Empress Miniatures Jazz-Age Imperialism and experimenting with washes.

I recently painted up some 'Empress Miniatures' figures from their 'Jazz-Age Imperialism' range. These are wonderful sculpts with loads of character and a joy to paint.
I plan on using most of these for both my North West Frontier and Modern Afghanistan collection. Obviously the machine gun crew are not suitable for the NWF and the chaps brandishing swords I wont use for the modern period.

They are also a good match in size with Wargames Foundry Afghan range of figures. Foundry are the 1st, 3rd and 5th figures from the left.

I also experimented with some different washes. My usual wash of Windsor & Newton Raw Umber on the left, Vallejo Lavado Wash in the middle and Games Workshop Devlan Mud wash on the right.
 I think I will stick with the W&N Raw Umber wash. The other two washes I found give a tinge that changed the whole look and colour of the figure too much. These would be more suitable I think on horseflesh.
The W&N wash I like because it doesn't give the figure that 'Tangoed' look, it just darkens/shades and weathers the figure, which is more the look I am after.
I find the ideal time to experiment with your painting is when you are working on things like tribesmen or peasants, rather than a uniformed unit of figures because the look does not have to be exact and you can get away with a bit of a mix and match in painting methods.

I have just answerd a question to this post, so I will put the answer on the main page here for all to see.

You only need to squeeze a small amount of the W&N Raw Umber into a 'well/tray'(something that is going to prevent the mix from running away, if you usually mix on a flat surface this will be no good) and then add the flow improver into the well and mix together until really runny/weak. Depending on the strength of your mix, it will have an effect on how dark/light the wash will be. If you are painting Napoleonic Austrians for example with nearly all white uniforms, then you want a really weak/thin mix, darker colours you can make the mix a little stronger. It all depends on what you are painting and what effect you are after. Another tip when using this method is to load your brush with the wash and start washing the figure where you want it darkest and then spread the wash over the lighter areas. I will then usually dip the brush in water only, and go back over the white/lighter areas drawing off the wash where I think it might be a little too dark. It sounds like there is a lot going on but it is really quick, so give it a go and experiment. When the figure is dry, I then highlight the flesh, white and any other lighter colours, it depends how much time you want to spend on the figures, you will find just highlighting the flesh and leaving the figure at that stage is fine, if you want a quick wargaming standard of painting, your choice.
I mix the flow improver with water at a ratio of about 1:10 and add this to the mix with one of those little plastic syringes. Hope this helps.
Also, one tube of W&N and a jar of flow improver will last you years, so it is a lot cheaper than using commercial washes.
Cheers,
Pat.