Lazy shading for fenrisian grey

[sbarnby71]

Hey folks,

 

I'm a massive fan of the baby-blue space wolves, been painting them this colour for maybe 20+ years now, so most folks would paint The Fang and then highlight with Fenrisian Grey, I use that as my main layer and then do some very minimal highlights.

 

Now as I'm getting older, I'm getting lazier with painting armour, it bores the hell out of me, I much prefer all the detail, pelts, leather, anything apart from armour.  So when the new washes came out a few years ago I wanted to try and idea of paint all the armour Fenrisian Grey, then drop a wash all over the model to just add shadow to the recesses and have almost no clean-up.  First I tried Drakenhof Nightshade and that was way too dark, over the years I've tried just about every wash and glaze out there, Secret Weapon, Vallejo, The Army Painter, but the bottom line is they always stain the main parts of the armour so I have to go back and clean up which just bores me to death.  I guess the washes work best when you have a strong colour for the flat surfaces, so the staining is less noticeable.

 

Anyone got any suggestions?

[Dantay VI]

Have you tried army painter dip?

 

Alternatively washes through an air brush??

 

I have used Grieuxs methods which are good, but only on infantry, where using  a mix of nuln, agrax and water to make a very dilute wash 1:1:3

 

Use gloss wash or gloss varnish after putting fenris grey on, as the wash will go for the recesses

 

floor polish does the same as the gloss wash if you add it to your existing washes.

 

Add a tiny dab or Russ to the fenris grey, to give a darker tone and then use fenris grey over the top

 

Guillemann blue glaze, unless this is too blue, then maybe mix it with a tiny bit of drakenhof to get a something in the middle?

 

Oil washes, these take ages to dry, so you can manipulate them a lot as to where you want them to go?

Edited January 2, 2018 by Dantay VI

[sbarnby71]

Not tried the army painter dip, but have tired the Blue Tone they do, really like the colour but not a fan of how it stains the flat areas.

 

I think I'm going to try the varnish technique see how that pans out then dull it down with Lahmian Medium, seen a few youtube clips on doing it.

 

Do the gloss washes leave less staining than the normal?  I must admit I never saw the point of them, who wants a shiny model, unless it's for lazy painters like me!

 

Thanks for the tips Dantay VI

[Dantay VI]

The gloss washes are more doing metallics I believe as the wash leaves them very dull

 

Also it will run into the crevices better. I have no idea about the staining on the panels. I assume you mean the streaks and watermarks? Those are generally caused by using too much wash

[Yoyo ninja]

Could you use a fine detail brush and just put the wash where you want it? You don't have to cover all the armour in wash.

[sbarnby71]

The staining would be when you have a flat surface, say a shoulder pad, if I apply the wash over that, it will naturally run into the recess at the rim of the pad, but as the painted surface is never glass smooth, it will still catch on the flat surface, but maybe I am just being too heavy handed with my washes.

[crd26a]

I feel your pain sbarnby.  I think I'm going to try the 1:1:3 mix above but probably just use straight agrax and skip the nuln.  Between my washes and limited edge highlights, need to work on some of my detail work (which drives an assembly painter like myself nuts).

[Karhedron]

The staining would be when you have a flat surface, say a shoulder pad, if I apply the wash over that, it will naturally run into the recess at the rim of the pad, but as the painted surface is never glass smooth, it will still catch on the flat surface, but maybe I am just being too heavy handed with my washes.

This is true. Some of the wash will cling, even to flat surfaces. To be fair, if it did not, you would get a sort of "tide-line" effect where it stopped. I cannot think of an easy way of applying a wash such that none ends up on the flat surfaces. As Yoyo ninja suggests, you could just use a fine brush and only apply the was to the crevices but since your object seems to be saving time and effort, that is probably not the right route for you.

[Yoyo ninja]

Tried an air brush? I love mine for doing armour quickly. My armour colour scheme 5 different layers, but I'll do Rhino chassis in 10mins of painting (not including drying time). Can do the same with marines, line them up, do a layer, let it dry, do the next layer,let it dry, ect. Spraying at different angles leaves recesses darker, while flat bits catch the lighter colour.

[Kinstryfe]

In most cases I've taken to mixing up a large glass of acrylic ink wash and leaving it covered at my painting desk. Big enough to dip termies and smaller in. Stuff gets sprayed a suitable base coat, literally dipped in the wash, shaken off, and left to dry. It then gets a really quick brush coating over the raised areas, quick touchups to anywhere where it pooled too heavily, and the main armor color is pretty much good to go. Once you get the ink wash the right dilution and find the right spray base color, it all goes pretty quickly and I can focus on the fun parts to paint.

[sbarnby71]

Thanks for all the ideas folks, I think I'm going to try a white sprayed base coat, a wash of  Army Painter Blue Tone, then a dry brush of Stormfang. If I want some extra highlights I can add that with a layer paint.

[Kalamadea]

Save yourself all the headache and get into Enamel Washes, they're a life changer!

 

Humbrol makes some, but my favorite are AK Interactive enamel washes and panel liners because they clean up even easier than Humbrol with absolutely no staining. You basically paint the model the main color, slather on the wash and wait a few minutes for it to dry, then go back with a q-tip dipped in some white spirits/oderless mineral spirits and wipe away all the excess. The spirits is a solvent that cuts right through the enamel paint but doesn't affect acrylic paint at all, so it leaves absolutely perfect panel lines and shading and with a little practice you can get some really smooth blends from the wash into the base color with very little effort. You can also mix up your own washes out of oil paints (like from the tubes of paint at the art store) and OMS, but you need to gloss varnish the model for an oil wash whereas the enamel wash can go right over the flat paint and cleans up almost completely. It's freaking magical. The only real issue is that if you're US based like I am the washes are a bit hard to get, you need to buy them from online importers and they wind up being $7 to $10 for a bottle of wash. All my SW are the old 13th Company scheme of Codex Grey with a brown wash, for you I think the "Grey and Blue Camoflauge Panel Liner" would be pretty much perfect.

 

 

Here's a Youtube video of somebody painting a Flames of War tank with the washes, you can see how you just kinda slap them on and then wipe them away. It's super easy and super fast, the end result is great, it REALLY speeds up painting models, and of course you can use different washes on different colors and clean them all up at the same time.

 

[sbarnby71]

Thanks Kalamadea, I'm based in the UK and can get them for £4.99 from ebay, so will give the Grey and Blue panel liner a go.

[Dantay VI]

 

How about this?

[sbarnby71]

Kinda wanted blue, rather than old shed brown...

[Dantay VI]

Lol, gotcha

 

He did another one making small batches of agrax and nuln using paints to make the wash, will see what I can dig up

[quinnwolf]

Lol, gotcha

 

He did another one making small batches of agrax and nuln using paints to make the wash, will see what I can dig up

 

It's this video:

 

 

i've bought the gear to make it so will let you know how it goes, cost me £10-£12 so far for what will probably equate to a lifetimes supply!

 

(I'm using the Windsor Newton matt medium method rather than the floor polish one)

Edited January 8, 2018 by quinnwolf

[Dantay VI]

Thats the beastie... Good job Quinnwolf.

 

He could use this to dip and shake the models and get them done fast

[sbarnby71]

Bl00dy hell I could use a hosepipe to apply that much wash!

[Dantay VI]

Make enough, dip, shake off excess, repeat till all models done