I’m talking about black details such as instruments panels, radio boxes and so on. A gentle brush with steel perhaps? What looks most convincing in your opinion?
I use greys of varying intensity. Metallics just doesn’t look right. (imo).
You want to use a light black or dark grey. I use Tarnished black from Floquil. Straight black doesn’t look right in scale, so you need to lighten it up a bit.
I’ve used Tarnished Black on instrument panels, boxes, tires…heck, I even painted an entire P-61 Black Widow with tarnished black
After painting them black, you want to dry brush them with a little bit of silver to show some wear and tear.
-Fred
In addition to the usual Testors and Tamiya paints my local hobby store carries Polly Scale but it doesn’t carry Floquil. Polly Scale offers several special black colors among them “Scale Black” and “Grimy Black”. Which one of those two?
Scale black. Grimy black has an oily look to it.
-Fred
These guys are right. Use very dark grey (“light black,” Fred?) and drybrush with lighter greys. A few shades off of black is what we mean. Cockpit boxes WERE painted black, but in scale, pure black rarely looks right.
Most cockpit “black boxes” were painted in a semi-sheen paint, as well. I’ve handled many of them in my NAVAIR days and I can tell you that the rough overall surface texture that drybrushing imparts as paint builds up is not right. If you can manage it, flatten off gloss dark grey for your base color - or lighten the “grimy black” mentioned. Even well used control boxes were not dead flat or covered with a drybrushed “crud”.
Drybrushing is really a deft technique and not one for the hamfisted. Look at Freds pictures… he has the technique right. The brushes used for DB’ing should be good quality with fine, tight bristles, not the ones you relegate to the rubbish bin. Also, use brushes sized for the job. A 1" brush is not good for a cockpit drybrush job.
Finally, be patient. Drybrushing takes a bit of time to build the paint up the way it needs to be, along edges and high points only. Use short strokes and work over very small areas. Keep in mind the name - “drybrushing.” You are using what is basically a dry brush. This means You may go over a single surface many times, perhaps, before the effect is properly rendered.
If you knew all this great. If not, I hope it helped.
so would you paint the entiere cockpit black first and the dry brush with the lighter grays?
No sir. The cockpit structures are painted a base color. For WWII US aircraft, it is usually a dark yellow-green to simulate the corrosion proofing cockpit green zinc-chromate paint of that era. Later US aircraft will normally be painted medium grey. In both cases, the instruments and “black boxes” are painted next. Again, refer to the pic that Frank posted up-thread.
There have been a few aircraft that had black interiors, like the Hawker Sea Fury. But they are in the minority. Check your references or just ask the folks here for the right colors to use.
Once the base structure is painted, the “black boxes” are picked out in your very dark grey paint using a small brush. Once THAT’S dry, you use washes and drybrushing to add highlight and depth, so they dont look like little bits that have just been painted in place.
Take a look at this thread, it may be of help! Mike has a great technique here!
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Brian [C):-)]
Good stuff here. Thanks. [tup]