(fwd) Review of a new wash technique for miniature figures

I saw this post in rec.games.miniatures.historical. I've never heard of
this
before, but I'm going to have to try it.

If you do washes on your figures, you'll know the worst part are the
"stains".
The paint doesn't all drop into the cracks of the figure. I suspect it
has to
do with surface tension of water and its viscosity. This technique
sounds very
cool, and someone else posted that it's not new; this other guy has been
doing
it for years. I've never seen this, though.

Note, I haven't tried it, yet. But the technique certainly looks
interesting!
Any of you have experience with this?

On 03 Sep 2000 16:07:25 GMT, in rec.games.miniatures.historical
chicklewis@aol.com (ChickLewis) wrote:

Hello, fellow figure painters.	I believe I have finally found the
perfect
"wash" for miniature figures.  

A few weeks ago I admired some Boxer war figures of local painter here
in
Southern California.  "Dow the Programmer" told me how to make his
"Magic
Wash", and I have been trying it out recently.	I am stoked by it. 
Magic Wash
blows the doors off of every other wash technique I have ever used !! 
And it
is so inexpensive as to be negligible !!  And it is easier than most
other
wash
techniques !!	

This will start to sound a bit hokey, but bear with me, I am definitely
not
kidding around.  Here is the recipe:  

Buy a bottle of "FUTURE acrylic floor finish for non-wax and regular
floors"
by
Johnson & Son.	In the U.S. it comes in big 800 ml (72 ounce) clear
plastic
squeeze bottles for about $7, and was available in both supermarkets I
checked.
 This is more than I can probably use in a lifetime.  The clear liquid
inside
is slightly more viscous than water.  I imagine there are similar
products in
other countries, and I recommend that we identify them.  

Pre-mix some of the FUTURE, one part of acrylic finish to four parts of
water.
This is the Magic Wash stock.  I made mine up in a liter sealable milk
bottle.
Making a clear stock up ahead of time allows the small bubbles which can
result
when mixed with water to subside over time.  

Devote one brush to be the Magic Wash brush.  I don't know if this is
really
necessary, but it seems safer to me, since the formula of the FUTURE
finish is
different from those of our acrylic paints.  

When you are ready to use it, mix a little of the Magic Wash stock with
a
small
amount of your chosen pigment.	Stir it with your brush, don't shake it.
 I
have successfully used inks and acrylic paints as pigments.   

Brush over your figures and allow to dry.   It dries just about as
quickly as
acrylic paints.  

It sucks the pigment right down into the crevasses and keeps it there.
Doesn't
let it "osmose" back up.  And the high areas remain remarkably clear ! 
I have
used black, dark brown, and light tan (for white marble).  

And Magic Wash even gives a hard protective coating !!	It's not too
shiny,
but
a final coat of dullcote often makes the figures look better to my eye.  

What DON'T I like about it?  

Well, I've mentioned the little bubbles, with a method for avoiding
them.  The
only other "problem" is that, if you tend to lick your brush while
painting,
the stuff tastes TERRIBLE !!  So I have given up that habit when using
Magic
Wash.  

I highly recommend that you try this wash.  Let us all know what you
think of
it.  

"Men choose as their prophets those who tell them that their hopes are
true."
							  - Lord Dunsany
ChickLewis@aol.com
3930 Cody Road
Sherman Oaks, CA   91403  USA
day 818-718-1221
eve 818-784-8476

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"