The Ship Model Forum

if if I use enamels as my basecoat, and need to use an enamel as the wash, what type of thinner medium should I use?
Were talking about MM enamels here.

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Pat Hensley

What I do is barrier the base coat with Future and then use regular paint thinnner to thin MM paints. I prefer to use artist's oils for my washes and thin them with tupeniod (odorless thinnner). Tupenoid is as "hot" as regular thinner. Hope this helps.

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Any ship larger than a Destroyer is a waste of metal.

You should test first on a scrap item (made of the same material as your ship) to see if the wash effects your enamel base coat. The key thing is to find out how your choice of paint will react before you try it on a real project.

Generally, you can use the thinner made by the manufacturer of the paint.

I have had problems with enamel washes wrinkling the base coat, and for that reason, I suggest that either water colours, acrylics or oils might be better. The other thing you may find is that enamel washes don't always stay where you want them to and are more difficult to clean up the excess than other paints, but you should be able to get it right with a bit of practice.

You could also follow what armour modellers do and seal the base coat with matt varnish before you apply a wash.

Hope this gives you some more ideas,

Rob

As Les said, if you put Future between the base coat and the washes, you should have no problems. Also, the Future high gloss finish really helps with the application of the wash; it lets the mixture flow into the details and not puddle and muddy the entire surface of the model.

I paint with acrylics, coat with Future, let dry for 2 or 3 days. Do an enamel wash, let dry for a few days, flat coat, and then dry brush and shade with oil paints, let dry for 4 or 5 days, and then final flat coat.

-Devin

NM

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Pat Hensley