I'm working through the confusing topic of what paints etc to buy, and I have a question about washes.

There are quite a few threads on here about how to 'make' a wash, by adding various things to paints.

So just to be clear, this is talking about adding stuff to the normal paints that you paint the models with?

What's the benefit in fiddling around with this as opposed to purchasing a dedicated wash, such as the Vallejo washes?

If it was me, before buying any kind of wash and if you are struggling using water to thin your paints due to surface tension issues you should look into getting a bottle of Vallejo Glaze Medium.

This stuff is brilliant and can be added to any paint (well the ones I use GW, Repear, Vallejo) and therefor you are not restricted to specific wash colours.

Of course the cheapest way is to just add water and maybe some other additive to break the surface tension. But if you are struggling with this and are looking at purchasing some washes, I highly recommend you get a bottle of the Glaze Medium to try it out before hand.

Thanks for that, but I had a bit of spare cash so I decided to make life easier for myself (so I'd have one less thing to stuff up as I'm learning) and just buy the washes. But I'll definitely keep in mind your advice anyway.

One of the biggest benefits of buying it premade is consistency. I find that mixing your own washes or glazes, especially in smaller quantities, tends toward inconsistency. At least when you use a premade wash/glaze it has the same starting consistency.

I nearly always add stuff to my pre-made washes to get the effect / consistency I want.
favourites are water, clear acrylic floor polish (pledge) & windex.

While i like pre mix like mig's example(which is enamel), I prefer oils due to the longer drying time and getting the consistence I like for different effect Also with oils you can use em straight over water based paints. Use white spirits to thin which is cheap and oil tube will last a life time. Just my thoughts

I'd suggest gloss varnishing prior to using Oils over acrylics. While you can do it, cleaning up with white spirits can wreck your acrylic paint layers. Plus the gloss varnish lets to oil paint flow better.

That all depends on the effect your after. For pin wash's etc I would agree you need a gloss coat(which i do). However if you want to add to laying or change the base colour, using pin wash without gloss varnish will create intertesting effect's