Streaky Nuln oil on vehicle surfaces

[Galloway]

Hi all- looking to see if anyone has advice on an issue I'm running into. My current army is a Dark Angels successors with primarily black armor. My scheme for the black is to use a black primer, basecoat Vallejo heavy charcoal, highlight with a medium grey, and then wash with Nuln oil to blend together/add some depth. This works fine for individual marines, but I find whenever I apply the Nuln oil wash to vehicles, it dries very streaky and leaves tide marks (I think is the term) on any flat surface of meaningful size. A few pictures below to show what I mean. Depending on the lighting an angle it can go from being invisible to really noticeable. I've tried to be careful to not put too much on at any time, but maybe I still am? Diluting the nuln oil with water or lahmian medium doesn't seem to help either. Curious if anyone else has run into this and found a solution, or if it's just a feature of washes plus large flat surfaces? Would the best thing to do then be do another layer with a mix of heavy charcoal and nuln oil or some other darker black after the wash? Something else?

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Try a pin wash.

[Lucien Eilam]

You’re not doing anything wrong, that’s typical for washes + large flat surfaces. They’re formulated to pool in recesses, but you’re putting them somewhere there’s no recess to run into. The more detail there is, the better they’ll work. If you use them everywhere on flat surfaces, you really need to repaint the bulk of the plate to cover all the streaks, puddles and tide marks they’ll leave behind.

 

One option is to use them as a much more targeted pin wash, applied directly to the actual recesses, corners, etc. with a fine brush, rather than everywhere.

 

Another is to ditch them for oil washes. They’ll have a similar effect at first if applied all over, but pooled oil paint can be easily cleaned up when it’s dry to the touch because of the slow curing time and the way they interact with solvents.

[sarabando]

try an oil wash if your not willing to take that plunge try adding a tiny tiny bit of dish soap to your wash.

[Galloway]

Thanks all. Makes sense about the wash pooling without recesses. Will give the suggestions a try.

[Bryan Blaire]

If you are trying to make some kind of gradient on the surfaces, it’s going to take a while, but mixing your paint and applying it in layers is going to be much more effective to do than trying to do washes to create.  Even wet blending on large surfaces like a vehicle with flat panels seems like it’s more prone to go wonky and splotchy, but will likely be more effective than washes as well.

 

If you have the means, using an airbrush to get gradients on flat panels of vehicles is probably the most effective.

 

Again, this all depends on if you are trying to get gradients on the panels.

Lucien’s comments/suggestions are very good otherwise.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Oil takes a long time to dry I suggest checking out some tutorials on YT.

[Jolemai]

You might be able to buff it back up by focused drybrushing.

[Firedrake Cordova]

If you're just trying to pick out details, you could use a recess wash (i.e. paint it into the recesses). Alternatively, painting the shade onto a surface dampened with Lahmian Medium/water/airbrush thinner will reduce the surface tension, and make it behave more like an oil wash, being drawn to the recesses.

 

If you want to "tint" the area, spraying Shades through an airbrush is effective.

 

Also, never underestimate the effectiveness of a "tactical drybrush" as Jolemai suggested.

 

++EDIT: You can use Vallejo Airbrush Thinner (reduced 50% with water) to remove Vallejo Model Wash if it's been dry for under a day - don't know if this can be done with Nuln Oil.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Firedrake Cordova

[Arkhanist]

Blending together large flat surfaces is generally hard, and black is no different. So yes, to keep your scheme as is, the easiest way is to use an oil filter. Strictly speaking, an oil wash is like an acrylic wash, where you want to build up darker tones in recesses; but with panel staining being wiped off afterwards with a brush and clean solvent, just leaving darker panel lines (something you can't do with acrylics)

 

In your case, it sound like you want to darken the main tone of the flat plates and blend together brushwork, so you want a filter. An oil filter is like an oil wash, but thinned down with more solvent (usually mineral spirits or less smelly analog) specfically to alter the colour and/or blend together the underlying colours on the main plates. It's the difference between an acrylic wash and a glaze, in effect. The oil filter will dry much smoother than a wash, and can be reactivated with more solvent if you need to remove any darker spots, just by applying more of the solvent. Downsides of oils is a] they take days to dry b] you should varnish first to protect your existing paintwork c] the smell of the solvent.

 

Acrylic glazes are another way to do it (i.e. a very heavily thinned paint or wash), but on flat surfaces you need a lot of thinned layers to avoid splotchiness - literally so thin you can't see the change per individual layer, so it takes a while.

 

There is a new product by Ammo, which is an acrylic filter - it's designed to mimic an oil filter, i.e. go on as an even stain instead of splotchy patches, but it's water based instead of an organic solvent, with a much longer working time (so you can remove unwanted build up), but still quicker than oils. I've not used it personally, but it could be worth a go if you really don't fancy getting started with oils.

 

Another option, instead of painting the main surfaces a lighter grey and darkening it down with a glaze/filter, is to stick to a darker grey on the main flats and use a pinwash - a targetted wash only in crevices, either acrylic or oil - oil or enamels being easier as it 'sucks' into the crevices easier. I use tamiya panel line accent color for this job, just gloss varnish first to protect the acrylic from the solvent and help it flow easier. Then edge highlight as normal.

 

Lastly; this is an *ideal* job for an airbrush, with multiple options to achieve the effect very easily (either airbrushed layers or as a filter-style effect). So if you're already tempted by one, painting tanks would be a good reason.

[Rik Lightstar]

All the tips so far are spot on.

 

Another to add to the list though is to use a coat of gloss varnish, preferably sprayed or airbrushed lightly. This will a smooth surface over which to apply your wash allowing it to run into the recesses better. It also gives some protection to the paint work underneath so you can do some clean up while the wash is still wet with some airbrush cleaner and an old brush.

 

Overall though, my advice would be to stay darker on the body of the panels and use the lighter colours more sparingly so you need to use the wash as less of a filter.

 

Rik

[MegaVolt87]

I understand your frustration since you are edge highlighting. If you are weathering + chipping however thats the perfect finish on a flat panel to work from for aged/ distressed paintwork.