Wednesday, 6 May 2026

Frankly it's a Washout! Basecoat, Wash, Highlight Frankish Experiment

As mentioned recently in my Middle Imperial Roman Speed Painting/Wash Experiments article I'm attempting to speed up my painting, withy minimal loss of quality. This is purely to start to colour in the mahoosive amount of metal I have sitting about and get it onto the tabletop! Whilst I'm not 100% happy with the Middle Imperial Roman Speed Painting/Wash Experiments I reckon with some refinement, the wash can be made to be less garish and a lot more subtle. I managed to put together a completely different wash mix for the Franks (barring the armoured ones just below which were speed painted 20 years ago!) and I'm much happier with the results. There's a slight tincture of one particular colour in the eash, see if you can tell what it is. 

I promise I'll go into more detail about the mix of washes, Speedpaint Medium and Contrast Medium/Lahmian medium plus Army Painter Tones etc at a later date. I would much rather do this when I have the nailed wash/medium/tone mixes than talk everyone through every experiment I attempt!  I'm much more settled on a formula or formulas I have used here than the Middle imperial Roman experiments, which work on various amount of armour, different hues and saturation of colour. Possibly not so on the Franks ergo the change in formula! :>)

For comparison; Two Quickly Painted 20 Years Ago




The New Wash Mix




The New Wash Mix




I think this version of the wash has come out subtle enough to allow the second coat of paint, exactly the same as the basecoat, to fit with the original plus the wash without there being too much of a contrast. The technique is literally, basecoat, wash the whole miniatures (try not to let the wash settle in pools), use the basecoat again to highlight. Possibly touch up a few areas of the miniatures by "tagging" the extremities of any raised areas by adding VMC Ivory or VMC Off White to the basecoat. That is really it. 

Here are some (hopefully!) more or less actual size images:






More to come including, as promised, a full tutorial.
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8 comments:

  1. Anonymous6 May 2026 at 11:30

    Looking forward to that tutorial; I have a mountain of Wargames Foundry Greeks / Vikings that I need to get painted some time before I die. A faster method is very much needed.

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    1. Bedford6 May 2026 at 13:07

      I think a softer wash for the flesh tones ion the Greeks etc. A tutorial ASAP.

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  2. Anonymous6 May 2026 at 12:07

    They are excellent. Did you really use the same wash on the whole figure? Can’t wait to see how (Matt).

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    1. Bedford6 May 2026 at 13:09

      Thanks. Yes, I'm looking to somehow (magically?) make up a few comprehensive washes that can be applied to models to facilitate the speedier brushwork.

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  3. Anonymous7 May 2026 at 00:32

    Wow! That's all I can say. Really looking forward to the tutorial. Will it include how you manage to achieve that incredible enhancement of your already superbly painted figures using varnish? That final finish sets your figures apart from all others I have seen.

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    1. Bedford10 May 2026 at 23:46

      Thanks. tutorial slightly derailed by some Sassanid painting but it's firmly in sitting in the "drafts" section on the blog here.

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  4. SHPPatten7 May 2026 at 00:33

    I could have used my Google account to publish the above - I don't comment much on the internet anymore :) Stephen

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    1. Bedford7 May 2026 at 04:31

      Perhaps this is precisely the reason that you should? To keep long form discussion of wargaming and painting going rather than the fleeting glimpses we are given to bit at on Facebook and other social media? food for thought perhaps? :)

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