Ink washing

[TER-OR]

I've mentioned ink washes a few times. There are two ways to do this, with or without a clearcoat. Either way, the ink is permanent, so know that you will change the color of your piece and not be able to change it back.

Miniatures painters use inks to tint and shade colors. They'll do glazes and washes - glazes are diluted paint and washes are not paint but meant to accumulate in recesses.

It was painting miniatures and experimenting with clear paint I stumbled on using inks as a wash in Future. I had used Tamiya Smoke a bit, but thought there should be a more precise way to do the same thin.

Since most inks are just pigments with no particulates, they are ideal for sludge type washes and can be very subtle. There are inks with particulates available, particularly white, gray and the lighter tones which need some opacity. These aren't as useful, IMHO.

Here's how I do it.

Future (acrylic floor polish) is water-based, and since inks are also water based this is easy.

I take a small vial of Future - say about 10ml. I add a couple drops of Liquitex Flow-aid (which may not strictly be necessary). I often add a little water as well, just to make the Future a bit thinner and easier to brush. Call it another 2ml. Then I add India Ink by the drop until I get a shade I like. As always, it's best to experiment with lighter and go darker than otherwise. It should be visibly dark, but not inky black.

Carefully brush the wash over an area with details or recesses. It should pool toward raised details and into recesses. Make sure you hold the piece so the wash moves the way you want. It will dry quickly, so you shouldn't have much trouble. If you need more, add more. It will take a little practice as any other technique. You have a little time to move the liquid around, and if you need to remove some, you can dry the brush on a paper towel and wick excess away.

I've used this on miniatures, of course. I've also used it on a 1/35 armored car recently, on the undercarriage, wheel wells, wheels, and in recesses. It generally looks like grime. When brushed on an open area it can look like dirty oil stains and you have a good deal of flexibility, as you can add more later to form patterns.

[BKShepherd]

Ihave used Ink wash also to bring up minute surface detail Adding a liitle graphite ( I sharpen my Architect pencil and save the graphite ) I have also use Graphite to weather

[NikToo]

I moved away from inks because I found I could get a much better range of colours just using regular acrylics, in my case Vallejo Model Color. Diluting it very, very thin and then doing several washes can really make a difference and add very interesting hues to a subject, especially if you're doing NMM (Non-Metallic Metal), such as adding green, blues and reds.

[TER-OR]

Yeah, it really depends on what you want to do. Building layers with properly thinned acrylics - either lighter or darker- is the most subtle and convincing way to paint minis. I do like inks for other reasons, mostly for their truly transparent nature on detailed areas.

It's a good comment though - and there are some good references online for using a fine glaze technique for paint blending with acrylics.