Tutorial - Basic Techniques - The Wash

I was in my local Games Workshop yesterday to do some painting and due to some case confusion picked up my space wolves not my high elves thereby confounding the painting plan, however being in the store anyway I was chatting to another fellow hobbyist, and as these thing always do talk very quickly turned to painting techniques.
It transpired that my fellow hobbyist had little experience with the wonder that is the world of washes and it has occurred to me that there may be a few painters out there that don't know just what washes will do for them.
So for my first ever Tutorial I have chosen this very topic.

So to start with the next picture is a miniature with only a base coat of GW's 'The Fang' spray you will notice that much of the detail on this miniature is currently lost as there is no depth to the colour.

This is where washes come in I prefer to do large scale washes where ever possible in other words I like to cover the whole piece in one wash colour if I can and for those power armour fans that is usually the way to go in which case

 

Take a medium sized brush and load it with your wash colour (I tend to use GW's Null Oil for 'almost' everything), now don't worry if you think you have to much on your brush if you do you can sort it out after (yes I said after) you apply it to your miniature.

 

Paint the whole surface of the miniature with this wash colour and you will notice almost immediately that the wash will settle into the recessed areas of the piece.

 

If you feel that you still have to much wash floating around on your miniature simply wash out your brush in clean water, dry it out on clean tissue paper then, apply this clean dry brush to areas of excessive pooling, and the brush will soak up this excess.

 

Beware however, while normal GW paint dries out pretty quickly the nature of this application means that it WILL take a lot longer to dry, so time to be patient  and go and make a brew, or start on the next batch.

Once dry you should notice that the original base colour has been a little muted and recessed areas are much more defined (see the photo above).

Congratulations you have learned how to apply washes.

Now it is also possible to apply washes to smaller more detailed areas as well, such as faces and equipment, these are done in the same way just a little more carefully and with a smaller brush.

Now get out there and experiment with wash colours and application.

My next Tutorial will be the next Basic Technique - Overbrushing and Drybrushing