Washes and Inks

I realize that my third Stompa update never showed up. That's mainly because I got tired and decided to take a break on it.  I'll return to it at a later date.  For now I've been working on other elements of my Ork army, mainly a squad of Loota Boyz.

But that's not what this post is about!  In this post I'm going to document the experiments I've been doing lately on washes and inks.  Washes are one of the first things new painters discover to take their models from meh to cool.  Even one coat of color with a wash can look nice on the table, but washes are great tools no matter what level of painting you're at.

I find most people have strong preferences when it comes to washes, usually very inconsistent from person to person.  For me, I really miss my old school Citadel Black and Brown inks, which were later "replaced" with Badab Black and Devlan Mud washes (those replaced by Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade washes).  I use the quotes because while Badab and Devlan are brilliant washes, they do not perform the same as the old inks in many ways.  I view them as a new tool, better for many things, but I miss my inks.

To sum up the differences: the washes have a matte finish, and tend to coat evenly.  They are very easy to use even straight out of the bottle, and generally don't pool or gather in unsightly ways like the old inks.  This makes them great for cloth, skin, and solid colors (like painted armor).  However, I don't like the effect on metallic paints.  The finish steals away the shine of the metals making them look like flat paint, and the even coating doesn't provide the hard outlining that I feel can make metal pop.

The old inks had more of a gloss finish, and would settle into a very dark tone in the recesses, creating stronger outlining.  They pooled, couldn't be used straight out of the bottle, and needed a matte varnish on non-metal elements (clothes shouldn't generally shine), but they made metal look great.

I recently ran out of my last bit of old Brown Ink, and decided to hunt for a replacement for both it and my Black Ink (which is, admittedly, easier to replace).  Here are my results:

Brown Inks

Typically I use brown colors to shade gold, brass, bronze, and copper metals (I sometimes use a combo of black, brown, and more reddish inks, but this post isn't about that).  For the base here I used Vallejo Bright Bronze, which is my base color for most gold effects I do.  Note that inks pretty much always need to be diluted as they tend to be darker than most washes.

First up is P3 Formula Brown Ink, which is used on the lower half of this model.  The effect here is somewhere between the Citadel Washes and Inks.  Not a bad effect, and the metal stays shiny, but the color is 'very' red, much more so than I want in a brown ink.  Ultimately this isn't what I'm looking for.

Winsor and Newton Inks can be found in most good sized professional art supply stores.  I've actually used them before, and I like the black and brown effects they provide (I'd avoid using them for brighter colors, as I've had problems with them bleeding through paint layers).  The lower half of this model is a great example of what an ink can do for metal paints.  Strong outlines, good shading, but the metal still shines.  I like this one a lot, but the effect is a bit more subtle in person than I think this photo lets on.

Most of the body of this model is shaded with Liquitex Raw Umber ink, another art store ink.  I didn't like the black Liquitex ink (not shown below because it looked bad), so I didn't expect to like this one either.  I was pleasantly surprised!  This ink soaked into the recesses and created very strong outlines and has a nice deep brown tone.  You can see the pooling on the chest which is a common problem with inks, but I'm OK with fixing that for the overall effect.  Definitely my favorite so far.

Oh Liquitex, where have you been all my life!  This is it, this is the effect I was looking for. Notice how every part of the metal seems to shine regardless of shading, and how sharp the lines are, but the top most notes of the metal color are almost unchanged.  This is what a good ink does for the metals that I love.  This color is similar in effect to the Raw Umber, but has a bit more red in it (the 'burnt' part I assume).  I prefer this, personally since I tend to have more 'brassy' gold, but I'd use both.  Note the pooling on the sword hand.  This happens with this effect, and so you need to be prepared to clean it up with the original color.

Similar to the other Liquitex, but a much lighter color.  Likely good as an additional shade, but I'd be unlikely to use it on its own.

Black Inks

I typically use black on silver, so for these models they are based with GW's Ironbreaker.

I found this at Brookhurst Hobbies.  Going to be short and sweet, don't like it.  To me it feels like it has the pooling problems of an ink but the dulling properties of a wash.

Ok, Tamiya Smoke is an interesting one. Really nice outlining, totally keeps the metal shine.  I like this one a lot.  My only issue was the that it's gloss finish seemed a little inconsistent (some things where shinier than others).  Of course this isn't really visible in the photo.  But I really liked this one.

Sorry for the upside down photo (lighting).  The lower half of this miniature is Winsor Newton's black ink, some line as the Nut Brown ink above.  The overall effect was fine, but not inspiring.  A bit closer to a wash in finish in many ways.  Nuln Oil and Badab are better and easier to use for that effect.

OK, I saw this on a website as a way to make 'oily' metal.  You mix Liquitex Carbon Ink with Tamiya Clear Orange in a 1:1 ratio, and I think I diluted it with water or possibly Magic Wash.  If you want oily looking metal done easily, this effect was 'awesome'.  I wouldn't use it for most things, but for that particular job it's great.

Ok, what product is this?!?  Magic wash is made of 1/2 water, and 1/2 Future Floor Wax.  You then pop a brushful of whatever paint you want into a bit of it and instant wash!  The floor wax cuts down on surface tension and allows the wash to easily flow, keeping it from pooling.  I've been using this stuff for over 10 years and it really is glorious.  It used to be my go to way of making washes, but now I opt for more consistent pre-mixed options, but I do still use it regularly.

Note: when you mix and apply it your model will have a nice, clean smell.  I promise this goes away. :)  It also has a shine to it from the floor wax, but if you use a matte varnish on things you don't want to shine this is a great way to make washes.

Washes

For reference I did some tests with the current and previous lines of GW washes, both to see what they looked like compared to my tests but also compared to one another.

First up is Badab Black versus Nuln Oil.  Both are great washes, that produce great effects with little chance for error, and are great for metals if you like the effect.  I'm mostly spoiled towards what I started using when I first started painting, hence my search for inks.  In terms of comparison, if you took the labels off the above pictures I could not tell them apart.  The Badab looks a bit darker, but I think I applied it a bit thicker.  Take a look at the gun in particular, since it has the same profile in both images and you'll see how close they are.  Although I'd never begrudge someone preferring one over the other, I certainly have my biases as the rest of this post shows. :)  Note that I missed painting the sword in the badab black shot.

Here we have Citadel Devlan Mud vs. the upstart Agrax Earthshade.  Again, the difference to me is pretty mild, and most of the variance really has more to do with my application than difference in tone.  My application of Agrax was definitely thicker than I normally would put it on, and then the DM application.  The Devlan Mud appears slightly more reddish in these pictures, and that may be the case.

A less expensive and excellent option for washes are the Army Painter line of Soft Tone (close to Seraphim Sepia), Strong Tone (close to Agrax Earthshade), and Dark Tone (close to Nuln Oil).  I tend to mildly prefer the Citadel washes, but the the Army Painter line are great alternatives that many prefer, and a better value for your dollar.  Note that the red tones around the upper chest on the strong tone example are another wash that I failed to fully cover.

Tests Not Pictured

I also tested the following that I didn't bother documenting.  Note that a lot of Vallejo products ended up in this category so I'll caveat that I 'love' Vallejo paints.  They are high quality, good value, and unlike some people they don't discontinue their colors and leave you struggling for replacements. :)  Apparently I'm just not crazy about their inks and washes.

• Liquitex Carbon Ink, but it was too blotchy and not worth showing.  Surprising given how much I liked the other Liquitex inks and how well this ink worked with Tamiya Clear Orange.
• Vallejo Game Color Inks and to me they performed similarly to the current line of GW washes, so I didn't bother documenting them.  If you like Vallejo, don't like GW, or prefer dropper bottles they're a good option, but I still prefer the Army Painter washes as an alternative.
• AV Acrylic Artist Ink I believe is Vallejo's artist line.  I found it on Amazon and tried it out.  To me it felt like a wash that didn't cover as well.  It's not bad, just didn't stand out for me.
• Vallejo Model Wash Black gave a more gritty appearance that I didn't care for.  These are their more realistic lines of colors, though, so maybe not surprising?
• I tested several Vallejo Model Wash colors, basically anything that said 'brown', 'earth', or 'oil' on it.  I found them all to be too subtle in effect or light in color.  Again, this is their more realistic line, and I'm just not a very realistic painter. :)

Conclusion

For brown inks I'm definitely going with the Liquitex stuff.  Only the Winsor Newton got close to its performance, but I liked the Liquitex more.  For the black inks I'm less decisive.  I'll try the Tamiya Smoke, but I may just stick with Magic Wash.  Hope this was useful, sorry for the length!

Stompa Part 2

Time for a Stompa update!  When last I posted I'd put down all the basic colors, but felt the red was too blotchy and didn't look realistic.  The core issue I had was that when paint fades and peels away it tends to do so more from the top down, where I had the paint fading to the center of each panel.

These next couple of pics show where I went with the red next.  I used my brightest red (Khador Red) to go back over the panels and fill them in.  Since I was going for an uneven appearance I did most of this through drybrushing with a fairly wet brush.  I concentrated on the lower parts of panels out to the edges, and I'm much happier with the results.  I also added more red to the arms where they were previously completely metallic, focusing on the rokkits and chainweapon. 

With the red in place I was ready to start with washes.  The first round of washes focused completely on the silver parts of the model.  My Ork vehicles get about five washes to make them look sufficiently dirty.  Here is a shot with the first two washes, which are two layers of Nuln Oil.  Between this and the last shot I also painted all the brass elements with Vallejo Brassy Brass and gave them one wash in Nuln Oil.

In these next shots all the washes are almost complete.  After the Nuln Oil the silver parts got washes made with Scorched Brown (or Rhinox Hide), Mournfang Brown, and Skrag Brown.  I made washes with these using Lahmian (sp?) medium.  The brass got a second wash of Agrax Earthshade, and the mustard colors got a wash of Seraphim Sepia followed by Reikland Fleshshade.

This shot really shows off just how dirty all these washes make the silver.  I like my Ork metal to look really beat up and old, and this does the job.  You'll also notice some pooling of some of the washes, that sometimes can be unattractive.  This is intentional, dirt does tend to pool.  Regardless, the next drybrushing stage really cleans the worst of it up.  Also note, the rokkits and chainweapon I treated as 'newer' metal.  They only got one Nuln Oil and one Agrax Earthshade wash to intentionally make them stand out slightly from other parts of the model.

Below is a better shot of some of the white areas.  They are not done. They've been given several very light layers of XV-88 (the new Snakebite Leather IMO).  The effect is good, but not quite turning out exactly as I want it.

Here we have the washes for the white completed.  I was following suggestions from the Forgeworld Model Masterclass books that stated similar washes were done with Snakebite Leather, but I could not reproduce their effects with that color alone.

I needed to do a second wash of Reikland Fleshshade to give the center of the streaks the dark effect that, to me, makes them look more shaded and convincing.  Second wash is a little inaccurate, as this effect was done slowly, with several layers of XV-88 and Reikland washes applied lightly.  White can be unforgiving, so I treated this part very carefully.  I'm very happy with how they turned out.

In this shot you can see a panel that I added rust effects to. It's on the left towards the vertical center.  The effect was done by leaving a few silver panels with only one wash of Nuln Oil, then giving them a wash of Typhus Corrosion followed by Ryza Rust, just as GW recommends.  The Ryza Rust was drybrushed, follwed by a bit of stippling for the really bright spots.  I have 3-4 panels throughout the model with this effect.

And, last thing for this update are the smoke stacks.  These were an experiment that I am quite happy with.  I did a Ryza Rust drybrush on the rust spots over the black base coat.  Then I covered the entire smoke stacks with Typhus Corrosion.  I loved the texture and way this toned down the rust, but it made the stacks too grey, so after another Ryza Rust drybrush/stippling to pull the rust back up I washed the entire stacks in Nuln Oil avoiding the rust spots.  I'm not sure you can see it in this picture, but the result is a gritty texture over the stacks that I think looks really cool.  (Typhus Corrosion is a textured paint, with bits of sand-like material in it)

Next up: Silver and Brass get finishing drybrushes and the red gets cleaned up and blended with the other elements.  Then it's on to the details!

Stompa!

 Decided I'd finally put paint to the big guy.  A daunting task, but also a fun one.  I start most projects with some level of research, unless they are just batch paint jobs.  Even when I know color scheme it's good to see how others balance colors across a model.  In this case I wanted something special.  After doing a good amount of research I came across this as the basis for my stompa:

This model has the same primary colors as my army's vehicles: red, white, and a mustard color that I use for checks.  I love the weathering and how old it looks.  I'm not aiming to look 'exactly' like this, but just to have the final result feel similar, and to use this model as a guide.

Step one was to lay down my base colors:

At this stage my primary colors are in place.  The leadbelcher for silver, a medium grey for the white areas, mournfang brown for the mustard areas, and Khorne red for the red areas. I got a bit carried away and ended up adding the next two red layers, those being Wazdakka red and Khador red.  I did all these colors at once to get a sense for how everything balances against one another, but that being said, many of these colors will be quite different by the time they're done.  The silver will be more muted, for example.

The next stage I finished layering my three non-metallic colors: red, yellow, and white.  My goal is to get the whole model to the 'washes and weathering' stage, then go back and paint individual details like the characters, missiles, glyphs, lights, horns, etc.

It's worth noting, the red and white were done with sponges and stippling.  The yellow and silver areas were painted on with a brush.  The yellow in particular took many layers to get to the color I wanted.  The red already has an Agrax Earthshade wash and some touch-up to keep the red bright.

At this point I really thought I was done with all the red, yellow, and white areas other than washes and weathering, but after looking back at my core reference and a few other images I decided that I still have a lot of work left, mainly in the following areas:

• The red panels aren't right.  All the color is concentrated at the panel centers.  Looking back at my reference the 'fading' really happens more towards the top of the panels.  This makes sense, as paint to wear away and off from the top down.  I need to go back and fill out the red panels more.
• The arms are all metal. I need some red on both of them to balance things out.  I'm going to go ahead and paint the missiles red and do something on the chain choppa monstrosity.
• I need to work silver into the the black areas a bit more to make them feel like the paint has worn aware from bare metal, the idea being that the red is painted on top of a black primer, so some of the primer is exposed, and then some of the bare metal.  I was always planning on doing this after the washes, but now I'm thinking it should be part of the wash process to make sure everything looks sufficiently old.

That's all my progress for now!

Shokk Attack Gun

Big Mek with Kustom Force Field

Warboss Biker and Deff Koptas

As the rumors continue to fly for a new Ork codex (now in June) my work on my Ork army continues.  Here are the latest:

Bikes and Thongs

More posts from recently completed Ork projects.  Here we have some Nob bikers.

I've had this guy forever.  It's a fantasy savage shaman, but I just liked the model and thought I'd use him as a weird boy.

Plus, Ork thong...nuthin' wrong with that...right?

And finally, there's this guy.  I know you can get an Ork model with a long string of bullets like this, but I converted this model around 10 years ago and was really proud of it.  Amazing that I just now got around to painting it.