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.

Showcase - Chaos Space Marine Dark Apostle

As a bonus post for the day I thought I would put up another one of those miniatures that's just hanging about in the battle bunker (that's the nickname given to my hobby room in case you hadn't guessed).
Again this was done for a painting contest with the theme of Heroes in the Peterborough Games Workshop store (my local one) and features a couple of minor conversions.

Showcase : Battle For Blood Island - Warhammer Style

A while ago my local Games Workshop Store (Peterborough) ran a contest with the title and theme of conflict, it was intended to be a conflict between two (or more) heroes battling it out, This is what I entered

Battle For Blood Island