Hi all. I have drybrushed ‘steel’ paint and have used a soft pencil. Has anyone ever tried that dry graphite they sell for locks? I have found that using a pencil only really shows an effect when the light hits at the right angle. Mostly I do this very sparingly on military models. Hatch handles, howitzer spades…
I’m not sure if that powdered stuff they sell is as ‘bare steel’ a color as I imagine it or if it’s more black like what comes in the lock ease liquid stuff which I have used around diesel fill caps.
Steel has so many different colours - depending on the individual alloy (stainless?), how long it has been sitting outside or if it has been rubbed on (think manhole covers, for example).
My take is to use some kind of gun metal paint (the so called “leadbelcher” from Citadel paints has a very nice colour) and adding some brown to it or using a brown wash on top of that. You can also mar the very edges with silver to suggest most recent wear.
The graphite stuff can probably be used, too, I’m just not so sure about places that could be handled - it would probably tend to stay on the fingers a little…
Thanks Pawel. I will look at that color you mentioned. I do have some gun metal. I’m not thinking shiney steel as if from a recent deep scratch. More of a burnished effect from constant contact from hands and feet. I never go overboard because truthfully for the most part even in combat zones this stuff was babied and those guys on a track or howitzer took pride in their having the best piece in the battery or unit. This was what took the place of the car back home they waxed three times a week except now during a lull they used diesel fuel for that showroom look.
I’ve had great results with AK Xtreme’s Stainless Steel shades.
Going back a little further in the modeling bag, craft stores carry a product called Rub’N’Buff…tubes of a sort of metallic wax paste, easy to apply and work with, with lots of shades, and which I recall as offering a particularly convincing bare steel finish on several of my '70s and '80s builds.
I have used powdered graphite with both enamels and acrylics. In my experience, it’s more useful for darkening or toning individual panels for a slightly different cast or sheen, than as an overall effect. (It can also be added to acrylic paints for interesting effects.)
Thanks for the extra tips. I have never used acrylic paint and was looking at that one color Pawel suggested. Can you spray Testors Dull Coat over this acrylic paint? I usually hit what I am doing with that after I have dome all I want regarding paint.
I’m glad to hear someone has actually used that powdered graphite.
I also use powdered graphite for various effects, including the gun smoke and refueling door on this F-16. Haven’t tried it on lighter colored metals, but it also works really well for giving darker metals more of a metallic sheen, so its great for guns like the M61A1 and its barrels.
I use Tamiya acrylics almost exclusively, since they’re versatile, easy to use and tough. Dull Coat works fine over them, just give all the Tamiya time to cure thoroughly and ‘gas out’ – 24 hours works fine for sprayed finishes, hand-brushed might need extra time.
I used to use graphite in the old days- I found the angle dependence realistic over a medium dark gray. Then when Testors came out with their Steel enamal I would mix that with a bit of black to darken it to the shade I want. Their latest version of the Flat Steel is quite nice. However, I really like Alclad Steel now. I put it down over gloss black, and put it on very light and unevenly. Sometimes I follow that up with drybrushed red and blue splotches.
I still to this day use All “Rub-N-Buff’s” colors. The more you rub it the more worn it looks, or the more shiny depending on the color. Gold looks Gold, Bronze-Bronze etc. Now their Steel, Gunmetal, and other common finishes have to be seen to be believed. The more you rub, for instance, Steel, the brighter it becomes without disappearing from the surface. Just a light buff in the dips and grooves and around rivets for example looks so real!
