Painting using nothing but washes. Anybody try this?

[Blackheart1223]

Hey all,

 

I have a lot of zombies to paint for my Vraks army. I was thinking of just doing washes over a white undercoat (purely for speed). Has anybody tried painting this way?

[NiceGuyAdi]

I dabbled into trying to get black power armour by washing blacks and blues over grey: I found it pretty tricky and couldn't rush it because otherwise I'd get waterspots. In the end I gave up, but I admit I didn't persevere with it as a technique.

 

Best of luck!

[Slips]

I have to a decent effect. Ill post up pictures when I get to my PC.

 

Should be noted that, this this scenario, you want a Silver Basecoat or somethig Metallic since pretty anything else will make it look...funky.

 

White and Grey could work if your going for a one-and-done scheme for Zombies or whatever using Brown, Sepia and Black Washes.

[ShadowSong7007]

For zombies it would work great. I've used the wash method for another War-name game and it works really well. Just make sure to let your coats dry and don't rush it. 

[Razblood]

Did Gabriel Seths armour with Red, Sepia & Magenta Inks years ago which came out looking great, not tried just washes though.

[DistroyA]

The only time I've used washes over a white coat was for my filthy green skins. In regards power armour, I reckon it'd be too difficult to achieve a decent result with just washes, but that's just my opinion.

[Slips]

Heres an Iron Hand Marine I did using nothing but washes and Silver for the Basecoat and Drybrush.

 

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/a598/stampeeder/2016-01-22%2000.33.04_zpsizpoenqf.jpg

[Soldier of Dorn]

After the new(ish) Corax White spraycan came out, there were a bunch of examples in WD of Nurgle Daemons whose flesh was purely washes over white. Looked not bad.

[Blackheart1223]

@Slipstreams-that looks ace, now I want to do Iron Warriors

 

@DistroyA-I've done black power armour with washes before, but it was from an Eshin Grey basecoat.

 

I have some old junk WFB models laying around. I'm going to have a go on those.

[Noserenda]

I did a few hundred zombies for Warhammer using a similar technique, base coated in grey skin and random coloured trousers, slapped a quick drybrush highlight on and then various washes to get orrible bloodied zombie hordes :) 

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/Noserenda/Models/Zombie%20Cannibals/Zombiesagain.jpg

 

[Pearson73]

I've done it with my zombies last year, white basecoat with purple wash on skin, red/brown on cloth:

Also with a Death Guard Helbrute, white base with pink, green and pale brown washes where needed:

[Ironheaded]

Yes, this can be done. I did entire Genestealer Cult with nothing but washes and inks. I did use some metals for weapons. My trick was to preshade the model with white over black, with my airbrush. (can do this with rattle-can sprays too.)

[mactire]

This is how me and my son did all of his nits. It works quite well, we decided to use green as the colour but our "test" models used all the different washes and both sepia and agrax over a white spray would look pretty well.

 

"nits" should read nids , I'm not sure how well washes are for treating headlice.

[Halandaar]

My entire Tyranid army is basically three washes over white spray; Fuegan Orange on the carapaces, Agrax Earthshade for the flesh areas and Carroburg Crimson on the weapons. I wanted something quick and simple to get the swarm painted in good time while still looking decent, and I think it worked. You should be fine doing zombies like that.

[old git]

You might be better using a grey spray undercoat. As usual. Halfords (UK) grey primer is ideal.

[NiceGuyAdi]

Have a look at the current White Dwarf (122). The featured army is a very nicely done Nurgle Chaos Space Marines army, which the owner says was done using Citadel Shades over Corax White. Lots of pics and a rundown on his technique in there.

[Burias-Drak'shal]

ive done it with dwarfs and skaven before but have heard people doing so for imprials fists, but still need metallics

[Grand Master Laertes]

My plaguebearers are a couple of Athonian Camoshade washes and a Reikland Fleshade wash over a Rakarth Flesh basecoat, with purple and red glazes around the wounds

[Sanguine Rose]

I painted some Gaunts for a buddy.  The skin was just a very light cream with a brown wash.  Some models and colors really lend themselves to just using washes.  For something like Gaunts or Zombies, some cannon fodder you need a bunch of, I would recommend wash painting.  It will save you a ton of time and still look pretty good on the field.

[appiah4]

A lot of people used to do this for Imperial Fists.. I think GW discontinued a crucial wash/glaze at some point but I may be mistaken.

 

It's counterintuitive to me and I can't see myself getting good gradiants with this method; in my experience washes are always someone splotchy and need cleaning up.

[Slips]

No, Cassandora Yellow and Lamenters Yellow are still around so the IF are still good.

 

If you're brushing it on, getting gradients is going to be tricky, not so much with an airbrush.

[Blackheart1223]

I'll be brushing it on. Using my airbrush gets tricky because I have a little one running around. I'm also thinking of doing this on my Renegades, since I'm using Skaven models for the infantry.

[Major_Gilbear]

There's a chap at Antimatter Games (who make the DeepWars miniatures game) who paints almost exclusively over a white undercoat with washes and glazes. I think the final razor highlights and a few spot items are then picked out in more usual techniques, but these areas are normally limited (so 90%+ painted just with successive washes for example). He posts a lot of his step-by-steps over on the Lead Adventure forum, and is very approachable about his technique.

 

If you apply any washes with a brush, I would suggest adding a touch of flow release and a little drying retarder to stuff on the palette. This allows the washes to flow a bit better and dry more slowly, which in turn gives you a smoother finish and avoids any streaks/tide marks. I used a variation of this for the green armour on the Dark Angels I painted. :)

[Kilofix]

One thing about washes on just white, you do need a few coats / layers for the colors stand out.

 

Dry brushing might be faster really.

[Major_Gilbear]

Well for sheer speed and a better finish than drybrushing (which rarely looks good IMO), I would suggest blocking in a few quick colours and then dipping them.

This is even faster to do if you basecoat the models in an ivory or light flesh tone first, as it saves more time when blocking in the colours.