Hobby Shortcut: Basic oil wash

A DIY oil wash is a cheap and easy to use alternative to your standard acrylic wash and another tool for your miniature painting arsenal.

There’s nothing intimidating about oil paints. In fact this technique is very well suited for beginner miniature painters.

I tend to use predominantly brown oil paint as the base for my mix. To that, I add a tiny bit of black and a hint of blue. You could add green instead of blue. It will yield a more “grimy” look. Perfect for that grimdark painting.

Adding some odorless white spirit, I thoroughly mixed my “black goo”.

Only to slather it on my miniatures, 3D printed Catapult CPLT-K2 Mechs by Matt Mason on MyMiniFactory for example.

Important: Be sure however to seal your minis with gloss varnish from the spray can! Otherwise the White Spirit and/or the rubbing off of it, might damage your paint job!

oil wash for miniature painting

Let it sit until the wash looks matt or dry. Usually this takes somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes.

oil wash for miniature painting

Next, use a cotton swab, or, as I do, a makeup sponge and gently “tap and rub” the paint away. Be really gentle and rather do it several times. Don’t be aggressive with this step. You’ll want to leave the oil wash in the recesses. In my example I went 3 times over my minis, until I was happy with the result.

Then, it’s just a matter of letting everything dry. I tend to allow a healthy 48 hours period for this step.

Finally, seal the minis with a matt spray varnish and continue painting with your acrylic paints as normal or call the job done! Anyway, sealing your dry oil wash is important, otherwise, paint won’t stick on your greasy miniature and makes subsequent painting impossible.

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