Making a wash with acrylic medium for minis / terrain?

DMS General
1

I’m having trouble finding a recipe for making a wash using acrylic medium, water, and paint. Does anyone have experience with the ratio I should be using here?

2

did you try this one?

http://theleadheadblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/making-your-own-washes.html

3

I haven’t tried any. I want to skip the “experiment till I get it right part” if someone already has a magic ratio they use.

4

he literally has recipes for a couple of different kinds that have already been fleshed out. pics and all.

5

Here’s the recipe I like: it uses acrylic inks rather than paint. In my experience, some acrylic paints “break” (like a sauce recipe can break) and get blotchy if thinned too much.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/261541.page

Video How-to for this recipe:
https://youtu.be/dEkMnP6p08I

FWIW, the Reaper liner paints are pretty good and reasonably priced.

6

Do the acrylic inks work better or the same as the acrylic paints on printed ABS? Now that I’ve got my MK3S up and running, I’m making items to use in our RPG, so lots of ABS.

7

I wouldn’t use washes on 3D printed terrain - it tends to highlight the layer lines, especially since I tend to print terrain at 0.2mm layer heights. Instead I use a base color and two levels of hightlights

My approach for 3D printed terrain:

  • print in grey ABS or PLA
  • basecoat using grey sandable autobody primer
  • use acrylic craft paint (Apple Barrel or similar) to block in main colors
  • highlight heavily with 2nd color painted on
  • light highlight with very light color drybrushed on.

I might come in at the end and paint in certain shadow lines to emphasize species features if they got lost in the highlights.

2 Likes
8

Have you found Black Magic Craft on Youtube yet? He’s got some suggestions for a base he uses on foam (it’s modpodge and black paint if I remember correctly) but it might actually help fill the layer lines a little. Also, magic wash is popular as a later layer.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/468740/miniature-painting-magic-wash

9

I can recommend a couple of Facebook groups:

The tabletop Crafters Guild:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dmscottyscraftsngames/?ref=share

(Note: Black Magic Crafts is a contributor.)

The Tabletop 3D Printing Guild:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/892975347554507/?ref=share

Both are helpful, non-snarky groups with lots of feedback and shared crafting.

1 Like
10

I use the future floor cleaner wash technique, it works pretty well with regular acrylics, but better with acrylic ink

11

I do NOT recommend using floor polish with XPS foam terrain, however. I once tried using some “Old English” furniture polish as a wash on some painted foam terrain (XPS bluefoam) and it leaked though a pinhole in the paint and dissolved some of the foam.

12

Eep! That’s not fun