It may not work as well as oil washes, but I just use "future floor finish" to dilute whatever color paint I want into a wash. I could swear that it creates fewer stains and flows better than commercial washes.
For me this worked from turning bright robes into dingy realistic robes for my skaven. Unfortunately spending to much time getting the wash to behave over big surfaces meant I caused alot of surface texture issues.
@@blakearius Here's what I do: Apply basecoat Wash everything (be mindful of deliberately placing more wash in recess folds) Dry brush heavily with midtone, then with highlight color Wash again with thinned shade or glaze, apply evenly with a big brush. For something like leather, you can use a swine hair brush, something with big bristles, to drybrush a scratched 'texture' onto the surface (painted, not literally scratched) - still need to apply a wash afterwards. It sounds like a lot, but it's really simple, especially for batch painting.
He is doing a pin wash with the oils, which is just one technique. You can still stain surfaces with oils and enamels and still have way more control than with acrylic washes.
Zumikito, you forgot about one important thing for using washes. To flow into recesses properly washes needs to be applied not on the paint - like acrylics especially - but on the clear coat of lacquer / varnish as described in multiple scale modelers books. Without varnish the wash will create splashes and stains instead of going into recesses. Try on concrete . Without lacquer or varnish the wash will sink in place.
@user-sv9os8hq2d Gloss varnish. Them washes. Then Matt varnish for if model needs to be Matt. Just be careful with Matt varnish if you paint real Metallics as it will Matt them. For real Metallics gloss or maybe satin varnish at the end to protect the model. Just do some test on cheap models and you will get the best answer what works and what not.
having only started Gunpla 12 months ago I was initially shocked at how good panel liners were, even if you have to gloss coat everything first to avoid it "eating" the plastic. also tamia Panel liner and x20 tamia thinner are easy as heck to use together if you've got cotton swabs and time on your hands since it needs 24 hours to fully dry unless you've got australia conditions, in which case it dries in like 2 hours tops
As someone who's been building gunpla for years before ever getting into miniature painting, seeing people 'discover' things like panel liners brings me joy. Can't wait for the discovery of a secret way of adding detail to your vehicles/dreadnoughts by using panel line scribers or plaplate :)
You can also use the Tamiya panel liner. It is basically a pot with a microbrush that works exactly as you show with the oil paints, but it means that you do not have to store spirit oils yourself, so that is an advantage.
Lol, not if you go for more than student grade. I recently got a starter set for $100au but then filling out the colours(purple, viridian, paynes grey, cadmium red etc) set me back another $350au. But yes if you just buy burnt umber as an agrax replacement it's cheaper in the long run.
@@MichaRabiej You're right, it's not in the top ten. A gallon of blood is around $1,500/gallon, a gallon of Nuln Oil (at $7/pot) is just under $1,472. So depending on the cost of the Nuln Oil, it *could* be one of the top 10 most expensive liquids on earth (if we take the average list's word that Blood is #10 at $1,500/gal).
@@Diana2112GamingBlood is on 10th place of "top 10 mot expensive liquids" in Google results, just because they decided to put one example of medicine, one example of perfume etc, to make the list more entertaining. If those venoms cost $100k per gallon, then I presume most expensive liquids are simply venoms of different reptiles. Also there are injections like Hemgenix or Zolgensma that cost several millions of dollars per dose. Those are liquid.
that's crap. The majority of perfumes are far more expensive per ML than Nuln Oil by consumer price (which is what you're also basing Nuln Oil on) - I'm looking at a random perfume store right now and Miss Dior, a mid-price perfume, is nearly £2 per ML whereas Nuln Oil is around 25p per ML
@@MrSquare It's pretty obvious if you start breaking the minutia of the joke down it falls apart. There are other PAINTS sold that are more expensive for less volume than Citadel. Yes, perfumes are one of the categories of things that generally are more expensive (falling in the 6-4th most expensive range, depending on which brand they go with, Chanel No. 5 being listed as the 5th most expensive liquid), or, ya know, rather than pick the thing to death you could laugh and move on with your day instead of being an insufferable funsucking heretic.
The thinned acrylics method doesn't have to stain, if you keep a second damp brush at hand. Apply thinned paint, mess up, whisk away excess immediately, continue application, etc.
You can also avoid some of the nastier bits of oil washes, vapors. Odorless definitely does not mean safer..because it is still putting those vapors out.
@@dwwolf4636 I don't mean from GW. Just in the hobby scene. It's like they're in two different worlds despite a lot of hobby tricks and products being really good for both. I've only known panel lining with panel accent. Doing it with a wash just seems like nonsense to me lol.
@@Trizface around here in Asia there's a lot of overlap between the two but that might be because guys who are into gunpla and scale modeling pickup warhammer and mini painting and most people I know just panel line and apply a matte varnish
The reason GW will never sell oil washes is due to the solvent needed. The biggest factor in the design of GW paints is avoiding toxicity. They want a family-friendly product. The only dangerous chemicals they sell is things they can't avoid, like glue. You can drink GW paints if you really want to. (Not recommended, but safe)
I mean, a "shade" is still good if you want the panels made darker, It is called a "Shade" rather than a wash. I use a lot of Agrax because I like the "dirtying" effect.
For nuln im covering everything, if i want to do just recesses i thin down a black paint and paint it in. You have options if you don't want want to use oil.
if you often feel a bit sick around mineral spirits, like I do, then a gloss varnish over the model before applying the regular acrylic wash is a neat trick to help minimize the amount of ugly stains. Though I guess a gloss varnish also works great for oil washes as well.
@@Zumikito AK White FTW. Changed my painting when I bought this paint. IMO the best from what I tested, namely GW (bleh), Vallejo and Army Painter. AK Gen3 hits it out of the ballpark in comparison. Thx for another cool vid, Zumi. Love the content. Love the accent. Love the skill. And the beard :)
@@Zumikitooof I would not have had the patience for working with the GW whites for that long. idk how it compares price-wise outside of my country but i switched to using the Golden 'so flat' white after struggling with miniature brand white paints and haven't looked back! still has the white paint coverage issue but it's so much smoother that i don't mind
@@Akhaandir If I'm not applying washes on the model such as nuln oil I apply smooth varnish (glossy) before hand to allow ease of flow for Panel line. Is all about how smooth the surface, otherwise it may leave uneven thickness of the panel line.
Great advice as always. I have finally taken the plunge into painting miniatures. I have lurked on your channel for a long time and now using your videos I feel like I can do this (poorly lol). Its been a bumpy and messy road, but I love it this far. Thanks and paint on!
Someone in one of the comment sections once suggested Panel Liner from Gundam model kits. They're alcohol based (IIRC) versions of Nuln Oil and other colors. They run in the thins like your suggested oils, and you can clean them off with a cotton tip soaked in rubbing alcohol if they get in odd places. Artis Opus also just suggested "Pro Acryl NEWSH" which is an acrylic based medium that reacts like oil washes, apparently.
Thanks for sharing. I'm embracing oils more and more however there are a number of things that people need to consider when using oil washes from the type of brush to the long drying time and the fact you need to varnish after if you want to paint over the model at all with acrylics (highlights, fine detail etc).
Have you tried enamel paint + enamel paint thinner ? I found that it worked absolutely amazing, and you could remove unwanted parts of it with a brush or cotton tip with some enamel paint thinner. You don't get that left over shade that's annoying to remove, because you're literally removing the wash.
Something to note about oil vs. enamel washes: because of the nature of how they dry, with oils being an oxidation reaction, and enamels being an evaporative process, oils can be cleaned up within about 24 hours, usually. Enamel washes don't carry the same limitation, as they will usually reactivate if you wet them with mineral spirits, even weeks later. It's not usually a big deal, but it is something to bear in mind if you're using them in the middle of your process, instead of at the end.
Hi, I have a useful tip for you. This will make your panel lining even cleaner. Use a fine drawing pen. Use it as if you were using ink. The sharp tip doesn't leave as much color.
That shading and repainting process is how I used to do my blood angels back in like 2015, mephiston red, carroburg crimson, cleanup with mephiston. I actually enjoyed it, I found it satisfying, but I could not imagine doing it in white.
Satin varnish the miniature first. It will make it flow even better and will protect the acrilic paintjob from the spirit. Matt (or whatever) varnish after. Nice vid, as always.
Made my first ever mini of a Sister Superior, and after about 17 hours of work I covered her in Nuln oil without spot drying her off and now she’s super dark. Lessons learned.
Oil or even enamel washes can be used for the same effect. Just with oil, you have to be careful and drain the excess oil into a paper before diluting the paint, or you might face prolonged drying times.
I've been using oil washes for a while now and they're great, not just black either, sepia and umber are awesome too. I have one tip, a quick coat of gloss varnish makes that capillary action even better, then a coat of matte when you're done which you're going to need anyway as oils are pretty shiny.
So, something I think you should keep in mind is cleanup. If you use a clear coat over your base layer, you can add details then use a thinner on a q-tip or other tool to clean up the lines some. That's a technique used more on bigger stuff like gunpla. You shouldn't have to repaint over your nuln oil to get the crisp lines. I only do that if I'm taping something and the paint bleeds under the tape.
Quick tip.....if using oils, only was 3-5 marines at a time.....by the finish if them, you should be able to use a cotton bud or something similar to clean up with.....any more than that and you may risk the oils drying too much....15-20 mins is perfect.
I use both shades and tamiya panel liner. Both are fantastic for certain things and panel liner is enamel so you don’t mess up your acrylics when cleaning it off or making mistakes.
An interesting way is knowing chemical properties. I would try priming or painting the entire model with white Tamiya lacquer spray paints. Then use a a lacquer sealant. For the wash you would use something that is enamel or acrylic based because when you use the enamel thinner to remove the excess it won't eat into the lacquer layer. To remove lacquer you would use isopropyl alcohol 90%+.
Only thing you should add is that it is very beneficial to put a sealant on before using the il wash...and that makes it a little less conveniant. Respectively you should batch-paint to be efficient.
I used AK panel liner, already mixed and gloss the mini first, that makes the flow better and the clean up easier, then seal it all in with Matt varnish when done.
if you mess up using null oil you can easily fix it up drybrusing on top of it with the original color, this just in case you dont have the other method this video proposes, or dont want to spend on alternatives until you finish the ones you already have
Before doing the panel lining use a gloss varnish on model to help flow even more. tag your lines with the oil, clean up anything after drying with white spirits then toss a matte varnish on model.
It might be mentioned in other comments, but it's better to use a gloss coat first, to protect the base coat, and to help the wash flow even better. it's safer one you clean the wash with spirits
Im a noob. But I found some cheap-o oil colours a few months ago .Bought some spirits. And now I have tried it. And oil-washes for filling lines etc is realy THAT easy.
I use a method from scale historical models: a house mixture of acrylic paint, water, and dish soap. Yep, soap. This “sludge” wash is applied like normal, but the benefit of it is, you can simply wipe the excess off after it dries with a clean swab or napkin. The only thing though with this method is you need to gloss varnish the models before applying the wash
I love nuln oil to dirty up and darken up the models to give a grim dark feel, and you never use it on yellow as everyone knows. You can also thin it down to pin wash it quickly and easily.... just add some flow improver and medium like you did for the oil wash... which I use and works fine. I also use oils as well too, but its SO MUCH easier and faster when doing a fast paint sections (like 10-20minutes to paint only), just grab some nuln, a drop of flow improver, maybe some water and boom I can paint for 5-10min without needing to worry about clean up or mess.
Mini painters can learn a lot from scale modelers painting techniques, watch some armour painters and see the techniques they use ad apply them to your mini's. i've been doing this for years, Satin varnish before applying oils protects the paint and allows much easier clean up
My wash of choice was Windsor & Newton Chestnut Brown. It would dry almost like a film and with a wet brush you could erase it more or less when you made a mistake or it flowed where it was not supposed to. Made those Deathwing terminators doable with the repaint and texture issues you mentioned.
I like oil washes well enough, but honestly I find I more often just reach for some flow release and mix an acrylic wash instead. The flow release makes it behave more like an oil wash, but less faff because you aren't dealing with oils. I get that you can't fix them later like you can with oils, but frankly I find I don't generally need to. And thats coming from someone who has a traditional oil painting background. Another tip for working with GW washes is that you can paint the flat area away from the wash with a thin layer of just regular water. Then line the crevice with the wash. Next, drag the water from the flat to the wash and you have a perfect buttery smooth transition from the recess to the flat.
An alternative for the "Space Marine Panel Lining" option that I like to use, that has a similar capillary effect (but admittedly I don't think it can be re-activated), is just a mix of acrylic ink mixed with airbrush thinner. Works great with black ink for panel lining, and I also often use it with white ink if I want to create "energy lines" in stuff like Necrons and my Votann (that I then go over with a bright/fluro colour thinned in the same way for that 'pop') I only ever tend to use washes if I'm slapping it over either the whole model (Agrax on my Death Guard, Nuln on Necrons etc) or just solidly over a whole colour.
Still love me my acrylic washes for quickly shading/tinting an entire surface - especially for adding dirty or weathered effects - but this is convincing me that I should consider oil washes for deep recess shading *looks at T’au combat patrol box*
I've been getting similar results with ProAcryl Newsh. It acts like a retarder and makes the acrylic paint take FOREVER to dry. You can easily wipe away the misses. Would love to see you try your hand at it in a future video!
old trick , add a tiny amount of dish wash soap to reduce the friction coefficient. You can also gloss seal it before washing .... like you have to with oil washing.
I love oil washes! However, I've transitioned to using them for weathering instead of shading. The reason is if I have to clean up the weathering it's easy to accidently mess up the shading that I did before hand. The compromise I ended up with is to use contrast paint for the shading.
I take Daler Rowney black ink and thin it 50/50 with flow improver and use that for panel lining myself, dries faster and the capillary action is just as good. Better for batch painting, not quite as good for display work.
Everybody recommends odorless spirits for thinning oils, but I was one of the unlucky persons that suffered from heavy headaches from the fumes. Instead, I started using Limonene, which I found cheaper and in larger quantities and, besides the fresh citric smell, it produces similar results to mineral spirits without the associated health hazards. I wish more TH-camrs would recommend it as an alternative.
One problem I haven’t been able to solve yet with oil washes is when cleaning them off with mineral spirits it leaves an oily residue that leaves the model looking plastic and damp.
I clear coat varnish, then use nuln oil gloss. I then use mr hobby premium top coat flat. If you want deeper black panel lines use Tamiya panel line accent color.
using oil washes, you should spray a saturn varnish, you will get a better control over where you place the wash then seal it with ak's 3rd gen matt varnish
As a scalemodeler,that's trying to up my game and learn new stuff,it's always surprised me that miniaturepainters rarely use a regular pinwash.( in the clips I've seen so don't come at me😅) something that's considered common practice in the scalemodeling world. And oilpaints are so versatile,you can use them to pretty much everything,washes,staining,filters (painting ofc😅) etc etc,and they'll last a lifetime. Really enjoying to learn more miniature painting skills,I'm definately gonna apply some of the stuff I've learnt next time I'm gonna paint a ejectionseat or pilot. So keep up the good work!
Oil paints are very underrated. I only use it as "technical" paints. I mixed my own collection of oil paints. Some paints are great for what you showed, others can be used as filters, others can be used for making your mini look worn, you can do so many things with it. The last thing I learned was how to edge highlight with oil paints, at it is Amazing!!!! Also what could be done is nmm, but this is something for the future. Painting with oil is easy if you use certain techniques. But I think painting nmm is actually not that easy with oils. So I will need more practice with it. But once you get the hang of it, it is amazing. Blending with oils is so satisfying. I think high quality oil paints are amazing. They are expensive at first, but you can paint with it for a much longer time, because it doesn't dry out that much if stored correctly and you will always need just a little bit colour, because the coverage of oil paints are much better (if you don't use transparent colours)
Other important tips for working with oils: if you want to stain the flat parts of the miniature, apply the oils over a matte varnish. If you only want oil in the recesses, work on top of a gloss varnish. Also, it's usually a good idea to wait at least 3-4 days after applying oil paints to a mini before painting over them with acrylics. Otherwise, the oil paint might not be fully dry, which can cause issues with later paint application on top.
You just need to varnish your pieces and then where you don't want a wash you simply wipe it off. (Extra water can be used if needed.) It won't stick to the painted surface if you have varnished prior. There are many mediums for oil paint. I recommend linseed oil over mineral spirits. Nevertheless you also want to varnish your piece prior to using oil paint for shading.
One thing not talked about here is another option, Tamiya Panel liner...it's made for scale model kits but it's essentially oil wash already pre-mixed for you at the right consistency designed purely for panel lining work just be sure to varnish your work first.
... You're my f'cking hero, dude. My 'mechs are white with red stripes and it takes me way too long to paint them; I chase the coffee stains exactly as you described it...
I've not got round to testing yet, but lets just through outher there that oil whoite and yellows are more opaque than the darker colours - could be worth a try
I find a layer of gloss varnish helps keep them in the recesses too, with the matt/satin finish of paints ive had oil and panel liners creep out of the gaps and give them same coffee stain as GW washes, cleanable yes, but still annoying
Oil paints are truly fantastic. By now, every single medium to large-sized miniature is being painted at least 50% with oil paints. Especially for undercoating and base coating. Acrylics are then just applied to edge highlight where and when necessary.
Nuln Oil is still useful, for example if I painted up a Deathwatch killteam, to get their iron arm, I'd use two layers of Nuln Oil ontop of Lead Belcher. Essentially LB, NO, LB + what ever other silvers I may want to highlight with, then NO again to bring the highlights down and finish darkening the arm.
My technique is a little different than most, primarily because I use model master / testors enamels. But I've never thought of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade as panel liners. As covered in the video, there are better options. I dilute the GW washes a further 1:1 with acrylic thinner because I've always found them to be too intense as-is (and I don't have brightly colored armies to begin with, I have panzer grey Tau and Crimson Fists!). Even diluted, you're still dealing with water-strength surface tension, so I treat them as more of a brush-on "dip" than an actual wash or panel liner. In the places I use them this way, they work. It's really all about the result you want, and adjusting your technique accordingly. Don't expect from GW paints something they can't (or shouldn't) do.
If you're too lazy to mix your own oil washes, an easy option is enamel panel liner(Tamiya, who also make various colours pre-thinned. You pay more, but it comes with a brush applicator, most other details about the odourless thinner or white spirit often apply to enamels as well). TL:DR to all mediums/techniques is down to what characteristics of the medium in question can best achieve the results you are after. Using oils/enamels for painting actually achieve far smoother blends than acrylics, but they have longer working times and require specific solvents to thin/clean up with. Same thing applys to lacquers and 2 part epoxy paint finishes. Each have their own applications and strengths. The main selling point for acrylics is low bar of entry(ease of clean up, and minimal need for aggressive solvents to clean up after a session), but is more restrictive in techniques of application(quick-ish drying time means they're best used in layers. Feathering is just manipulating layer thickness to achieve a gradation. Glazing is thinning the medium consistency to deposit less medium per layer. Each stroke/layer needs to be allowed to dry before applying the next, whereas oils can be manipulated while curing or reactivated to further manipulate the finish).
Good ol ink washes were my favourite before GW scraped them for the modern alternatives. You could really water them down and still get a good result, that just bled into all the crevices like we see in this video.
So here's something even better that use for my chaos Knights abandon black, but add a tone of water too, get the nice shading, goes into cracks good and isn't oily looking
I recommend Mr. Hobby: Mr. Weathering Multi Black and Solvent 110. Trust me. It's so easy to use and basically the same thing as diluting your own oil based paint.
i wouldve enamel clear coated first, then used a qtip with water/acrylic thinner for easy cleanup. just play between water/ enamel based washed and paints. super easy
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It may not work as well as oil washes, but I just use "future floor finish" to dilute whatever color paint I want into a wash. I could swear that it creates fewer stains and flows better than commercial washes.
Pause.
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You use washes to add definition.
I use washes to stain surfaces instead of applying light and shadow.
We are not the same.
For me this worked from turning bright robes into dingy realistic robes for my skaven. Unfortunately spending to much time getting the wash to behave over big surfaces meant I caused alot of surface texture issues.
@@blakearius
Here's what I do:
Apply basecoat
Wash everything (be mindful of deliberately placing more wash in recess folds)
Dry brush heavily with midtone, then with highlight color
Wash again with thinned shade or glaze, apply evenly with a big brush.
For something like leather, you can use a swine hair brush, something with big bristles, to drybrush a scratched 'texture' onto the surface (painted, not literally scratched) - still need to apply a wash afterwards.
It sounds like a lot, but it's really simple, especially for batch painting.
@@SmilomaniacI'll try that formula on the miniature I stripped. Cheers.
He is doing a pin wash with the oils, which is just one technique. You can still stain surfaces with oils and enamels and still have way more control than with acrylic washes.
@@szlachcic22I know. It's a self depricating joke.
Zumikito, you forgot about one important thing for using washes. To flow into recesses properly washes needs to be applied not on the paint - like acrylics especially - but on the clear coat of lacquer / varnish as described in multiple scale modelers books. Without varnish the wash will create splashes and stains instead of going into recesses. Try on concrete . Without lacquer or varnish the wash will sink in place.
So, the matt varnish is that necessary?
@user-sv9os8hq2d Gloss varnish. Them washes. Then Matt varnish for if model needs to be Matt. Just be careful with Matt varnish if you paint real Metallics as it will Matt them. For real Metallics gloss or maybe satin varnish at the end to protect the model. Just do some test on cheap models and you will get the best answer what works and what not.
@@TestUser-o2s Got it. Thanks for reply!
I never knew that, so I'm intrigued to try
@@TestUser-o2s I've gotten more useful information from your comments than dozens of TH-cam videos 🙏🏼
This has been no secret in the historicals and gunpla communities. It’s amazing how we don’t cross pollinate when the tasks are ultimately the same.
That’s why I watch all relevant videos , you can learn so much !
It will become common knowledge as soon as GW releases an overpriced line of oil paints.
I think part of it is because some painters don't want to mess with solvents. Sucks for them tho Tamiya Panel liners are the goat
having only started Gunpla 12 months ago I was initially shocked at how good panel liners were, even if you have to gloss coat everything first to avoid it "eating" the plastic. also tamia Panel liner and x20 tamia thinner are easy as heck to use together if you've got cotton swabs and time on your hands since it needs 24 hours to fully dry unless you've got australia conditions, in which case it dries in like 2 hours tops
As someone who's been building gunpla for years before ever getting into miniature painting, seeing people 'discover' things like panel liners brings me joy. Can't wait for the discovery of a secret way of adding detail to your vehicles/dreadnoughts by using panel line scribers or plaplate :)
You can also use the Tamiya panel liner.
It is basically a pot with a microbrush that works exactly as you show with the oil paints, but it means that you do not have to store spirit oils yourself, so that is an advantage.
using spirits to clean up is the bonus tho. So you'd probably buy it anyway
the gunpla Mr Hobby line is also really good
Yeah these are great. Then you only need a cotton swab to clean up and don't have to worry about cleaning the brushes you use.
@@Crushanator1Are those lacquers though?
don't use it. This panel liner makes your plastic brittle over time and destroys it
Oh nice, a new upload from my favorite rimming teacher!
Two brushes, one space marine.
Also don't forget, with oil washes you often get more and for a cheaper price compared to GW's Nuln Oil. Win, win
Almost everything is cheaper than a bottle Nuln Oil.
Lol, not if you go for more than student grade. I recently got a starter set for $100au but then filling out the colours(purple, viridian, paynes grey, cadmium red etc) set me back another $350au. But yes if you just buy burnt umber as an agrax replacement it's cheaper in the long run.
@@BlommaBaumbart Does that included losses when you inevitably spill the bottle of Nuln Oil?
Which is the Agrax equivalent with oils?
@@jaimiting Brown.
Fun fact Nuln oil is slightly behind the average price of human blood, making it one of the top 10 most expensive liquids on earth.
"making it one of the top 10 most expensive liquids on earth" I seriously doubt it is true.
@@MichaRabiej You're right, it's not in the top ten. A gallon of blood is around $1,500/gallon, a gallon of Nuln Oil (at $7/pot) is just under $1,472. So depending on the cost of the Nuln Oil, it *could* be one of the top 10 most expensive liquids on earth (if we take the average list's word that Blood is #10 at $1,500/gal).
@@Diana2112GamingBlood is on 10th place of "top 10 mot expensive liquids" in Google results, just because they decided to put one example of medicine, one example of perfume etc, to make the list more entertaining. If those venoms cost $100k per gallon, then I presume most expensive liquids are simply venoms of different reptiles.
Also there are injections like Hemgenix or Zolgensma that cost several millions of dollars per dose. Those are liquid.
that's crap. The majority of perfumes are far more expensive per ML than Nuln Oil by consumer price (which is what you're also basing Nuln Oil on) - I'm looking at a random perfume store right now and Miss Dior, a mid-price perfume, is nearly £2 per ML whereas Nuln Oil is around 25p per ML
@@MrSquare It's pretty obvious if you start breaking the minutia of the joke down it falls apart. There are other PAINTS sold that are more expensive for less volume than Citadel. Yes, perfumes are one of the categories of things that generally are more expensive (falling in the 6-4th most expensive range, depending on which brand they go with, Chanel No. 5 being listed as the 5th most expensive liquid), or, ya know, rather than pick the thing to death you could laugh and move on with your day instead of being an insufferable funsucking heretic.
I only use washes to add another layer of transparent finish to stuff. Oils are the thing that actually do the recess shading.
Oils are actually amazing for blending due to their long working times, so they don't need to be restricted to recess shading.
I use inks for that
The thinned acrylics method doesn't have to stain, if you keep a second damp brush at hand. Apply thinned paint, mess up, whisk away excess immediately, continue application, etc.
Same with contrast paints. I use them for my white Lumineth and don't have that problem in that extent.
You can also avoid some of the nastier bits of oil washes, vapors. Odorless definitely does not mean safer..because it is still putting those vapors out.
tamiya panel liner is also really good for this
Can confirm. Gundam panel liner for the win.
Yup. It's wild to me that gunpla and warhammer doesn't have that much cross over in products when so many of them would be perfect for each other.
@@TrizfaceNot really.
GW sells toys. That has limits on what they can sell as far as harmfull substances go.
@@dwwolf4636 I don't mean from GW. Just in the hobby scene. It's like they're in two different worlds despite a lot of hobby tricks and products being really good for both.
I've only known panel lining with panel accent. Doing it with a wash just seems like nonsense to me lol.
@@Trizface around here in Asia there's a lot of overlap between the two but that might be because guys who are into gunpla and scale modeling pickup warhammer and mini painting and most people I know just panel line and apply a matte varnish
The reason GW will never sell oil washes is due to the solvent needed. The biggest factor in the design of GW paints is avoiding toxicity. They want a family-friendly product. The only dangerous chemicals they sell is things they can't avoid, like glue. You can drink GW paints if you really want to. (Not recommended, but safe)
I guess I will be using my nuln oil for something after all
All my GW miniatures are lead… They are about 20 years old I guess though.
Good to know. See you on the other side
Also, to help the oil paint flow into the recesses a layer of gloss varnish makes wonders.
I mean, a "shade" is still good if you want the panels made darker,
It is called a "Shade" rather than a wash.
I use a lot of Agrax because I like the "dirtying" effect.
Exactly
I think the term you're looking for is "weathering effect"
For nuln im covering everything, if i want to do just recesses i thin down a black paint and paint it in. You have options if you don't want want to use oil.
I've been using inks!
if you often feel a bit sick around mineral spirits, like I do, then a gloss varnish over the model before applying the regular acrylic wash is a neat trick to help minimize the amount of ugly stains. Though I guess a gloss varnish also works great for oil washes as well.
The gloss varnish is one of the most important steps to this process. This video is incomplete without it.
Mineral spirits make me sick as well, try to get a hold of some pro acryl newish. Very similar to oil washing but none of the fumes, I really love it
I basically JUST use enamel or oil washes for recess shading now. It's sped up my work considerably, and made for some beautiful pieces, too.
Man I don't know how you got through that many white space marines with nuln oil. I would have lost my mind long before that.
I was younger and had more time. Also, it doesn't help that I used the atrocious white scar for the edge highlights instead of the almighty AK White
@@Zumikito AK White FTW. Changed my painting when I bought this paint. IMO the best from what I tested, namely GW (bleh), Vallejo and Army Painter. AK Gen3 hits it out of the ballpark in comparison. Thx for another cool vid, Zumi. Love the content. Love the accent. Love the skill. And the beard :)
@@Zumikitooof I would not have had the patience for working with the GW whites for that long. idk how it compares price-wise outside of my country but i switched to using the Golden 'so flat' white after struggling with miniature brand white paints and haven't looked back! still has the white paint coverage issue but it's so much smoother that i don't mind
I get good coverage with Vallejo Game Color Dead White. It's almost impossible to find, though.
I find that Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color work just as well out of the bottle and comes in either Grey, Black or Brown.
do you still need to apply a varnish before hand, or does tamiya panel line accent colour work fine over bare paint?
@@Akhaandir If I'm not applying washes on the model such as nuln oil I apply smooth varnish (glossy) before hand to allow ease of flow for Panel line. Is all about how smooth the surface, otherwise it may leave uneven thickness of the panel line.
Love the call back to older videos. That right there is the benefit of organization and cataloging.
Great advice as always. I have finally taken the plunge into painting miniatures. I have lurked on your channel for a long time and now using your videos I feel like I can do this (poorly lol). Its been a bumpy and messy road, but I love it this far. Thanks and paint on!
Someone in one of the comment sections once suggested Panel Liner from Gundam model kits. They're alcohol based (IIRC) versions of Nuln Oil and other colors. They run in the thins like your suggested oils, and you can clean them off with a cotton tip soaked in rubbing alcohol if they get in odd places. Artis Opus also just suggested "Pro Acryl NEWSH" which is an acrylic based medium that reacts like oil washes, apparently.
Super important to seal your base coats with a varnish before applying anything with a spirits based thinner
I love oils. Both for wash and weathering and for more broad painting applications as well.
Oop, looks like GW deleted the reuploads of Darren Latham's videos too.
Thanks for sharing. I'm embracing oils more and more however there are a number of things that people need to consider when using oil washes from the type of brush to the long drying time and the fact you need to varnish after if you want to paint over the model at all with acrylics (highlights, fine detail etc).
Have you tried enamel paint + enamel paint thinner ?
I found that it worked absolutely amazing, and you could remove unwanted parts of it with a brush or cotton tip with some enamel paint thinner.
You don't get that left over shade that's annoying to remove, because you're literally removing the wash.
Something to note about oil vs. enamel washes: because of the nature of how they dry, with oils being an oxidation reaction, and enamels being an evaporative process, oils can be cleaned up within about 24 hours, usually. Enamel washes don't carry the same limitation, as they will usually reactivate if you wet them with mineral spirits, even weeks later. It's not usually a big deal, but it is something to bear in mind if you're using them in the middle of your process, instead of at the end.
Hi, I have a useful tip for you. This will make your panel lining even cleaner. Use a fine drawing pen. Use it as if you were using ink. The sharp tip doesn't leave as much color.
That shading and repainting process is how I used to do my blood angels back in like 2015, mephiston red, carroburg crimson, cleanup with mephiston. I actually enjoyed it, I found it satisfying, but I could not imagine doing it in white.
Thank you for this, i am about to buy some inks, i was a bit hesitant, your video is really helpful, cheers!
Satin varnish the miniature first. It will make it flow even better and will protect the acrilic paintjob from the spirit. Matt (or whatever) varnish after. Nice vid, as always.
Why not to use matt varnish directly instead of satin?
Satin - or gloss - has a smoother surface, making the wash glow better.
@@alexandergagarin7105 Matt is OK. But satin boosts the effect of the already low surface tension of the mineral spirit.
Made my first ever mini of a Sister Superior, and after about 17 hours of work I covered her in Nuln oil without spot drying her off and now she’s super dark. Lessons learned.
finally i know what this is, saw it some times but it wasnt explained, and i never got behind it
thanks zumikito, thanks
Oil or even enamel washes can be used for the same effect.
Just with oil, you have to be careful and drain the excess oil into a paper before diluting the paint, or you might face prolonged drying times.
I've been using oil washes for a while now and they're great, not just black either, sepia and umber are awesome too. I have one tip, a quick coat of gloss varnish makes that capillary action even better, then a coat of matte when you're done which you're going to need anyway as oils are pretty shiny.
Tamiya panel liner is the same thing, just pre-thinned with a built in brush.
It's designed for gunpla.
I'm starting a Wolfspear army and this helps so much!
So, something I think you should keep in mind is cleanup. If you use a clear coat over your base layer, you can add details then use a thinner on a q-tip or other tool to clean up the lines some. That's a technique used more on bigger stuff like gunpla. You shouldn't have to repaint over your nuln oil to get the crisp lines. I only do that if I'm taping something and the paint bleeds under the tape.
Quick tip.....if using oils, only was 3-5 marines at a time.....by the finish if them, you should be able to use a cotton bud or something similar to clean up with.....any more than that and you may risk the oils drying too much....15-20 mins is perfect.
I use both shades and tamiya panel liner. Both are fantastic for certain things and panel liner is enamel so you don’t mess up your acrylics when cleaning it off or making mistakes.
I always thin GW washes and use multiple coats, still takes longer but less coffee staining. Can also rub off excess with your finger before it dries
Love your insights Professor,
An interesting way is knowing chemical properties. I would try priming or painting the entire model with white Tamiya lacquer spray paints. Then use a a lacquer sealant. For the wash you would use something that is enamel or acrylic based because when you use the enamel thinner to remove the excess it won't eat into the lacquer layer. To remove lacquer you would use isopropyl alcohol 90%+.
Only thing you should add is that it is very beneficial to put a sealant on before using the il wash...and that makes it a little less conveniant. Respectively you should batch-paint to be efficient.
I used AK panel liner, already mixed and gloss the mini first, that makes the flow better and the clean up easier, then seal it all in with Matt varnish when done.
if you mess up using null oil you can easily fix it up drybrusing on top of it with the original color, this just in case you dont have the other method this video proposes, or dont want to spend on alternatives until you finish the ones you already have
Before doing the panel lining use a gloss varnish on model to help flow even more. tag your lines with the oil, clean up anything after drying with white spirits then toss a matte varnish on model.
Great minis, great advice, great beard: Zumikito.
It might be mentioned in other comments, but it's better to use a gloss coat first, to protect the base coat, and to help the wash flow even better. it's safer one you clean the wash with spirits
Im a noob. But I found some cheap-o oil colours a few months ago .Bought some spirits. And now I have tried it. And oil-washes for filling lines etc is realy THAT easy.
If you add flow improver to nun oil it won’t stain the surface and will simply go in the recesses.
I use a method from scale historical models: a house mixture of acrylic paint, water, and dish soap. Yep, soap.
This “sludge” wash is applied like normal, but the benefit of it is, you can simply wipe the excess off after it dries with a clean swab or napkin. The only thing though with this method is you need to gloss varnish the models before applying the wash
I love nuln oil to dirty up and darken up the models to give a grim dark feel, and you never use it on yellow as everyone knows. You can also thin it down to pin wash it quickly and easily.... just add some flow improver and medium like you did for the oil wash... which I use and works fine. I also use oils as well too, but its SO MUCH easier and faster when doing a fast paint sections (like 10-20minutes to paint only), just grab some nuln, a drop of flow improver, maybe some water and boom I can paint for 5-10min without needing to worry about clean up or mess.
Mini painters can learn a lot from scale modelers painting techniques, watch some armour painters and see the techniques they use ad apply them to your mini's. i've been doing this for years, Satin varnish before applying oils protects the paint and allows much easier clean up
My wash of choice was Windsor & Newton Chestnut Brown. It would dry almost like a film and with a wet brush you could erase it more or less when you made a mistake or it flowed where it was not supposed to. Made those Deathwing terminators doable with the repaint and texture issues you mentioned.
Another tip - if not already, use rigger brushes 0-1. More refined application to seams & edges and cleaner result.
I like oil washes well enough, but honestly I find I more often just reach for some flow release and mix an acrylic wash instead. The flow release makes it behave more like an oil wash, but less faff because you aren't dealing with oils. I get that you can't fix them later like you can with oils, but frankly I find I don't generally need to.
And thats coming from someone who has a traditional oil painting background.
Another tip for working with GW washes is that you can paint the flat area away from the wash with a thin layer of just regular water. Then line the crevice with the wash. Next, drag the water from the flat to the wash and you have a perfect buttery smooth transition from the recess to the flat.
An alternative for the "Space Marine Panel Lining" option that I like to use, that has a similar capillary effect (but admittedly I don't think it can be re-activated), is just a mix of acrylic ink mixed with airbrush thinner. Works great with black ink for panel lining, and I also often use it with white ink if I want to create "energy lines" in stuff like Necrons and my Votann (that I then go over with a bright/fluro colour thinned in the same way for that 'pop')
I only ever tend to use washes if I'm slapping it over either the whole model (Agrax on my Death Guard, Nuln on Necrons etc) or just solidly over a whole colour.
Still love me my acrylic washes for quickly shading/tinting an entire surface - especially for adding dirty or weathered effects - but this is convincing me that I should consider oil washes for deep recess shading *looks at T’au combat patrol box*
I've been getting similar results with ProAcryl Newsh. It acts like a retarder and makes the acrylic paint take FOREVER to dry. You can easily wipe away the misses. Would love to see you try your hand at it in a future video!
Just go over the recessed areas with a clean wet brush immediately before applying the pin wash. For acrylics anyways. Make it flow like magic
old trick , add a tiny amount of dish wash soap to reduce the friction coefficient. You can also gloss seal it before washing .... like you have to with oil washing.
I love oil washes! However, I've transitioned to using them for weathering instead of shading. The reason is if I have to clean up the weathering it's easy to accidently mess up the shading that I did before hand. The compromise I ended up with is to use contrast paint for the shading.
I take Daler Rowney black ink and thin it 50/50 with flow improver and use that for panel lining myself, dries faster and the capillary action is just as good. Better for batch painting, not quite as good for display work.
Everybody recommends odorless spirits for thinning oils, but I was one of the unlucky persons that suffered from heavy headaches from the fumes. Instead, I started using Limonene, which I found cheaper and in larger quantities and, besides the fresh citric smell, it produces similar results to mineral spirits without the associated health hazards. I wish more TH-camrs would recommend it as an alternative.
One problem I haven’t been able to solve yet with oil washes is when cleaning them off with mineral spirits it leaves an oily residue that leaves the model looking plastic and damp.
Holy hell! That is rad
I clear coat varnish, then use nuln oil gloss. I then use mr hobby premium top coat flat. If you want deeper black panel lines use Tamiya panel line accent color.
using oil washes, you should spray a saturn varnish, you will get a better control over where you place the wash then seal it with ak's 3rd gen matt varnish
As a scalemodeler,that's trying to up my game and learn new stuff,it's always surprised me that miniaturepainters rarely use a regular pinwash.( in the clips I've seen so don't come at me😅) something that's considered common practice in the scalemodeling world. And oilpaints are so versatile,you can use them to pretty much everything,washes,staining,filters (painting ofc😅) etc etc,and they'll last a lifetime. Really enjoying to learn more miniature painting skills,I'm definately gonna apply some of the stuff I've learnt next time I'm gonna paint a ejectionseat or pilot. So keep up the good work!
Oil paints are very underrated. I only use it as "technical" paints. I mixed my own collection of oil paints. Some paints are great for what you showed, others can be used as filters, others can be used for making your mini look worn, you can do so many things with it. The last thing I learned was how to edge highlight with oil paints, at it is Amazing!!!! Also what could be done is nmm, but this is something for the future. Painting with oil is easy if you use certain techniques. But I think painting nmm is actually not that easy with oils. So I will need more practice with it. But once you get the hang of it, it is amazing. Blending with oils is so satisfying. I think high quality oil paints are amazing. They are expensive at first, but you can paint with it for a much longer time, because it doesn't dry out that much if stored correctly and you will always need just a little bit colour, because the coverage of oil paints are much better (if you don't use transparent colours)
You can help alleviate the "staining" by varnishing the mini before using anything as a wash.
What do you varnish with?
@@danielconnell7754 I use GX100 from Mrcolor, its pretty bullet proof even when weathering historical vehicles as well.
This is gonna make shading my tanks so much easier. I can already tell.
Other important tips for working with oils: if you want to stain the flat parts of the miniature, apply the oils over a matte varnish. If you only want oil in the recesses, work on top of a gloss varnish.
Also, it's usually a good idea to wait at least 3-4 days after applying oil paints to a mini before painting over them with acrylics. Otherwise, the oil paint might not be fully dry, which can cause issues with later paint application on top.
Going to try this out on my Vior'la Sept T'au!! as the clean up of my darkened nuln oil is killing my motivation fast.
You just need to varnish your pieces and then where you don't want a wash you simply wipe it off. (Extra water can be used if needed.) It won't stick to the painted surface if you have varnished prior.
There are many mediums for oil paint. I recommend linseed oil over mineral spirits. Nevertheless you also want to varnish your piece prior to using oil paint for shading.
Genuinely thought you were gonna say tamiya panel liner. Not only is the brush tip finer than a 000 it’s just perfect and headache free
Cool thing is you can use other colors than black to do this. Like I use white for my plasma coils and a light blue for my white armor.
One thing not talked about here is another option, Tamiya Panel liner...it's made for scale model kits but it's essentially oil wash already pre-mixed for you at the right consistency designed purely for panel lining work just be sure to varnish your work first.
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You're my f'cking hero, dude. My 'mechs are white with red stripes and it takes me way too long to paint them; I chase the coffee stains exactly as you described it...
I've not got round to testing yet, but lets just through outher there that oil whoite and yellows are more opaque than the darker colours - could be worth a try
I find a layer of gloss varnish helps keep them in the recesses too, with the matt/satin finish of paints ive had oil and panel liners creep out of the gaps and give them same coffee stain as GW washes, cleanable yes, but still annoying
Oil paints are truly fantastic. By now, every single medium to large-sized miniature is being painted at least 50% with oil paints. Especially for undercoating and base coating. Acrylics are then just applied to edge highlight where and when necessary.
Nuln Oil is still useful, for example if I painted up a Deathwatch killteam, to get their iron arm, I'd use two layers of Nuln Oil ontop of Lead Belcher.
Essentially LB, NO, LB + what ever other silvers I may want to highlight with, then NO again to bring the highlights down and finish darkening the arm.
My technique is a little different than most, primarily because I use model master / testors enamels.
But I've never thought of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade as panel liners. As covered in the video, there are better options.
I dilute the GW washes a further 1:1 with acrylic thinner because I've always found them to be too intense as-is (and I don't have brightly colored armies to begin with, I have panzer grey Tau and Crimson Fists!). Even diluted, you're still dealing with water-strength surface tension, so I treat them as more of a brush-on "dip" than an actual wash or panel liner. In the places I use them this way, they work.
It's really all about the result you want, and adjusting your technique accordingly. Don't expect from GW paints something they can't (or shouldn't) do.
If you're too lazy to mix your own oil washes, an easy option is enamel panel liner(Tamiya, who also make various colours pre-thinned. You pay more, but it comes with a brush applicator, most other details about the odourless thinner or white spirit often apply to enamels as well).
TL:DR to all mediums/techniques is down to what characteristics of the medium in question can best achieve the results you are after. Using oils/enamels for painting actually achieve far smoother blends than acrylics, but they have longer working times and require specific solvents to thin/clean up with. Same thing applys to lacquers and 2 part epoxy paint finishes. Each have their own applications and strengths. The main selling point for acrylics is low bar of entry(ease of clean up, and minimal need for aggressive solvents to clean up after a session), but is more restrictive in techniques of application(quick-ish drying time means they're best used in layers. Feathering is just manipulating layer thickness to achieve a gradation. Glazing is thinning the medium consistency to deposit less medium per layer. Each stroke/layer needs to be allowed to dry before applying the next, whereas oils can be manipulated while curing or reactivated to further manipulate the finish).
Good ol ink washes were my favourite before GW scraped them for the modern alternatives. You could really water them down and still get a good result, that just bled into all the crevices like we see in this video.
I knew about oil wahes for NJM. I haven't used them because is a bit expensive, but one day I'll make the purchase.
Whenever washes leave stains like that I just like to imagine that’s just dirt and grime from the battlefield
So here's something even better that use for my chaos Knights abandon black, but add a tone of water too, get the nice shading, goes into cracks good and isn't oily looking
White paint has generally excellent coverage and in fact white pigment is used to increase opacity in other colors.
I recommend Mr. Hobby: Mr. Weathering Multi Black and Solvent 110. Trust me. It's so easy to use and basically the same thing as diluting your own oil based paint.
Love the berserk art on the wall and that ruined my space marine video is one of my favorite videos. I watch it all the time lol
little bit of alcohol and acrylic does the same thing. Touch and it spreads only in the cracks quickly
I use washes to give me a muddy look for my models to add some age to them
You just saved my life, i love you
oh! Zumikito is still alive !!! 😄
i wouldve enamel clear coated first, then used a qtip with water/acrylic thinner for easy cleanup. just play between water/ enamel based washed and paints. super easy
Dude thank you! I was wondering how I'd make my snowy necrons.