I’ve recently been wondering on how you paint your models. I’ve been reading online, and I find that almost everyone first paints a “flat back” or “Dark Brown” or “Rust” on the first layer, before they paint the overall outer coating. Why is that??? Do you guys recommend using enamel paints or water dissolvent paints on your models during the process?
After all that mess, how do you like wash it down to looks weathered? Last but not least, how do you make mud?
What you are referring to by first painting it black or brown is called pre-shading. The idea is that you go dark first, then spray your color coats on thinly so that the darker color shows through to give the model depth. I don’t use it and think it looks fake. By doing a wash and proper weathering, I think you get better effects than if you pre-shade.
I prefer enamels over acrylics, but it comes down to what you like. I have always used Testors Model Master enamels and love them, plus they come in a wide range of premixed colors that correspond to official US FS (Federal Standard) code #s. I have tried acrylics and hate them.
Weathering is a huge area. Try here at Armorama’s feature section and browse the articles there to get some ideas.
Good luck.
I know it sounds idiotic. But what are “acrylics” ? I’m Taiwanese, and my English has gone downhill…And what it drybrush??? I looked the dictionary, but the closest word is “dry-cleaning”. Which isn’t right
Yeah, I understand the black pre-shade stuff now. BUT how do you wash model??? I hate being amateur…
In terms of model paints, “acrylics” generally refers to paints which use a water/alcohol base as a solvent. “Enamels” are paints which use an oil based solvent.
Dry-brushing refers to a technique used highlight raised details by removing most of the paint from your paint brush so that the absolute barest minimum of paint remains on the brush - hence the term “dry-brush”.
Dip your brush in the paint and then wipe most of it off using a rag or similar - when your brush leaves the faintest trace of colour when you draw it across a clean piece of paper, that should be enough. Now, draw your brush lighly across raised details (rivets, hinges, handles, edges etc) and it will leave a slight trace of that colour on those parts.
Acrylics are water-based paints. Drybrushing is when you get just a little paint on your brush, then wipe most of it off on a rag. You lightly drag it across the model and it brings out the details. A wash is thinned paint that is applied to the model and settles in recesses to bring out shadows and deeper details. Read the articles at Armorama (click on the red here in my above post), they will tell you how to drybrush and do washes.
OH!!! I understand at LAST! drybrush… When you use enamel, won’t it like dry up and make your brush into some kinda chisel? All hard and crunchy? And then has to be thrown in the bin?
I checked Armoroama, but they only have:
“Take your wash and a fine brush and let it flow around the details like antennae mount bases, hatches, rivet heads and so on. Remember, if you get a bit too much, you can clean it up later with a q-tip moistened with thinner.”
But what is WASH???
No, it remains soft while you are using it. Then you clean the brush in paint thinner or lacquer thinner after you are done with it and it is as good as new.
I checked Armoroama, but they only have:
“Take your wash and a fine brush and let it flow around the details like antennae mount bases, hatches, rivet heads and so on. Remember, if you get a bit too much, you can clean it up later with a q-tip moistened with thinner.”
But what is WASH???
A wash is simply thinned paint. Thin it to about the consistency of water, or thinner. It should be almost clear with a tint of the dirt or dust color you are representing. Keep reading at Armorama, there are lots of articles on weathering.
Here are a couple of things I learned on the tank forum. First paint with Water Based paint like Tamiya or Polyscale. Then put artist’s emamel tube paint in a little cup and then mix to coffee like consistency. “Wash” this over the detail of the model like the rivits and grills. Remove any excess with a semi dry brush or a Qtip. It will “wick” back into the brush. The key is that the enamel wash will not disolve the acrylic paint underneath while you are washing. Rust and dirt accumulate around rivits and raised detail so that is what you are trying to emulate. If you only want to use emamel paints, then spray a thin coat of Future or glossy acrylic on before you start to wash. This will put a barrier between the two layers of emamel.
By the way, some German Panzer tanks left the factory in dark grey and when they hit he desert (DAK) they were oversprayed with brown or yellow to blend in with the sand. Sometimes you will see where they already had the crosses and unit markings that were just sprayed or brushed around so these had a dark background. This may be why some modelers want to do the black thing first. One last tip is that with a black or steel base coat, you can use fine sandpaper (400 grit) to lightly sand thru the top layer of paint and espose the “steel” high spots on hatches and corners where there would be traffic and wear. Greg
I was surprised to read that “Heavy Arty” uses enamels exclusively! I feel exactly the opposite! You should consider a couple things about enamels-vs-acrylics. Acrylics do not–in my opinion–have as many fumes when spraying as enamels, nor does clean-up involve harmful thinners; also enamels don’t resist washes as well as acrylics unless they’re sealed–which necessitates another spraying of lacquer (more fumes, another layer over the details, etc). WHile enamels are a bit easier to decal over, I suspect that those who have trouble with acrylics may not have thinned them properly enough; they can be a little trickier than enamels, whose pigments are finer. Just curious Heavyarty, what did you hate about them?
Acrylics are easier to work with, but you will always get a smoother finish with enamels. The have less tooth and dry to a more-realistic slight gloss, while most acrylics dry dead flat, which in truth is not something you see very often on real tanks, especially WWII ones. Enamels are more sensitive to thinning ratio when airbrushing, and splatter easier, and are overall less forgiving, but they do have their advantages. I use both Tamiya and Gunze acrylics and Model Master enamels.
Also, acrylics are not any safer despite their better smell: they are essentially liquid plastic which will stick to the inside of your lungs if you inhale it. The only true non-toxic paints would be watercolors, which wouldn’t work well at for modeling.
Greetings, Panzer Wu:
Right from the box, I spray all of the sprue trees with a basic primer, usually a light grey, especially the photoetched brass frets. Then, I hit the entire thing again with the primary color I want the tank to be. I work with mostly later German WWII armor, and use Tamiya Dark Yellow. I spray paint the tracks a brown color to begin with.
I hand-paint the smaller pieces, and I prefer the acrylic (water-based and water-cleanup) paints, all still on the sprue.
Then, I assemble the model, and once I have it all together, then I go back and do touch-up work with hand-painted acrylics. I mask off what I can, and then overspray with whatever additional camouflage color I am using (dark green and/or red brown). I then get to the weathering. I use a four-part product called “Rustall” for weathering, and have gotten some really good results.
In my next post I’ll talk about “salting”.
I’m hitting “reply” to my own post, hope I don’t go blind!
Recently, I have been working with the “salting” technique, which I picked up several years back in FSM.
As I am working with German WWII armor, there were two main paint schemes: Panzer Grey [Dunkelgrau] til about 1943, then the Dark Yellow [Dunkelgelb]. To show the weathering of vehicles that were oversprayed with the Dunkelgelb over the Dunkelgrau, here is what I’ve been doing:
First, spray the entire model Dunkelgrau. Assemble, leave the tracks and smaller details off until later. Once you have the basic structure of the model together, mask off any openings to the interior if you have worked on superdetailing that. You might hit the exhausts and other badly rusted metals with a base of brown or rust color.
Now, here is the trick: Take an old brush, and some water, and some ordinary table salt. Along the edges that would have received the most wear, you first dip the brush in the water, then into the salt. Put the salt onto the model, leaving large deposits of the crystals to dry. The salt and water mixture should be a bit of a sludge/goop, and like I said, make sure you’re leaving crystals behind stuck to the water. Allow to dry thoroughly.
Then, once the model is completely dry, you spray a second coat, this time Dunkelgelb. You let the second coat dry thoroughly, usually overnight. One the second coat is dry, now comes the fun part! Using an old exacto blade or a toothpick, you fleck away all of the bumpy salt that is covered with the new coat. Voila, the old grey paint scheme is peeking out at you. Keep going, and once you get all that salt off (you can leave some salt deposits down then hit those raised areas with mud or rust color), decide whether you want to go further. If you do, take the back of the blade and scrape carefully on all the edges of the model, flaking off the top coat to expose the color underneath.
Instead of the exacto knife or the toothpick, you can instead use an old toothbrush. If you get to the point that you aren’t getting the salt off to your tastes, you can (GENTLY!) scrub off the salt under the running tap; the water melts the salt, and the toothbrush pulls off the “scab” of new paint left behind.
This salt technique works for aircraft as well, as was in the original article, to show the paint worn down by sandblasting effect from the props on the leading edges, and wear and tear on the paint from the pilots and crew getting on and off the aircraft.
I’ve also gotten some really incredible effects with a yellow undercoat and then a white overspray, to simulate the whitewashing wearing down as time passed. You could also use an undercoat of “spot-rusting” here and there with a rust color and then overspray with the main color.
This is a technique that takes some practice. Use an old model that you just aren’t all that happy with and give this weathering technique a try. Your final work should be with your weathering washes or pastels or Rustall or whatever. I find that the surface left behind by the lost salt technique offers excellent “purchase” for your weathering materials.
Hope you guys give this a shot. You could actually also use masking compound to hit the model with before the overspray instead of the salt, but the abrasive nature of the table salt does much better, in my opinion, of mimicking the flaking of a hasty paint job over a base coat.
If you try this method, you will be quite pleased with the results. If you are wanting a new tank right off the assembly line, however, just go with a virgin coat of paint.
The original article was in the July 2003 issue.
| FSM FINISHING SCHOOL Fast and easy paint wear Get professional-looking results with a simple technique using table salt. By Brian Barton, Michael Chorney, and Charles Swank |
|---|
First off, I don’t give a damn about the possible environmental and/or health hazards with enamels or their thinners or their odors. I tried acrylics and found them to be too too runny for airbrushing and I couldn’t use them for painting details with a brush either. I have always used enamels and will stick with them. I just like the way they flow and attach to the plastic better.
I don’t recommend the paint the whole sprue method. You will find it much easier to assemble everything as much as possible then paint it. This eliminates the extra step of cleaning paint off the mating surfaces and having the paint make parts attachment an issue. You will find most modelers do not use this method. To each their own though.
“First off, I don’t give a damn about the possible environmental and/or health hazards with enamels or their thinners or their odors.” ---- Whoa! HeavyArty–havin’ a bad day or something?![|(] I hope for your sake that if you’re going to be so cavalier about thinners and their fumes that you’re using a proper paint booth and/or at least paint masks to protect your health! Now, take a deep beath,… and consider that if you have found acrylics “too runny for airbrushing”, you might not have mixed the paint up out of the bottom of the jar?[%-)] I agree with you about the sprue-painting method, though…
I’m having a great day. [:D]
Nope, I spray them outside or in my garage with nothing but a wipe cloth for oops’s and a beer to wash it all down with. It’s just not anything I am concerned about. Maybe I’m just hard-headed, but I have been using them for years and just don’t worry about it. I’ve inhaled a lot worse. I’m just not the OSHA and all that type. Based on the amounts of these chemicals we use in hobby use, I don’t think it is that big of a deal. So be it.
I tried the acrylics a few times and played with the paint/thinner ratios etc. I never got it right and didn’t like the results. I just went back to my good ol’ trusty enamels. I get great results with them every time.
[:D]Point taken H.Arty!! Man, I wish I could do that but right now it’s blowing at about 40 mph outside with 3 feet of snow on the ground!![:(] Man I can’t wait for Open-the-windows-and-spray weather![swg] Ciao!!
I am one of those guys who also doesn’t get too wrapped up in the ultra-OSHA-ization in working with the modeling supplies. I tend to stick with the acrylics not really due to toxicity/noxicity concerns, but because I’m pretty lazy and water wash up is so much easier. I also make sure that if I’m painting or gluing that I keep things pretty well ventilated. If I need to spray paint, I pack up the kit and my spray cans and go out into the field behind the apartment. Paint masks and spray booths seem like overkill to me.
I do prefer to spray the base color on the sprue trees, again to each his own, but I don’t mind scraping the paint off the areas to be glued. I honestly haven’t changed this technique for many many many years, maybe it is a remnant of teenage model building years. It is just easier to ensure full coverage to have the parts all painted on the sprue. However, I’m learning more and more techniques (i.e., the salt technique above) and might try just a dry assembly then spray painting. I’m not entrenched on my painting methods.
Also, being lazy, I’m not an airbrusher, too much trouble to break it down and clean it every time. I stick to the spray paint cans, and larger-area camouflage schemes. I know it’s a practice, practice practice thing, but could also not just get down the correct mixture of paint and the air pressure/paint flow control touch down too well. I find it really a great talent in those who do it and do it well. Maybe one day I’ll give it a try once more.