how do i make a blue wash?

[Les09]

Hi Guy's
Do any of you make up your own blue filter wash for panzer grey tanks? If so, which colours did you use,?
been having a look a the AK blue filter, but it does look really dark for my liking.

Les

[RobertK]

I would get a couple of artist or professional grade oil paints and mix up something that you think looks good.
Also dot filtering will work fine here, some browns, blues, whites greens and do some streaking blending will also look cool and interesting.

[Les09]

Cheers my friend, will probably try all of it, just for the experience...lol

[Coen]

I don't have a standard wash for any colour, I use what every colour I think would best achieve the effect that I want.
For panzer grey I'll make a light grey wash to fade the colours or a dark grey one to deepen it. A dark blue or light blue I would normally reserve for my dot filters and providing tonal variety to the panels.
There are many other ways to do it, but that's how I use them.

[Akula1959]

What is "dot filters"? Sorry to sort of derail the thread a little.

DonP

[Coen]

It used to be called mapping, but the common term is dot filtering now.
It's applying small dots of either unthinned oil paints or acrylic paints to the surface of a model that has been matte/flat coated and then using a soft wide flat brush moistened in the appropriate thinner to remove the dots until only a gentle tonal change in the original colour is left behind.

[Les09]

I don't have a standard wash for any colour, I use what every colour I think would best achieve the effect that I want.
For panzer grey I'll make a light grey wash to fade the colours or a dark grey one to deepen it. A dark blue or light blue I would normally reserve for my dot filters and providing tonal variety to the panels.
There are many other ways to do it, but that's how I use them.

Cheers Mike, I'm still trying to get my head around all this new fangled stuff. When I started modelling in 1954 it was slap a bit of humbrol paint on it, job done, how things have progressed.

Les

[Coen]

Actually filters have been around since at least the 60s so it's not new. They just changed the name and some fellas decided to make some money with then with some premixed stuff, put nice mind numbing names on them and call them by a new name.
They were called glazes or tint varnishing back in the day.
Enamel washes, oil washes, clay washes have been around for at leas 40 years or more.

[Stokesy44]

Actually filters have been around since at least the 60s so it's not new. They just changed the name and some fellas decided to make some money with then with some premixed stuff, put nice mind numbing names on them and call them by a new name.
They were called glazes or tint varnishing back in the day.
Enamel washes, oil washes, clay washes have been around for at leas 40 years or more.

Its one of the few things the internet is good for - information dissemination. I would never have got back into the hobby without it. As a learning tool, just this site alone has revolutionised what I do when I sit at my desk now. I never knew about these products or how to apply them 10 years ago, now its a whole new world. Filtering is new to me and I am looking forward to when I can use the process.

Also, I thought this thread was a joke at first! How do I make a blue wash? Well, you put a gun to his head and frog march him to the shower!

Note to self - don't try to be funny, be helpful instead!

Its all good!

[Les09]

Also, I thought this thread was a joke at first! How do I make a blue wash? Well, you put a gun to his head and frog march him to the shower!

[Coen]

It might be because I'm Canadian... But I don't get it?

[Les09]

Not quite sure myself Mike, My thought was an Australian redhead, but if so, then that should be "bluey" (Australian slang for redhead)
But who knows. Minds work in mysterious way's.

[SimonV]

Hope I'm not taking this too off topic, but why the need to use artist/professional grade oils rather than student grades?

I'm clearly no expert but it seems to me that the fact we use such little amounts so heavily thinned, we can get away with the lower quality oils?

[RobertK]

Hope I'm not taking this too off topic, but why the need to use artist/professional grade oils rather than student grades?

I'm clearly no expert but it seems to me that the fact we use such little amounts so heavily thinned, we can get away with the lower quality oils?

Some student grade oils might be fine but in my experience the pigments is way to coarse in those. I just get grainy uneven results using cheaper oils.

[Coen]

This is the best answer I've ever found abut what the difference is between pro and student oils.

http://emptyeasel.com/2010/09/13/profes ... ifference/

[Les09]

SimonV
That would depend on the brand of the student oil's, (I also paint) I've used pro and student oils for many years now with very little discernible difference between the two, If any thing I find the student oils a little subdued in there colour, (a bit less pigment) but for what we do, i.e. panel wash's etc, there fine, just buy the best that you can afford

Les

[SimonV]

Thanks guys. Coen, thanks for the link. That is indeed a good explanation of the differences in oils.

Les, I've bought some Daley Rowney Graduate oils, which I'm thinning with Humbrol Enamel Thinners (just becasue I'd assumed they'd be safe on plastics. I'll be getting something else once this runs out):



I've made a wash using the Burnt Umber (about 20/80 oil to thinners) and put it on my Stug. I think it looks ok (if not maybe a bit thick/sldugy in places where it pooled), so I'll stick with these for now:

[Les09]

That's the way to go my friend, Stick to what you know, and master the process.

[wookiee76]

As long as you've given the model a good gloss coat and given it time to fully cure good old bog standard white spirit will do the job perfectly, it's what i use, turpenoid also does the trick although a tad more expensive. If you find an oil wash pools in a way you don't like you can always just reactivate and remove it with a brush dampened in the same spirit/thinner.