Never tried this before and I was trying it on a motor and radiator that I was building for a car. I used a cheap acrylic blackish paint I picked up in a Michaels store. All I basically suceeded in doing was making the radiator which is a steel color, more black!
I tried it on the fan too, just to bring out the small bolts and most of it just wiped away. I’m obviously doing something wrong, but I’m not quite sure what. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Are you trying to do a wash, or a dry-brush? If wash, how much did you thin the paint? Since you mentioned wiping away, I assume you mean the former.
Actually what I did was use the acrylic and I thinned it with water, it was very thin, and then I just brushed it on the radiator, the capilliary action made it run everywhere, but then all I had was a metal looking radiator with a lot of black in the grill.As I said I guess I really didn’t know quite what I was doing, which is probably why it didn’t come out too well. The radiator was airbrushed with Model master aluminum, I just wanted to bring out a little more detail, as I did with the fan.
So from waht I’ve read here and on other forums, it looks like making a wash out of Tamiya Acrylic “smoke” thinned maybe 10 to 1, then applying it after the part or model is painted is the most popular?
Okay, it sounds like you basically did the right thing. Try applying it a little at a time. Also try adding just the tiniest drop of dishwater detergent to your mixture. Try practicing on some scrap parts.
Thanks Don I’ll try that as well, guess I should have tried it on scrap material first, it just sounded so easy the way everyone described it. But I’m sure it takes a fair amount of practice.
Just out of curiousity what does the dish detergent actually do?
Reduces surface tension so the wash flows a bit better and wets the surface more. Sometimes you don’t want that- for instance if you want the wash to be restricted to panel edge lines- but for other cases you may want the better flow.
There are three primary ways to bring out details and accent panel lines:
dry-brush
wash
paint w/ different shades/colors
…now, there are hundreds of ways to do each of the above three…
But as far as washes go, would you say that the Tamiya Acrylic smoke, thinned maybe 10 to 1, then applying it after the part or model is painted is the most popular and easiest method to start and try out ?
Yep! Make it very thin and watery, to where you’d think it’s too thin. “Paint” it on so the part looks almost that color at first–capillary action will draw it into the nooks. I get better results if I let it get almost dry, then wipe with a paper towel. The appearance is usually smoky and subtle, but subsequent washes will make it darker if that’s what you want.