You can thin your wash, just don't over do it, too much water will increase the surface tension keeping the wash from setteling in the recesses. You can also give the mini a coat of gloss varnish before the wash which is supose to make it sink into the recesses better, keeping the raised areas cleaner, but I haven't tried this yet.

I'll usually wipe the wash away with my finger, which gives it a streaked or mottled look. If it gets too dark of grungy i'll just add another layer of the base color on the raised bits.

A gloss coat does wonders when applying a wash, no matter if it is an acrylic or oil wash. Satin varnish does a decent job if you don't have anything else, but never use matte varnish. Acrylic wash does have the problem that you often need to restore the original paint to at least some extent, unless you are really precise when applying it. And yes, washes might very well have to be thinned. It all depends on what you want to achieve.

Thanks for the replies! This is a huge help. I'd be more than content achieving the look of the wash they applied on the manufacturer HWK model. Any guesses on their process?

I find acrylic black ink watered down to the consistancy of semi skimmed milk is best.

Swab it over the model then draw off the excess with absorbant kitchen towell or tissue (tissue can leave bits of fluff behind if you have a very 'angular' model.

This leaves you with black in the recesses and dirty smears in places.

Practice on an old toy soldier or wrecked ship first thougt

Here's my Ice Squadron!

See here for its own thread here on the FFG forums: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/92926-ice-squadron-custom-painted-rebel-ships/

And here for the thread about how to paint the Z-95s: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/112058-custom-painting-a-z-95/

For more on how I painted my ships, have a look at my posts over at TeamCovenant:

Ice Squadron

Painting post 1

Painting post 2

And the ship hunting them down:

I'll try to explain in my poor english an easy painting solution for begginers:

- First, prime the mini. Be careful at this step if you don't want to cover the details. I use airbrush grey primer (can be aplied in several coats with a brush).

- Apply the main colours in several thin coats (if you try to do so in one coat, the paint will cover the details, so remember: mix the paint with water until it looks milk).

At this point, always move the brush dragging the paint to the natural maximun lighting point of the mini. When you lift the brush, the paint will stay there, so you can control the colour saturation.

- If you want to add an easy highlights effect, repeat the same step with lighter colours (don't mix it). Example: main colou r, them light colour , them highlight colour . R emember: several thin coats mixed with water. If you cover progressively smaller parts of the surface with each coat, you'll achieve a gradual effect. You can add a few touches in the maximun light point of all colours with ice yellow or bone white (remember that the light source is always the same, so you have paint the final highlights in the same colour over all the others to achieve a realistic effect, but be careful at this point.

- To add contrast, the easier solution for begginers are washes. Remember that the ammount of paint /wash is bigger at the point where you lift the brush, so move the brush dragging the wash to the maximun shadow point of the mini. You can use washes in several coats (covering a smallest part of the surface each time), but I recommend using Black ink only on the last coat.

- You can use airbrush black paint and a thin brush to define all the details.

- Varnish the mini with matt varnish. I use only gloss on engines and cockpits.

Hope it helps .

So To try and get my girlfriend into x wing I decided to paint her favourite ship pink.

Despite not liking pink all that much, I've found it a pretty good contrast to grey, so have painted a few more ships.

Pink is a good contrast, i find 'imperial purple' better and a little less 'hello kitty' (your stuff looks great btw but too much pink can make things look 'novelty').

My old battletech city fight mechs had grey base camo with purple distuptive 'net' over them (same scheme as used by german panther tanks with the LAH in Normandy but grey and purple rather than sand and green)

Hey not sure if this is the right thread to ask in, but in the sub forum a guy had super cool dioramas with little R2 units he made out of wire. Does anyone have pictures or a link to that?

Here we go: https://ignatiusminiatures.wordpress.com/

Here's some A's I did awhile back. Keeping the thread alive!

Doing my part

Go to my blog or my forum thread for the rest of the pictures.

Doing my part

Go to my blog or my forum thread for the rest of the pictures.

Looks more like a puma to me

...You ever wonder why we're here?

Doing my part

Go to my blog or my forum thread for the rest of the pictures.

Looks more like a puma to me

No. It's a warthog!

Macross, that droid work is insane.

Looks more like a puma to me

I can't decide if you are trying to troll me or not. At the very least I know that cougars don't have tusks. However, this second Y-wing does have some family ties to a cougar.

Go to my blog or my forum thread for the rest of the pictures.

My Empire ships.

The Rebels.

...You ever wonder why we're here?

Forty Two?:

No, hes not trying to troll you. Merely quoting a fairly well known web series based around the Halo video games. One of the characters looks at the vehicle, named the Warthog (and also looks like it has tusks) and says "I dunno, looks more like a puma to me" while discussing why it got named the Warthog.

No, hes not trying to troll you. Merely quoting a fairly well known web series based around the Halo video games. One of the characters looks at the vehicle, named the Warthog (and also looks like it has tusks) and says "I dunno, looks more like a puma to me" while discussing why it got named the Warthog.

D'oh! I know exactly which scene you are referring to. It went completely over my head. Sorry!

So To try and get my girlfriend into x wing I decided to paint her favourite ship pink. *snip*

Pink & grey are a natural contrast. One of Australia's native parrots is the Galah, which is pink, grey with a white crest on the top of their heads

There is also the Major Mitchell;

And last but not least, pink on black was a colour combination on some Australian muscle cars from factory, in the 70's.

Orca Y-wing

Go to my blog or my forum thread for the rest of the pictures.

Looks more like a puma to me

.

I can't decide if you are trying to troll me or not. At the very least I know that cougars don't have tusks. However, this second Y-wing does have some family ties to a cougar.

Go to my blog or my forum thread for the rest of the pictures.

Sorry couldn't resist. Exceptional work, I'm always looking to your thread for motivation to improve my skills

Right time to dig out my Kath Scarlet repaint... when i can find the photobucket uploads... grrr

Found em,