Friday, September 9, 2011

Basic Training: Washing

This is a very short one, but important nonetheless.

After you've basecoated your models, they always seem to look rather bland.  From this stage, the next step is to begin layering the lighter and darker colors and maybe even highlighting.  But if you're like me (lazy) and you'd rather get your models done quickly, you can use washes to instantly shade your models and reach the tabletop faster. 

So I've been working on my unit of Empire Spearmen for many weeks now (or, more accurately, ignoring the models for many weeks and putting in about four real hours of work...).   To get them basecoated, I used:  Chaos Black, Dheneb Stone, Calthan Brown, Boltgun Metal, Tallarn Flesh, Hormagaunt Purple, and Brazen Brass.



As you can see, they're very boring with only the base colors painted on.  Here's the great part: 

Grab your worst paintbrush (the best size is standard or larger),


These are the actual brushes that I used on these spearmen, basecoat and all!

Grab your favorite wash (I believe strongly that Devlan Mud is the best all-purpose wash), dip your paintbrush into the pot and grab a liberal amount of the wash (no water), and simply drown your model by 'slopping' the wash all over!  

See the difference?  If you can't, you shouldn't be painting...

It's really that easy!  Now this isn't the last step to painting great looking models, but you'll have tabletop-quality models instantly.  Give this a spin on your own models and see how you like it!  Soon, I'll post how to take that next step, but I think you'll be doing just fine if get this far...