In this one we’re doing take two, baby—and we’re finally talking AK’s new acrylic washes with sound. The big headline: AK is dropping an 18-color wash range, plus a box set and likely a rack, and it’s kind of funny because AK has had “wash-adjacent” stuff forever (deep shades, inks, etc.) but not a straight-up wash line in the main range… until now. We also get into the eternal hobby problem: everyone calls everything a wash. I’ll be talking about a glaze or tint and someone’s like “so you washed it?”—and I’m like no, no I did not wash it. We break down what a wash actually is (more of a technique than a single product), why contrast-style paints have eaten some of the wash market, and what AK is claiming with their marketing bullet points like “odor free” and the all-time banger “comfortable for long painting sessions.” From the trailer footage, these washes look like they’ve got a thicker body and they go where you want them instead of just flooding everywhere. My prediction: they’ll be very serviceable overall, and there’ll be three or four unexpected slam-dunk colors that fill a niche—then we’ll have to revisit the whole “best shades” conversation when they hit the shelves.