# Basic wash question & Testors new 'pre-mixed' washes & stains



## Jodet (May 25, 2008)

I use acrylic paints. I gloss coat them and then put an enamel wash on them. 

I just called testors to ask about their new 'pre-mixed' stains and washes. 

The enamels are called 'stains' and the acrylics 'washes'. Color selection in washes pretty much sucks. 

The person I was talking to said you can't put enamel stains over acrylic paints. 
????

Seems like nonsense to me. I'm going to order some of the enamel 'stains' and try it. (No local hobby stores, ). 

Has anyone tried these new testor products? 

Do you use enamel stains over acrylic?


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## Spockr (Sep 14, 2009)

Putting enamel paint over an acrylic paint base layer is a bad thing so it seems to make sense that the same would be true for washes and stains.


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## Jodet (May 25, 2008)

Spockr said:


> Putting enamel paint over an acrylic paint base layer is a bad thing so it seems to make sense that the same would be true for washes and stains.


Well how do you do washes then? You don't get flow over the same material. Enamel won't flow over enamel, acrylic won't flow over acrylic. 

I've ordered jars of both the testors enamel 'stain' and the acryl 'wash' for some tests.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

You can put enamels over acrylics and acrylics over enamels WITH NO PROBLEM

I have used the Testors enamel stains. They are basically just enamel paint and thinner but are fairly strong/concentrated. I thin them further with Turpenoid (synthetic thinner made by Weber). 

I used the Testors stains here over Tamiya acrylic paints



While not a great photo of a great model, this M24 Chaffee was painted with Tamiya acrylics and weathered with the enamel stains too.


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## Jodet (May 25, 2008)

djnick66 said:


> You can put enamels over acrylics and acrylics over enamels WITH NO PROBLEM
> 
> I have used the Testors enamel stains. They are basically just enamel paint and thinner but are fairly strong/concentrated. I thin them further with Turpenoid (synthetic thinner made by Weber).
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info and the pics - they look great. 

I'm not surprised the stains are kind of thick from the bottle. Approx how far down do you thin them? Another 20%? 40%? 50/50? 

It's a shame testors has support people who don't know what they talking about. I remember when you used to call there and could talk to a modeler.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

How much you thin them depends on what you are using them for and what you are trying to achieve. I just use a small water bottle cap full of turpenoid, an empty cap, and the bottle of testors stain to mix my own desired consistency. dip your brush in the stain, put a few big blobs of it in the empty cap, and then add a couple brush loads of thinner. Try it out... see how it flows. 

In the end I don't go out of my way to use these. I bought them to try them out and they are "okay" but you can do the same thing better and cheaper with some tubes of artist oil paints and the same bottle of Turpenoid. I mix my own stains, washes and filters using oils and Turpenoid. Have done this for years and years. The nice thing with artist oils is they dry slowly and you can wipe excess wash off the model much quicker. The paints are also translucent and you can build up some good depth effects. I notice Vallejo now has some pre mixed acrylic washes. I have not tried those.


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