alright, so I had done some digging through posts earlier this afternoon prior to going to work on a newly-built boxcar. I wanted to get some experience working with washes.
i had used Testors flat black enamel paint and some Floquil SP lark dark gray, both mixed with 70% alcohol.
the results were not entirely what I had expected them to be. The mixture/wash wasn’t consistent… i would get blotchy spots of paint, not a consistent mixture between the two.
was I doing something wrong? I used a smallish stiff bristled brush.
Oh, boy… yessir, I’m sorry to say you were in fact doing something very wrong. Enamel paint is oil based. Perhaps some people can achieve some sort of wash with enamel paints, but you’re not going to have much luck mixing it with 70% isopropyl.
No, the trick to washes is to use water-based (i.e., acrylic) paints. It’s no wonder it’s all splotchy, given that you’re using enamel paints.
Sorry to be the bearor of bad news, but verything I’ve read and tried related to weathering with washes assumes you’re using something water or alcohol-soluable such as acrylic paints, India ink, or lamp black. Enamels are generally bad news for washes in my humble opinion.
I’m fairly certain some old sage will reply that he very successfully uses enamel washes… but I would not recommend attempting them until you’ve mastered acrylic washes.
I’d say you have incompatibility between the two paints for one and alcohol is not the proper thinner for these paints for another. The paint was never truly thinned into a wash.
I have had good luck with oil paints thinned with mineral spirits. This works especially well on models painted with acrylics. If your model is painted with enamel, give it a good week to dry.
Or thin the enamel with solvent based paint thinner. The risk there is it will disolve the paint on the model or melt the plastic if you let it puddle.