Dry brushing

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Techniques
1

Back to this beloved hobby after many years, and it doesn’t help that my old eyes are struggling[:(((] at it!

Am working on a 1/48 Tamiya Zero, and the cockpit is at the stage where I should be doing some dry brushing to help make the details more visible.

Dry brushing had always been a somewhat hit and miss thing for me (perhaps more misses [:$]), so would be glad to get any advice.

Problems I’ve had:

Comes out streaky looking instead of subtle dusting of color; or

Paint looks somewhat clumpy on the details; or

Can hardly get any paint off the brush.

I figure a part of the problem is I can’t seem to get the consistency of the paint just right. Perhaps the brush I’m using is not quite right too?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks!

2

You can try using silver or white pencils then seal it in with clearcoat. Sure beats having smudges on instrument panels and cockpit panels.

3

I have had more luck dry brushing with oil paints. Not sure what paint your useing, but some acrylics, tamiya especially, i have real issues with.

4

I agree with Bish. I stay away from acrylics for dry brushing. I use Testors enamels, ideally a silver color. Wipe the brush off on a paper towel to the point it looks like nothing is coming off on the towel. Then use very light strokes at first to apply the paint. The idea is to build up the contrast very slowly. This way you can control the coverage better.

Also, try to flood the area with as much light as possible. The more light helps my old eyes as well.

5

You want to use a broad brush such as a filbert or shader. Dip just the tip in the paint.

Agree with Hog to wipe the brush on a paper towel or old T-shirt until no paint comes off. Then wipe a few times more You can always go back and add more paint to the surface. It is a problem to add less

Disagree with not using acrylics. They work well but remember that they may dry quicker. Airbrush ready paints such as Model Air are pretty thin and transparent and may not work as well as Tamiya or Polly S

6

Vallejo is one i can dry brush with. Tamiya dries so fast it clumps on the brush. If i have to use that i water it down a lot.

7

Hi Bish

I use enamels for dry brushing mostly. I too have had issues when using acrylics for this.

Maybe will try oil paints, but these take quite a long time to dry.

8

Hi BS214

That sounds like a great idea [I]! Will definitely try it! Many thanks [:D[

My replies will take a while before they show up [|-)]. I’m under the newbie policing program it seems [whstl]

9

Been locked out of forum for several days, so couldn’t reply to this thread. Managed to reset account this morning. So…

I use Testors gloss enamel if I can find the right color in it, because it dries slow. You need slow drying stuff to do good dry brushing. That is why oil paint works so well. But I find I can work with Testors enamel okay. If I cannot find the color in gloss, I will use flat but add more thinner. I thin to about same mix I use for airbrushing.

I put very little paint on brush. That helps prevent streaking and too opaque a color. I tend to daub it on and then brush it around a bit. If it is going on too thick, I dip brush in thinner then squish spot around. With very little paint on brush, I can build up gradual coating/patina. I never dip brush in paint directly. I use a piece of glossy cardboard, or plastic as a pallette, dip brush just slightly into paint to apply a few drops to the pallette. Then spread it around a bit, clean brush, then dip brush in that thin area on pallette.

10

Thanks much, Don, for your very comprehensive input

Will definitely give gloss enamels a try.

This is interesting, as I recall reading Francois Verlinden’s books, where he advocates using a bone dry brush and lifting the thick pigment from the bottom of unstirred bottle or can to use for dry btushing. Anyway, will give your technique a try to see if it works better for me.

11

Less is more.

Go light and keep adding till it looks right.

12

[dto:]

13

So, I’m fairly new to this also, but a friend at work who does miniatures and some models suggested to me to get a ‘wet palette’. I do paint with acrylic as well.

This thing has totally changed painting for me. Basically it’s a sponge on with some parchment paper on top. You put the paint/mix in there and it stays moist for days or more. Follow the directions, pretty easy to figure out with them.

But in the process, the edges of the dabs of paint will become spmewhat dry after a day or two and work out well for me for dry brushing. I picked up a wet palette at Michael’s for $15, can find them on Amazon as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Sta-Wet-Palette-Keeps-Paints-Airtight/dp/B000C18GTE/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_11?keywords=wet+palette+masterson+8+1%2F2+7&qid=1550076644&s=gateway&sr=8-11-fkmrnull

As far as keeping consistency in color and viscosity - it’s a god send :slight_smile: - I was complaining about that and my friend at work suggested this to fix that problem. I like it because the ‘dabs’ will stay nice and fluid where there’s a good amount of paint, but dry more in areas where there’s not so much. So you can make a ‘main pile’ and then a smaller, thinner one that will start to dry out much quicker.

You will need to add a little water every other day or so and sometimes just a dab of medium to get it to flow right. Of course, maybe not if you want it to dry out some :slight_smile:

One other trick I use is to keep dabbing a paper towel and get some build up on the paper towel, let it sit and then use that as my paint source. If you get some globs, you can experiment with using just a touch of medium on your brush to get it to flow some.

I had many suggestions to just thin acrylics with water, but I’ve found that an acrylic medium not only helps preserve your brushes, but helps a lot with consistency and polymer bonding of the paint. There’s a video I ran across that explains if you dip the brush in the medium first and dab it out good, prior to saturating it with paint, it’ll help keep the pigments from staining the brush.

https://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Flow-Effects-Medium/dp/B000KNPM46/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=acrylic+medium&qid=1550077126&s=gateway&sr=8-8

Plus - it’s cheap. I suspect this bottle will last me through probably 20 models.