Washes & Shading — Bringing VoidHive Chitin to Life

If zenithal priming is the foundation and basecoating is the walls, washes are the moment your model starts to breathe. A well-applied wash can transform a flat, lifeless surface into something that looks like it has depth, texture, and history. For VoidHive Forge models — with their deeply sculpted chitin, organic recesses, and layered carapace plates — washes are one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal.

What is a Wash?

A wash is a thin, heavily pigmented paint with a low surface tension that flows into recesses and low points on a model, pooling in the deepest areas and leaving the raised surfaces relatively clean. The result is instant, natural-looking shading without complex blending.

Choosing Your Wash

For VoidHive models, the wash colour should complement your carapace tone:

• Nuln Oil — black wash, deepens shadows on any colour. Essential for dark carapace.
• Druchii Violet — purple wash, perfect for cold chitin tones and flesh panels.
• Biel-Tan Green — green wash, excellent for organic tissue and bioluminescent areas.
• Carroburg Crimson — red wash, ideal for exposed flesh and ichor-stained recesses.

Application Technique

The key to a good wash is control. Too much and it pools messily on flat surfaces; too little and it doesn't reach the recesses.

• Load your brush fully but remove excess on the rim of the pot
• Apply to one section at a time — don't wash the whole model at once
• Let gravity help: work from top to bottom so the wash flows downward into recesses
• If a pool forms on a flat surface, wick it away with a dry brush tip before it dries
• Allow to dry fully before the next step — washes take longer than regular paint

Layering Washes

One wash is good. Two can be exceptional. Once your first wash is dry, apply a second, more targeted wash only into the deepest recesses — the very bottom of chitin crevices, the inner corners of carapace plates. This creates a gradient of shadow that reads as genuine depth rather than a flat tint.

Glazing vs Washing

A glaze is a wash diluted further with medium or water — it tints a surface without pooling in recesses. Use glazes to shift the colour temperature of an area (e.g. adding a purple glaze over a black carapace to push it cooler) or to blend between highlight and shadow zones. On VoidHive models, glazes work beautifully on the transition between carapace and flesh.

After the Wash: Relining

Once your wash is dry, you may find that some areas look a little muddy or that the wash has crept onto surfaces you wanted to keep clean. Use a fine detail brush and your base colour to carefully reline the raised surfaces — this sharpens the contrast between highlight and shadow and restores crispness to the sculpt.

Tomorrow we go deeper into the lore — the origins of the VoidHive itself.