or wrong. Experiment with different colours and mixes. Reading other guy´s explanation is quite helpful and inspiring. Read some of the articles on here. To get a very accurate wash method, check in on the airplane guys forums. Tips like these can be found everywhere!

Foxy - PB has covered this very well. One thing to add is that is really helps to apply a coat or two of gloss coat to the kit. The gloss coat helps give you a nice smooth surface for the thinned wash to 'flow' over. It really helps with capilary action to get the pigment in the seams.

Then do your wash as Plasticbattle recommends and then when its dry again apply a coat of dull coat to flatten the appearance again.

Its extra time and materials but it is well worth the effort.

[paint note: Flat paint is flat because it is rough in texture and the light is diffused off of it. Gloss paint is smooth (small particals I guess) in texture adn the light reflects back to the source off of it]

Thx, guys
ok, i will give it a try on a very old armor model, because i'm too much of a coward to test it on my nice pibber .
i bought a broad brush size 6, terpentine and burnt umber. in combination with my black oil color i hope that will do for a start.

how long do i have to let the wash dry? especially how long does oilpaint need to dry?

so u can use reg testors paint thiner on burnt umber i did not know that,
i thought that if it was oil paint u had to use the spcieal oil paint thiners.
like turpintine, i did not wanna use that cause that would melt the plastic.
so i got burnt umber in arcliy but did not use it yet i think that will work also thanks