I have been moving away from the "wash" per se and blending more. I generally use oils and this is easy. I tried, as an experiment last night, using Vallejo acrylics and these worked almost as well.
In bothe cases, I painted the face in a base flesh color (my oil mix is burnt sienna and titanium white) and add more or less of each color for shadows and highlights. For extreme shadows I might use burnt umber or vna dyke brown. I've been using an 18/0 spotter/liner for some of this.
A wash, unless you have a very sharply scuplted face, will be very hard to control.

I don't paint figures but I wanted to welcome you to Armorama. WE are all looking forward to seeing some of your work posted here in the gallery. Enjoy

In 1/35 scale you can 'get away' with a bit of wash in the very deep creases of eyes, ears, and fingers.
Cheeks don't work very well.
Blending as Al mentioned is a better method.

Welcome to Armorama Gunny ! Glad you have decided to come aboard. This being the best and friendliest site around, we look forward to enjoying your company!

Cheers,

Garry