Stains and washes are basically the same thing. There are many ways of making them and I will cover three. The first stain is the old tried and true. Buy some India ink and a pint bottle of rubbing alcohol. The mixture is 1 teaspoon ink to one pint of alcohol. The second stain can be made with artists oil colors and mineral spirits in a mixture of 25% paint to 75% solvent. Number three is my favorite. Use Floquil Poly-S and rubbing alcohol (you can also use "wet water" which is water with a drop of dish detergent in it). The mixture here is again 25% paint to 75% solvent. Store all your washes in small bottles for future use. I personally have had good luck with washes made with the Poly-S paint, and have bottles of black, gray, rust, and white mixed up in my paint locker.
Using any of these washes is extremely easy. Take an artist brush and dip it in the wash. Use even down strokes and do the entire side of the model. Make sure you get the wash in all grooves and recesses. Roofs have to be brushed across so that you have the effect of rain washing down your color. If you do not like the effect, use the solvent to remove or lighten the wash. This technique will bring out the grooves in flatcar decks and other recesses that have collected the basic car color when it was painted. One caution. If you apply an alcohol based wash over Glosscoat or Dulllcoat. It makes for an interesting faded rain washed weathered look. If you don't like it, you can spray your car with Dullcoat or Glosscoat and the effect will disappear.
It is well worth it to test your wash on an old car before you apply it to your freshly painted and decaled model.
Dry Brushing: Another weathering technique that I love to use is dry brushing. For this you will need your Floquil Poly-S paint and some stiff artist brushes along with a piece of cardboard or some paper towel. Once again I use the basic weathering colors of black, gray, rust and white.
To start, dip your brush in the paint and wipe it across the cardboard or paper towel until almost all the paint is gone. Then lightly brush it on your model once again using downward strokes to simulate the effect of rain and gravity. Very simple and very effective. I use this as my last weathering technique when I am completely done with washes or other weathering. This form of weathering will bring out a lot of fine detail especially around rivets and wood grain.
