(Product Review) VALLEJO WASHES WOOOOHOOOO!!!!

Greetings people!

Wow it sure has been a few really screwed up weeks with a hell of a lot to do both in terms of school and other things happening (work, Music, etc) BUT FINALLY i have managed to find some time to do another review of the Washes!!

Firstly before i go into the details about this review i just want to let people know and highlight that almost every single person i know does their washing differently so do keep this in mind when you use washes or make your own. It is extremely important for you to understand that what might turn out your way for you might vary alot from another individual. 

NOW something else i need to say is that there are many ways to prep your models before washing, and all of these also play a huge part in the outcome of the model and how it looks so keep that in mind!!! Some people jsut wash the whole thing in one specific color like black or brown or whatever color. Some people use different color washes for different areas or only use a certain wash for certain colors. Some people varnish before washing to make sure they minimize surface tension and making sure the wash flows well (the vallejo varnishes are great if you are working with Vallejo washes). I myself have a weird way of working with washes that many people are not very used to. I have seen it happen a few times but i must admit i am one of the only people i know that regularly does this. But what i do is that i paint a base color, then i wash it, and then i paint on top of this. Reason i do this is because it gives a very nice and subtle change and blend when it comes to shading. Therefore if you ever have the time give it a try!!! 

Finally on to the actual review of the vallejo washes hahahaha.

OK, so basically the vallejo washes are great. I could be an idiot and leave it at that and say nothing more but ofcourse that wouldnt be fair to you all taking the tiem to read this looooooong and tedious article. Back to the point, the washes are great. They have an extremely interesting range of colors and what i really like about them is that they have very natural colors. The natural colors gives a hell of a lot of different ways you can combine colors with washes and get different effects based on what you are looking for. So this is definitly something that people should look into. However there are not really any funky funky colours like purple or blue and stuff. But honestly, i feel that if you are washing over a color like blue you dont need blue but rather a black or grey shade.      *note* all of the washes reviewed here are done on a test model that has simply been primed white. NO VARNISHING OR ANYTHING ELSE HAS BEEN DONE. HOWEVER IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED WHEN WORKIGN WITH THESE WASHES

Which brings me to my next point. Vallejo actually has a few colors which are very unique. They have a GREY wash. This grey wash is outstanding. It is used like any other wash but instead of giving clear and deep dark lines at shading areas it gives a more subtle variation between colors and can help to eliminate the unnatural look. Because honestly, if you are spending alot of time and not to mention money on your models you want them to look as bad ass and natural as possible when you are done right????!!!! so do look into using grey as an alternative. Will give more details on the black later.

But here you see what the grey looks like. Take note at how nice and sublte it highlights all the details. 

Now for the next one we have another color which may not be common to see in washes but is honestly very highly appreciated. Dark yellow. Just look at that wonderful deep and rich color. Keep in mind that this is jsut one layer of the wash. And yo usee how deep and rich the color is. This dark yellow wash can be used for MANY things. Primarily ofcourse washing yellow. Yellow is a ridiculously tedious colour to paint where you need like 1245823948750916427 thin layers of yellow for it to actually look yellow, but this wash helps alot. To start with you can use it over a nice and flat white base color and just wash this and you will see the details beneath. if you want it darker ofcourse jsut wash it again. Its that easy. Another great use of thsi wash is if you are working with OSL lighting from a fire or open flame for example. Ofcourse you can go through the process of manually painting hte glow on flesh or wherever you need the shine but if you are painting a flesh tone that is getting hit by a flame this wash can help you a lot. as you can see it gives of a nice warm yellow which fits perfectly with OSL lighting and you can easily use this to add nice gradients of lighting. However if you are doing this i recommend you thin it down. This gives you mroe control over how strong you want the color as the closer it is to the light source the stronger the light will be ofcourse.

Other than that it can actually be used in combination with other washes(or jsut this one alone) on Vallejos lighter colored textures like their white pumice. It can give a very nice sandish type of color (if you want this shade of course) and once you have washed the pumice once its pretty much good to go. There wont be any need to paint or anything. VOILA, DARK YELLOW FTW PEOPLE!!!

By the way two different pictures under different shades of lighting to show the depth of the color

Next up is Dark Khaki Green. This color is absolutely beautiful. It flows very very well which means that most of the time the shading will fall exactly where you want it when using this color. This color is also great for a wholerange of uses. It works on many many colors and it really helps to get a gorgeous sense of depth when you use it to wash. This wash as it doesnt discolor very much is very easy to clean up as well. it works very well for khaki base colors (DUUUHHH) like pants and khaki uniforms and also great for painting camo as it has a very nice earthy color to it that also replicates the color of sand alot. The greenish tint that it has is also a very nice addition as it gives you a very big difference from a brown wash that. The green is also a very natural green as well that perfectly suits camo type of colors and also gives a very subtle and somehow at the same time strong contrast from regular brown washes. 

Again we have another brownish shade and this time its European Dust. This european dust wash gives a very rich and deep brown wash. Its not dark in anyway but its strong. Also if you compare it to the above wash, you can see that this one clearly has a colder feel to it whereby the Dark Khaki Green wash has a warmer feel where it is redder. This wash is one of the best all round washes vallejo has to offer along with the Light Grey wash that they have. You can use this brown on almost any type of base color and it will always give a wondrful color. It doesnt add too much tinting to a the base color but rather it gives a nice outline on the details (kinda like a not so harsh version of blacklining of details) It gives really nice depth to the washed area and thru this really makes alot of the details POP alot. Perfect for almost anything.

The Brown wash has many similar characteristics as te European Dust Wash. This is one of those wonderful washes that you can use on almost anything and it will do nothing but make them look better. It has a beautiful tone to it and gives you alot of room to play around espcially with the other brown shades from the Vallejo washes range. 

Now here comes a vey important wash for everybody. BLACK. Black wash is honestly one of the best washes they have. I love using it on metallic areas especially if they are machine related coz it gives of a really nice and gritty dirty metal type of texture that has gone through a fair amount of oil and soot and what not when it comes to all this type of stuff. The black wash is also perfect do doing panel lining as it flows perfectly on a proper base and also it gives a wonderful finished effect. It is also perfect to drybrush over especially if you are woking with metallics as it gives a very nice and natural change in the colors when combined with drybrushing. The black wash is also perfect dark base colors like coats or maybe a dark armor color. It really gives cery nice natural shading and it really helps to give a really strong POP around details, so this helps you and makes your life much easier as you dont have to worry about spending so much time on making details not look so flat. Also bear in mind that when painting with the black color it looks much darker when its still wet. So be careful when you paint with this color. Once the color dries it will stil lbe dark, but nowhere near as dark as when its wet. So be patient when painting with this color and work in a smart way. Dont overload or underwash or whatever. Just learn the feel of the wash before you start fully working with it. EXPERIMENT!!! Its always fun and it always gives you great inspiration!!

This Beautiful color is Vallejos Light rust wash. It is magnificent. Personally i have used this for ALOT of different thigns ranging from flames, to red armour and also rust (which i presume it is for). This color functions very much like the Dark Yellow wash earlier shown, as it really helps to amplify the desired color and it gives an intense and deep final product that will bring you close to a visual orgasm. this wash also works great if you mix it with some of the earlier washes such as the brown wash if you are not looking for such a strong orange tint to the wash. It is very very friendly to work with and it gives wonderful results. It works Much better as rust than i thought it would but for this specific color make sure you paint in many thin layers if you want a deeper color. Partially because this stops pooling from happening and it also lets you determine what stage of rusting the model is in. Also it gives you a much greater control of the finished piece. This wash really gives you a chance to let the creative juices flow. You can use it for so many things and it only helps you (all you need to do is let it help you hahahaha) I am sure that the uses i have used it for is not even half of what its potential is. Not only can you use it on models but same like the earlier examples it works wodnerfully with the Vallejo textures if you are going for a dark red/ martian type of terrain themed base. If i could explain this wash in one word all i can say is WONDERFUL

Last but absolutly not least is the Oiled Earth Wash. This wash works alot like the European except this one has a slightly blackish tint to it. Fortunatly this cane only really be seen alot in the deepest recesses. Therefore this will be a small paragraph as most of the things that can be said about this wash apply similarly to their Brown wash and also their European earth. Kind of like a cross over between the two with a little bit of grey wash as well. It is a great color, but use it carefully and find out where you like it and how you choose to work with it.

As a little conclusion to this article i jsut want to say that i realyl applaud Vallejo for their washes. They are truly amazing. They work with everything and they have such a huge variety of washes (some of which i didnt even include) that are perfect for pretty much anything!!! Just the different shades of brown alone are fantastic and it lets you get more out of your painting! This allows you to use all your knowledge and improve your skills as a painter by constantly figuring out new nice color combinations and also washing in different ways to achieve different outcomes. Their washes are Truly great. I HIGHLY recommend these as i have pretty much changed all my previous washes and am almost solely using these at the moment and i am not complaining at all. However i did mention this in one of the earlier reviews, that make sure you shake them really well before you use them!!! sometimes the pigment collects at the bottom if you dont use them for a while ;)

Take care folks!!! If you need any tips or advice do feel free to message me on our FB page and also there are plenty more examples over there of the Vallejo washes used!!!

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Urban Basing with Vallejo Magic

Hello Good people

To start with i want to say a big sorry to all those that have been expecting something from me recently. Life has gotten in the way quite a lot as my school will be starting in about 2 weeks and a lot of papers and things going on between us with payments and all that crap bla bla bla etc etc. Not gonna go into too much detail, but you get the idea :D

Anyway, today i will be doing a base tutorial. I have always loved urban bases. I guess this is because i feel it seems very logical to have the warhammer universe taking place in war torn cities across space where the whole battlefield is nothing but rubble. So therefore through out my years in the hobby i have tried to do them in many different ways. They all turn out quite well in the end and there are ltos of different ways to do them, but here is a very easy way that i do them. If you do use this method though try and maybe do it in bulk, because certain things take a while to dry and this will help maximize productivity!!! So ya. wouldnt want you to waste too much time eh???

Ok so straight to it!

Apart from the standard stuff like paints, brushes etc etc here is a list of what you need.

Now As you can see here there are things that most people may not have in their tool box. But i assure you all these things are very worthy investments. Not only do alot of these things last a long time, but the thing is that i think that bases are just as important a part of the model as the model itself. Why would you spend 40 hours on a character model just to put him on a regular base with just a bit of sand on it?? wont that be a little boring? (this is up to debate ofcourse as people say thats good and makes sure all the attention is on the model itself. I however think thats stupid.)

But here is a list of things

1) Vallejo Still water

2) Vallejo Surface Primer

3) one of the Vallejo Textures (this as you can see is red oxide)

4) 4 or 5 of the Vallejo Pigments and a pigment setting solution

5) a little piece of plasticard

6) a little bit of PVC Tubing

7) Some random military accessories from any hobby store. Here i have Barbed wire (15mm scale) and a metal beam or support of some kind. (these things add nice character to the base once completed.)

8) VERY IMPORTANT SLOTTA BASE

OK! So now. The base itself. well to start with you need to make sure its a slotta base. Ofcourse this isnt necessary but it will make it easier for you later on.

HERE WE GO. HANG ON TO YOUR HATS.

1)

First you need to carve out the base. As seen on the picture above use the slot as a measuring point for where the future water will be. Cut carefully and make sure that you dont end up snapping the base, coz the plastic is thick and if you apply too much pressure it will break in half. (for those that have been in the hobby a while you know it happens sometimes when the models where still in pewter that you would get a broken base. That sucked:(

2)

Glue the Base to the Plasticard Piece!

3)

Trim the sides of the plasticard sheet. Be careful when you do this. Try to cut it as close as possible to the base and then the rest you need to file down to get a nice and smooth finish. Try to not use a regular modelling file for this because they are quite rough and this will result in you getting very small nice scratches on the base which i think looks horrible later on. So what i do is i actualyl use a very soft nail file. They get the job done, are cheap and work very very nicely when you need a smooth finish. Anyway once you are done your base should look a little like this. 

4) 

Now on top of the base we are going to start placing down some thing which will help to add some shape to the finished base. In this case i just used a random piece of sprue that has been lying around and irritating me. But being as lazy as i am i haven thrown it away, but i guess that was good afterall. muahahaha. But as you can see here i added that piece to the base after i cut it in half. Then after that i also a small piece of pvc tubing which i also glued onto the base sticking out over the pit. Also at this point try to mount it on something like an old paint pot or a piece of cork or something

5) 

Now its time to break out the Vallejo Textures. I did a peoduct review on this earlier so you can check that out and see what type of texture you want to use as they are all slightly different. But i used Vallejo Red Oxide as i think the size is quite good. So once you are at this point jsut slap it on pretty much anywhere and everywhere (dont cover the pipe ofcourse silly) and then leave this to dry for a while. To apply this just use an old brush and dip it in and palce it on the base. As i said in my review of this stuff you can sculpt into it a bit as it is gel based so thats also really good. Try to not make it too smooth and all as we are trying to go for an organic and natural look with lots of bumps and crap and stuffs. so ya u see what i mean. Also its important to get inside the crater/pit. 

6)

Right  now this is an optional step. It is definitly not necessary but i just think it adds a nice little amount of detail to the base. So i added some small barbed wire (oh ya as i said use 15mm scale barbed wire) and also a small piece of the Beam and jsut kinda throw it in there somewhere, Mine is kinda in the pit. Reason i use 15mm scale wire is because its perfect size. Its very small and it you were to think of it, in regards to the 28mm figures that this base is for, if you put most other types of barbed wire by other large companies (no names mentioned hihihihi) then the barbed wire will pretty much be as thick as a electrical wire on a telephone pole. And thats not what we want. We want THIN and small Barbed wire. Something that looks real. So use this! But again as i said though its not necessary ofcourse not. So if you dont have the chance to use this well thats fine then. Skip this stage :) This is where the idea of doing this basing in bulk comes into play because now you have to Leave it to dry!

7) 

Next step is priming. First i based it with Vallejo Grey Primer, and then i just gave it a quick coat of Vallejo Black. Did this stage with an airbrush to speed it up. 

8)

First over this black coat i added a heavy drybrush of Black and white mix to the baseAt this point it was time to add some other colors to the base so to start with i used Vallejo Cold Grey, and gave it a nice drybrush of this color, then i continued with Vallejo Model Air White to do the next lightest dry brush.

Then after this it was time to work on the metallics! 

9) 

So first when you work with metallic keep in mind that your base can be a similar color but dont make it too similar coz you will loose the detail of the metallics. So what i did was i used Vallejo Model air Steel and mixed in a small amount of black to give it a nice darker steel look. leave this to dry for a while and this is where things start to get interesting ;) BRING OUT THE PIGMENTS!

10)

Pigments are fun to work with and always give great results even if you arent an expert at using them so they are very user friendly. Especially the Vallejo Pigments. Some pigments set quite hard without any setting solutions and if you do screw up are a B*tch of get off. These however are quite good. Much more forgiving than some others i have tried before. So here what i did was that i did some brief highlighting work on the metallics then i did the pigments. For the pipe i used the Vallejo Natural Iron Oxide Pigment. Its a nice dark blackish grey color which looks very good on pipes, and then i used a fifty fifty mix of the dark red and burnt sienna pigments on the beam. Once this was done i set them and left that to dry for a minute! Once this is done, paint the rim of the base black as well. 

11) 

Vallejo still water. Closest thing you can come to liquid gold. Absolutely wonderful to work with. What i did was that for this specific example i mixed it with a brownish pigment. This adds a realyl nice effect later on as you will see. However bear in midn that this makes it murky, so you wont be able to see much through it later. This lets you be in control of what you want as a result. Ofcourse you can add things like green inks instead, this still leaves is see through and you will be able to see the bottom of the pit or if you have something like maybe a body or whatever underneath it can still be seen. So keep this is mind. 

You dont need too much pigment, but add enough to get what you want. Also when doing this step try to avoid wasting. So do a little first and if its not enough make some more :) But basically at this point once you have mixed in the pigment it should look a little like this! Then this is pretty much the last stage. Just pour this mix into the pit and let it dry! it takes a pretty long time so leave it over night atleast.

12)

TADAAAAAAAA

This is what it looks like when its done!

Some things to bear in mind. When you are doing the pit, try to make the whole look as natural as possible. This tutorial doesnt really showcase this well as i made this specifically for the sake of the tutorial and i didnt have time to do all this properly but where in the hell are you going to see a battefield where there is a carter/pit that is a perfect semi circle????!!!!??? Nowhere right??? so jsut keep these things in mind ok! Be creative and do what you want! Try new things, and so on. You have the freedom to do what you want here so just have fun!!!

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The Tools of the Trade

Hi there people.

I cater to alot of people that are on tight budgets as we are situated in a country with low incomes and high outgoing expenses. So alot of our hobby needs to be done in a very wallet friendly manner. I am often asked how i work and what tools i use and so on. Will give a quick run down of what i use and what they substitue or what i use them for.

Assembly:

For assembly clippers are essential. However as a commission painter, it gets very tiring having to cut off copious amoutns of extra plastic that come along with clippers that often wear out to fast. So what we do? We use Cuticle Cutters that you can get at Beautician shops and stuff like that. Go to the ladies section and look for a small clipper looking thingy. Thats the one!!! This works great coz its a very cheap alternative that gives a very neat and precis cut. Also, since it is MUCH smaller than the average set of clippers its very good to use on small parts that may be fragile or whatsoever. Only problem with these is that you cant use them for metal. So if you need to cut up a paper clip or whatever, not a good idea to use this and same applies for large chunks from metal models. For clipping of debris and small flash it works fine, but just make sure that its almost as soft as plastic before you damage them!

Exacto Knife. What a handy tool yet so damaging to the wallet. Exacto knifes wear out very quickly, especially if you use them atleast 5 times a day like we do. So, we have looked around abt and the best solution we could find was using a razor blade. Razor blades can be bought in bulk. and this stuff will last you for a GOOD while. you can buy them in bulks of boxes for a great price and each box has about 5 razors in it. The razor blade itself is however dangerously sharp, so it takes alot of practice in getting the technique right when using this. But to avoid cutting yourself when you take it out of the box it will most likely be wrapped in a small piece of paper. Break the razor in half while its in the paper itself. This gives u two halves that can be used and minimizes the risk of getting cut a lot. Do bear in mind tho that when you throw the razors out, try to put them inside a small disposable container such as a matchbox or a empty cigarette packet. This is because if you dont use this and throw threm straight into the bin, well then i hope yu have a good time clearing up your garbage after it spills onto the floor when your taking it out(trust me, bad experinces always teach the best). Do try this at your own discretion though. This works for us and make sure you are responsible enough to not hurt yourself or those around you by beign careless. But yes, buy 50 razor boxes for 5 dollars, and break them in half, that essentially gives you 100 blades to work with. while if you buy exacto blades, you have 5 blades to work with (or less even)and they will cost you about the same if not more.

Glue is hard to cheat with. Glue unfortunatly has its benefits and its those types of things that you need to invest in wether you want to or not. You can get the 10 pack of cheap super glue at the dollar store but that will give you LOADS of problems and it will not be worth the trouble and heartache. To start with as you can probably figure out the quality of the glue is not very high. This means breakages will often occur and the models will become as fragile as glass. Evne transporting them in a battle foam case with extra padding will be hard. they almost break under their own weight.Also cheap glue has a tendency of being very runny which will mean that it is great for filling gaps, but nothing else. and u will end up getting it all over the models.


Painting:

brushes. obviously you need brushes. its hard to paint without them. but brushes cost like 15 dollars a piece for a good one. so what happens then?? well find out what brushes you need for what, eg detail brushes and drybrushes and basecoating brushes etc. For me i have about 5 brushes that i use often. One is a detail brush, one is a so called standard brush and the other 3 are various sized brushes for dry brushing. I use the standard brush for most things. simply because if you have good brush control you can paint a whole model with only one brush. Damn you can even paint a whole army with one brush. But again brushes its hard to cheat your way out. even if you dont buy the commercial hobby brand brushes like GW or Army painter etc, sable brushes are very hard to find that are high quality and the szes you ned for model painting. But this only really applies to detail brushes and standard brushes. for drybrushes and base coat brushes you have a HUGE selection at your lcoal art store. Often you can find lots of brushes in big packs of like 10. They give you many different brushes and they allow you to use some, save some, and alter some brushes if needed (for example vutting a brush half way up the bristel for stippling) and you wont mind too much as the brushes are easily replaceable. But try to find brushes that are sable and have some resistance. Nylon brushes do work, ofcourse, but i find that they dont carry paint as well as sable, but you should use the consitancy of the bristles from a nylon brush as an example of what you are looking for.

Paints are very hard to talk about. Every single person has their own preferences for brands,what type of paints and so on so i am going to leave ths up to you. Again, paints also are hard to cheat on, it can be doone, but its hard. The paints that are designed for modelling are created specifically for this type of hobby. therefore the characteristics of he paint work well with models and materials like resin and plastic and metal. Watercolors for example dont really stick well. Therefore makimg it hard to paint with them. there are lots of brands out there and each individual should play around with what they can. I personally like to use Vallejo paints because they have a great range of paints, and they come in small dropper bottles which makes it really easy for puttign them in my airbrush and mixing when u need exact ratios. Do play around wth it. i know some people that prefer PP or GW and some even Tamiya. DO be careful tho with some paitn products as they do have a tendency of melting soft plastics.

Just a short one but i hope it helps you all ppl!!

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(Product Review) Vallejo Textures and a Few washes - more wash reviews will come soon.

Hi guys!

So today we will be doing our ever product review!! Exciting indeed! Today we will be reviewing a few of Vallejos Textured paints and two of their washes! This is what we used:

The products used

1)Vallejo Red Oxide Texture
2)Vallejo Desert sand Texture
3)Vallejo Brown Earth Texture
4) Vallejo Brown Wash
5) Vallejo Terran Earth Wash

Firstly, the products themselves. They are all absolutely wonderful to work with. Very easy to use and they cope very well with your demands of them. The textures can be applied in a number of ways. They can be painted on with a brush, or scooped onto the base with a small spatula of some sort or a toothpick. They are also gel based products that allow you to do a small amount of shaping and sculpting to the texture when applying them onto the base if you are going for a specific look. For each Texture we showed the effects of washing and also drybrushing, for the drybrushing we used Vallejo Bonewhite.

The three Textures straight from the pot

Vallejo Red Oxide Texture:
Color of the red oxide is as you can probably guess red. It is a very deep red that is absolutely perfect if you are looking for a Mars type base or a red desert type of theme (think grand canyon!) and so on. The  texture itself is also very fine which is great as for scale modelling regular sand is pretty big if you do actually put it to scale. One grain of sand will be the size of a toilet paper roll, which i dont think is very realistic. Anyway back to the point, when the base was drybrushed with bonewhite, it gives a wonderful effect. The two colors compliment each other very very well and also the drybrush helps strengthen the textures, LOTS. So if you decide to do any minor sculpting in the base for whatever reason, this is a very useful product. Also we decided to wash the base. The wash is applied without any brybrush and we also have a result from first drybrushing and then washing. The first one without the drybrush gives a very unique look. It doesnt really change the tone of the red too much but rather adds texture in a different way than the dry brushing. The wash gives a texture that comes more from under the grains in the texture. This gives shading and a very natural feel. Great for people that dont want a too elaborate base that will not pull too much attention from the model itself and focus on the base, but while still maintaining a very nice Table top level base. The next one is the drybrush first and then the wash. This is gives a wonderful end result that is of a very high quality. It gives a very nice soft tone on the top layer of the grains which highlights the base and adds a nice warm feel to the base. it also breaks the heavy red color and adds a bit of variation.

Brown Earth and Red oxide bases Drybrushed with Bonewhite

Being a color that is not very common on bases unless you are doing themed Mars type of bases, it is still a wonderful product. Depending on how you play with the colors and how you work with it, you can still achieve very nice and realistic outcomes that dont look too "odd." In fact they dont look odd at all! Most outcomes even the product just from the bottle gives a very nice color and natural feel to it. VERY Useful. Can be magical and gives a huge variety of results.

Red oxide Base and Brown Earth Base washed with Brown

Vallejo Desert Sand Texture:
The Vallejo desert sand texture is interesting. It is also quite fine grained again giving it some more realism rather than actual sand in regards to scale, and also the color is already a very warm Bonewhite type of color. Therefore this texture does limit you in terms of drybrushing for lighter colors. HOWEVER, you can be very adventurous and drybrush darker colors. This doesnt really work for all people, as it doesnt really work in theory being that a light source (most often the sky) hits from above, therefore making the drybrush normally be a lighter color. But to each their own, and to some people it may work and some it may not. Since the texture however is a light color, it gives alot of room to paly with when it comes to washes! The possibility of washes you can use on this are endless and each one gives very different results. Some subtle, some strong. It all comes down to the how you wish to wash them.

Left: Brown Wash    Right: Terran Earth Wash

For our examples, we have done two washes. We first washed with brown and then Terran earth. Both are earthy natural colors. They are a little similar but they both look great on this base. Same concept applies that it gives the base a beautiful texutre from the bottom up. But since the original texture is such a bright color it does make it darker (which is often what you want when you wash) but you once the wash is dry you are able to drybrush a white color on top for maximum brightness possible if you are looking for that!

Unfortunately, personal preference limits me a little with this base. I am not a huge fan of light bases. The most I will go to is light brown, and that is still really pushing the limits. But everybody has their own preferences!

Vallejo Brown Earth:
My favorite of all these three textures by far. The color is beautiful. A very warm brown color that looks alot like Vallejo Beasty Brown (maybe it is? I don't know :P) and this gives you so much space to work with. The color can be washed in many different colors and they all give very nice different results. Drybrushing is also easy to perform on this texture as the grains are jsut the right size for basing and the capture paint well when given a light dry brush. This alone gives you endless possibilities. It allows you to drybrush a variety of colors that can later be altered with washes, or it can be left just dry brushed! Very worth trying out.

First we drybrushed again with Bonewhite and after that we also washed a base without a drybrush. The drybrush gives a nice finish and is already good enough for any table top figures wether it be display pieces or table top armies as a whole. Adding washes to the drybrushed gives a very nice contrast that makes the base look outstanding while also giving nice dark and natural crevices. do try this out. Well worth it!


The Textures in general:
The textures are a very useful tool in your toolbox. They work very well in many different ways. And great thing about them is that they are already in a gel medium. This saves you plent of time in your basing stage as you dont need to worry about first painting on pva glue, then applying sand and waiting for that to dry and then coating it in another layer of pva to lock the grains in so the dont fall off (thats how i base atleast). This saves you alot of time. And the fact that the textures are colored also take a huge load of your back as you dont have to worry about basecoating the base with a model already painted and on the base or however you do it. I beleive you get the point. There are also many other textures such as the Grey and White Pumice textures and also the Black lava (WHICH IS AWESOME) and all these textures have their own pros and cons.

The only honest problem I can find with the textures is the coloring. MAKE SURE YOU DONT GET IT ON YOUR CLOTHES. That can ruin a very fun day of painting very very fast. And it is extremely hard to wash out. But I guess that's good in a way coz I presume that means it sticks really well to the base ;) Silver lining people!

Vallejo Brown Wash:
This is a very nice wash. It can be used straight from the bottle or diluted to your prference. Gives a very nice even coat and doesnt really pool very much apart from the intended areas. If mistakes do happen it is also very easy to clean up wit ha cotton swab. They work very well with the bases and the washes arent so sharp either. Some other washes are very dark and give shadows that seem a little unnatural to me. But then agian i presume that is personal preference.

Vallejo Terran Earth:
Also a very nice wash to work with. This brown has a more brownish tint to it while the brown wash has a bit of a greenish feel to it. These two different tints compliment both washes very well. The terran earth also works the same way as the Brown wash. Easy to use straight from the bottle, and doesnt get in the way at all when you work. Great color to use for washing leather and cloaks or anything else brown for that matter. Thinned down it can also be used to make water and rust streaks when it comes to weathering! Well worth the try. But if you do this, make sure you thin the paint down and build up layers slowly. It takes about 4 or 5 layers for the streaking to really give full effect.

The Washes in General:
The washes are great. Not much to say about them other than TRY THEM. Very handy tools. Also the Vallejo range of washes is extremely varied and gives you very many options in natural tones. And the thing is that often in each color section they have different shades of the wash which i think is wonderful and lets you choose what you are looking for. By this i mean that under the black section for example, you can find the Vallejo Black wash which is very dark and firm. perfect for oil and grease stains mixed with some brown wash, but they also have grey wash which is a little lighter than the black, it lets you shade things with a softer color which is wonderful. And as the stated examples about, i would put them under the Brown category, and they are different shades. There are also many other shades of brown that they offer. When using the washes though, make sure you shake them well before using. If the bottle stands around for a while the pigments collect at the bottom of the bottle and you will not really get your desired tone out of the wash. Also, if you dont shake well enough you may pick up those grains of pigment which have not been dissolved properly and accidently slap em on your models, whci hyou dont want. It looks very weird have a nice subtle shade and all of a sudden a spot of really dark brown/black/whatever color you are using. Also and last but not least, the amount of wash you are getting for the price you are paying is great, high quantity of high quality paint for a good deal!


Alright guys!!! That's pretyy much it for our first review! Will be posting some more soon once we have the time! If you have any questions, do feel Free to ask or visit us on our
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Thanks!

Juggernaut

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