When you first start adding detail to your models, the first and easiest step is to start panel lining with a Gundam marker, which is as easy as using any other pen as it has a very narrow tip to leave fine lines. It adds a great deal of depth to your model by making the detail lines stand out.
Alternatively there are washes, which involve a little more work but are a lot more flexible. You can buy pre-made washes and they are really convenient whenever you need a grey, black or brown wash. Of course, you have a limited selection of colours.
I’m in the habit of mixing my own washes as I like the flexibility to mix whatever colour I want.
Typically you will use grey washes for white and light off-white pieces, black for dark greys and cool colours (e.g. blue), and brown for warm colours (e.g. red and yellow).
Of course these are only guides and you can do whatever you want, for example I sometimes use a blue wash over white armour.
You can also try using a darker shade of the piece you are lining, which has significantly less contrast. For example you could use a navy blue wash over light blue armour.
Choosing your wash type
I use lacquer and acrylic for painting the base coat and details, so my washes are either enamel or oil based paint. It’s important that:
(1) your wash paint and its thinner do not react with the surface you’re applying it to [Acrylic can be used over anything, Enamel paint can be used over anything but can damage plastic if used excessively, lacquer can only be used over lacquer or bare plastic], and,
(2) you use a wash than can be made liquid again when you apply some thinner to it.
Enamel and oil washes fulfill both these criteria well.
Preparing your model
Important thing to remember is thinner can easily damage your bare plastic, but it’s unlikely to happen if you use the following steps. If you don’t and you flood the model with thinner it’s practically guaranteed to break something.
- Painting your kits creates a barrier between the thinner and the plastic and will significantly reduce the chance of anything being damaged, so I highly recommend it.
- If you don’t want to paint, then I recommend giving your kit a clear gloss coat.
- If you don’t want to do that either then proceed at your own risk.
Also, you want the wash to flow easily along your panel lines, so you will need to have glossy or semi-gloss surface. If you do this on a matte surface the paint won’t flow and you will probably end up staining your kit (although this can be desirable sometimes).
Mixing your own wash
Put some of your paint into a dish and mix it with the appropriate thinner in a ratio of about 1 part paint to 2 part thinner. You don’t need to be exact, as long as you have a watery yet opaque mix it will do. Think of it as making very dirty thinner.
Applying the wash
Dip a brush into the well mixed wash mixture and wipe off some of the excess. You don’t want the brush flooded, just wet. Next dip the brush into the panel line and if the wash is thin enough it will be drawn through the panel. If it doesn’t then mix in some more thinner and try again.
Sometimes you are washing an area that doesn’t have a distinct panel line, in this case, you can paint the wash into whatever area you want it. After applying the wash give it about ten minutes to dry. You will see that there is wash outside of the panel line as well, but don’t worry as we’ll deal with that next.
Clean up
Once you have applied the wash and given it some time to dry you can clean off the excess. Dip a cotton bud into your thinner (enamel in this case) and dry off the excess by pressing it against the inside of the thinner bottle and/or wiping it off on some paper towel or cardboard. Remember you don’t want a wet bud, you want a damp one.
For the majority of clean up I use a regular cotton bud, however, sometimes you need a bud which holds together more tightly (to avoid removing too much wash) and can fit into tighter spaces. For that I recommend something like these Tamiya buds. They have narrower tips, come in different shapes, and, they’re more tightly wound so they don’t come apart like a regular cotton bud.
Use the bud to wipe off the excess. It’s best to wipe perpendicular to the panel line. so you don’t remove more than you want.
Sometimes you don’t have a panel so much as a raised piece next to a lower piece. If that’s the case I typically swab from the higher piece down to the lower piece first, leaving more of the wash behind.
If there is still too much wash left, then swab from lower to raised piece. Don’t twist the bud while doing this.
That’s pretty much it for panel line washes. Below you will see some of my in-progress pictures of this technique applied to my Hi-Res Barbatos. I’m going to redo many of the light grey armour parts as the black wash contrasts too much. I’ll also try some brown wash on the frame as it should blend in better as well.
Hope you find this helpful, please drop a comment and tell me what kind of guides you would like next.