Techniques · Weather and detail
Panel line washes: adding depth in one step
A panel line wash is the lowest-risk weathering step there is: thin dark paint run into recesses to add depth. Here is how to do it cleanly.
What a wash does
A wash is a thin, dark paint that flows into recesses and panel lines by capillary action, adding shade without recolouring the flat surfaces. Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color, an enamel wash in a bottle with a brush in the cap, is one widely sold example, made for use over lacquer or acrylic paint.
Prepare the surface
Common bench practice: apply the wash over a gloss coat. On a gloss surface the wash runs along the lines; on a matt surface it soaks in and stains the whole panel.
Apply it
Touch the brush tip to a panel line and let the wash run along it. Do not paint it across the whole surface.
Common bench practice: work one panel at a time on a large model.
Clean up
Common bench practice: once the wash has set, wipe away excess from the flat surfaces with a cotton bud or soft cloth barely dampened with the matching thinner, wiping across the lines rather than along them so you do not pull the wash out.
Using a wash with a different solvent from the paint underneath, such as an enamel wash over acrylic, lets you clean up without lifting the base colour, but only once that acrylic coat is fully cured, not just dry to the touch. Vallejo's own tutorial for its Model Wash range says to make sure the base colour is completely dry, at least 24 hours after application, before working back over it with a thinner-dampened brush; the same risk, a solvent lifting an under-cured coat, applies when the wash on top is enamel rather than acrylic. Apply it lightly rather than flooding the surface, and test on a spare part first.
Finish
Seal with your final varnish; a matt coat also hides the gloss used underneath (common bench practice).
Where next
After washes, try chipping. FineScale Modeler's hairspray method is covered on the Weather and detail stage page.