Very quickly and simply (I'm off to cook a goose!) there are two basic types of wash. You can make a "sludge" wash using acrylic paint. Dilute the paint to about spraying consistency, add a couple of drops of washing up liquid and apply (no need to be careful) to your panel lines,hatches,etc. Let it dry for a while and wipe of excess with a damp paper towel...voila!. Alternatively buy Phil's excellent ready made washes from Pro-modeller. He does a variety of shades and a bottle lasts a long time! As a general purpose wash grey is less stark than black.
The alternative is an oil wash. I use artists oils for this. I bought a selection of colours (umbers,greys,black) years ago and have hardly started to use up what's in the tubes. You can get some quite small (21ml) tubes that will last forever. Make a very thin mixture of the paint in a suitable solvent. I use a turpentine substitute called "sansodeur". A mate uses lighter fluid! All this stuff is available from an art store. I then apply the wash to panel lines etc with a fine brush. It will wick along the lines by itself. If you are careful there is no clean up needed. This method gives you more control of the colour (is it oily or dirty?) and you can apply different shades in different areas.You can also make repeat applications in areas you want to emphasise.
Whichever method you use be sure to protect your paint with at least a couple of coats of a clear varnish. Everyone's favourite is good old Johnsons "Klear".
If you preshade with a brush you may not achieve the feathered edge to the shading and may end up with a jig saw effect. I'm not sure how you would control how much of the shading came through when brush coating your other colours,you might need to experiment! Post shading,by dry brushing lighter tones in the centre of the panels certainly works. There was an entirely brush painted jet on a French site recently (can't find link) which was stunning. It represented an aircraft based in the tropics (Chad) and the fading and weathering had to be seen to be believed.....proof positive that you don't NEED an
airbrush.
Right that's me off to put my pinny on!
Merry Christmas to you and everyone else!
Back soon.
Cheers
Steve
