Finally bought some mineral spirits…so took my old. very old Tamiya Churchill model and expremineted a bit…
Evening, so no daylight… Colours vary.
Burnt Umber wash:
Black wash:
One failed Dot Filtering:
Anyone give me the dot filtering short?
And comments, please…
Thanks in advance!
-Huxy
Huxy…
First of all I’d suggest you try to use an airbrush or at least a rattle can for you base coats.
You will not get a smooth enough finish by using a brush for you base coat, and then your oil steps and weathering steps won’t look so good. Just my [2c]
You can try the cheap airbrush from Biltema just to get the hang of it, here’s the part number: 15-191.
Anyways, here’s a great thread for the dot filtering method, Weathering Tutorial–the doog’s DML HETZER
It looks like you may have mixed the wash too thick. I never really measure anything out when I mix paints or washes, but if I had to guess, I’d say I make my oil washes about 5:1 thinner to paint ratio. The thinner the better really; there is less of a painting motion, more of a touching motion to get the wash in the recesses. Just touch the brush to the surface and let capilary action do the real work. Of course, the results we see here could be caused by the rough finish on this kit. You should thin down your wash and try it on a newer kit.
Yeah, I’m gonna assume that the orange peel effect of the basecoat is because of the old nature of the kit, ie you painted it by hand some years ago? [:)]
The wash on the fender looks good, but you seem to have kind of lost control of it on the rear hull. When I first started using oils for washes, it was a revelation. Over time I had to learn to refine it a bit. I usually try to mix a smaller amount of wash now. I’ll usually use a small, shallow dish, about 5cm in diameter. I will just dab a very small amount of oil paint into the bottom of it, then add a small amount of thinner. Reason is, you want to have enough thinner so the mix is still very viscous, but not too much, as the paint will still sink to the bottom, and as you gather it, you will get uneven results. Also, as opposed to applying overall washes, try using a fine point brush, and gathering just a small amount. It will allow you to drop the wash where you need it. I use a larger brush to mix the actual wash, then use a finer brush to apply it.
As for ‘dot-filters’, its fairly easy. Heck, I wish I could find the thread made by biffa some time ago, that really showed it off well. Basically, the filter is there to give tonal variation to your base colour. I typically do this before a wash.
Chose several colours, depending on what tones you wish to achieve. Greens will accentuate your basecoat (if it is green that is), reds can warm it, blues will ‘cool’ it, etc. I typically use a very small amount of green, and an even smaller amount of black, along with white, yellow ochre, and red/blue/yellow here and there, although not often. Mind you, this is just my preference, and you will need to experiment to get the results you are happy with.
I will ‘paint’ the surface, very thinly with mineral spirits. Work one panel at a time. Apply small dots of oil paint with a toothpick or something akin to this, in a random pattern over the panel, using all of your colours. I typicall tend to space the dots around 5-7mm from each other, in all directions. Take a larger brush, and wet it with the thinner. Do not soak the brush, only wick some moisture onto it. In continuous downward strokes, streak the paint onto the panel. You can wash off the brush and wick it dry, then continue to blend the oil paint. When done, move on to the next panel. Keep in mind your goal is not to neccessarily create the same effect on all panels, but you do not want to have too drastic of a difference between then.
You can try searching the forum also, there have been numerous posts regarding this topic, and some of our members have posted basic walkthroughs. the doog also demonstrated this technique in his thread detailing the finish of his Hetzer.
EDIT: damn, could have saved myself and all of you a long winded post. Stampede posted the link to doogs’ tutorial.
Looks fine, Huxy–you just have to work on a better basecoat application–too many brushmarks there!
But as far as the Dot Method, my toot that was just pasted here should answer most of your questions, along with zokissima’s explanation.
If you have any more questions, just email/PM me; I’ll try to get back to ya soon as I can!
Well, I got an airbrush… the Badger Crescendo 175-5… but this one was painted before I knew what nation it belonged to… So really, nowadays I use the airbrush on all I got 
Altough the one from Biltema makes me want it… just because it’s an Airbrush, really… Clas Olson also got one you know…
AcModeller: That info will help! Thanks.
zokissima : Wow… Great info there! Thanks!
the doog : Will do, Idool. Thanks
And as said… that tank (Churchill) was painted a long long time ago… when I still was new… I’ll try on a newer model… Pictures to come!
Thanks all! [:D]
I always “wash/filter” in layers; one wash is usually not gonna do it (washing can be a long and involved process over many days involving many washes with many colors and ratios—don’t suh it)…and a technique that IMO is important is not only how you lay in the wash, but how you remove the excess wash…I often lay in a thin wash and then dab-dry the area w/ a clean t-shirt…this removes the excess that has built up in your first pic…Also, I think the ratio to paint/thinner is far more than 5:1—I’d say if you are using oils it should be 15-20:1…washes should be very thin, IMO…Of course, some specialized applications of wahes may call for more or less paint in them (thicker wash)…
Washes in the realm of art are noted as “glazing” and is just a build up of very thin oil paint thinned with mineral spirits or turp. This of course lets the color below show through. The more glazes “washes” in a painting the deeper and richer the color and the more “stuff” that “happens” going on. I need to move my painting glazes from the canvas to the model. An archive of great advice on this thread…thanks for posting it all.
Buck