How to make Terrain Washes

How to Make a Cheap Brown Wash for 3D Printed Terrain

If you paint a lot of 3D printed terrain, using small bottles of miniature wash can get expensive very quickly.

The good news is that you can make a large bottle of your own dark brown terrain wash for much less money.

This type of wash works great on sci-fi corridors, buildings, machinery, ruins, dungeon tiles and other terrain. It flows into cracks, around rivets and between panels, making all those little details stand out.

What You Need

For our main recipe, you only need a few ingredients:

Distilled Water
This makes up most of the wash. Distilled water is recommended because it doesn't contain the minerals found in tap water.

Brown Acrylic Ink
Burnt Umber is an excellent colour. It gives us the dirty, earthy brown we're looking for.

Black Acrylic Ink
We only need a little black. This makes the brown darker and dirtier.

Matte Medium
This helps hold the paint together while keeping the wash transparent.

Flow Aid
This helps the wash flow into cracks and details instead of forming droplets on the surface.

Easy 100 mL Brown Terrain Wash

Start with a small batch before making a huge bottle.

Mix:

85 mL distilled water

10 mL matte medium

4 mL Burnt Umber acrylic ink

1 mL black acrylic ink

Add a few drops of properly diluted Flow Aid.

That's it!

Shake or stir everything thoroughly.

Brush it over a test piece of terrain and allow it to completely dry before deciding whether you like the colour.

Don't judge a wash while it's wet. It will look different when dry.

Want It Darker?

Add a little more black ink.

Want It Browner?

Add a little more Burnt Umber.

Is It Too Strong?

Add more water.

Is It Not Strong Enough?

Add a little more ink.

Don't worry about getting the measurements absolutely perfect. Terrain is very forgiving.

Making a Large 500 mL Bottle

Once you're happy with your test batch, make a larger batch:

425 mL distilled water

50 mL matte medium

20 mL Burnt Umber acrylic ink

5 mL black acrylic ink

Add a small amount of properly diluted Flow Aid.

Mix thoroughly and you're ready to paint a LOT of terrain.

Always shake the bottle before using it because some pigment may settle while sitting.

What Acrylic Inks Can I Use?

You don't have to use one particular brand.

Look for acrylic ink or pigmented acrylic ink in an art store.

Good choices include:

Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink
Transparent Burnt Umber and Carbon Black are excellent choices.

Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic Ink
Burnt Umber and Black are good alternatives and work in basically the same way.

Amsterdam Acrylic Ink
Another good artist ink that can be used to make washes.

Golden High Flow Acrylics
These can also work very well, although they're usually more expensive than we need for terrain.

You don't need to buy miniature-paint branded inks. Artist acrylic inks work perfectly well for this job.

What If I Can't Find Burnt Umber Ink?

Don't worry about matching the exact colour name.

You're basically looking for a dark earthy brown.

Colours worth trying include:

Burnt Umber – our first choice.

Raw Umber – usually a little cooler and less reddish.

Sepia – gives a warmer brown appearance.

Dark Brown – perfectly usable if that's what your brand calls it.

You can always add a small amount of black to make any of these colours dirtier and darker.

The Really Cheap Version: Craft Paint

You can go even cheaper.

Instead of acrylic ink, try inexpensive brown and black craft acrylic paint.

Start with approximately:

90 mL water

8–10 mL brown craft paint

A very small amount of black craft paint

A few drops of diluted Flow Aid

You can also add a little matte medium if you already have some.

Craft paint doesn't behave quite as nicely as acrylic ink because it contains larger amounts of binder and thicker pigment, but for large pieces of terrain it can work surprisingly well.

This is particularly useful for things like rocks, concrete walls, ruined buildings and large gaming boards where you're going through enormous amounts of wash.

Ink or Craft Paint?

If you're washing highly detailed sci-fi terrain with lots of rivets, pipes, panels and machinery, acrylic ink is my preferred option.

It's thin, strongly pigmented and flows beautifully into small details.

For huge pieces of terrain where you're mostly trying to dirty everything up, cheap craft paint can save even more money.

You can even use both methods.

Use your cheap craft-paint wash on large surfaces and save your better acrylic-ink wash for detailed areas.

One Important Tip

Don't immediately make a giant bottle.

Make 100 mL first.

Paint a piece of scrap terrain.

Let it completely dry.

Then decide if you want it darker, lighter, browner or blacker.

Once you've found the mixture you like, write down your recipe.

Now you can make the exact same wash whenever you need another bottle.

For terrain, there's really no reason to go through dozens of tiny bottles of expensive miniature wash when you can make your own.