I’m sure you’ve all heard this questions 1,000 times, and i’m sorry for asking it, but what’s the proper way for doing a “wash” with a dark color to see the panel lines on an aircraft? I’ve never really tried it. I’m sure i could manage the wash part, but after that what do you do? Do you just airbrush on a light coat of the plane’s color? Won’t it hide the panel lines if you do that? [V]
Brandon,
The idea is to paint the plane with the final colors (natural metal, camoflage - whatever) and THEN give the panel lines a wash with thinned paint, ink or oil paints.
You MUST protect the original paint surface somehow, like with a coat of Future, because if you put an enamel wash over enamel paint, the thinner in the wash will destroy the original paint. Sometimes people paint the plane with enamel and wash with acrylic - it’s all a matter of paint compatability. Will one type of paint eat the other, wrecking your model?
Normally the steps are as follows:
- Finish and paint your model.
- Overcoat with Future - normally military paints are matte and decals won’t stick to matte paint very well - silvering is also a problem.
- Decal the model.
- Apply a wash and weathering.
- Apply a final matte coat (yes, we’re dulling off the nice Future gloss) - it’ll look better.
I’d suggest you have a look at the painting and airbrushing index - there are many threads and posts and many people giving advice who are more skilled than I am.
Good luck, mate.
Read this …
http://www.swannysmodels.com/Weathering.html
then read this …
http://www.swannysmodels.com/Salting.html
Hopefully, between the two of them, all your wash questions will be answered.
Well, from what i’ve read and seen, panel line washes are mostly for older, weathered planes, no? Well, my next diorama will involve the blue angels f-18s and i don’t guess they’re that weathered. I dunno, to wash panel lines, or not to wash panel lines… that is the question. Any suggestions?
My usual method is this:
- Paint the base coat;
- spray a gloss coat to help decals adhere;
- decal;
- spray another gloss acrylic coat to seal decals and help hide decal film;
- brush a dark enamel colour (usually black) on all panel lines and wait till it drys;
- wipe off excess enamel with enamel thinner (It should remove the black paint and not affect the acrylic clear);
- sometimes I’ll go around with a wash made of water, tamiya acrylic and dishwashing liquid to improve areas;
- and finally seal it with a few thin coats of clear depending on the finish you want.
Washing panel lines isn’t just for worn aircraft, it can also be used just to highlight surface detail.
hope this helps
Brandonp51, and others, Go outside & really look at some cars. notice the dark lines around the door, hood (bonnet) & boot (trunk) panel openings? That is what you should be trying for on your aircraft panel lines. If it opens (panels) or moves (ailerons, rudder,etc) then there will be a gap between it & adjoining metalwork. therefore there will usually be a dark line, or even just a darker shade of the surrounding paint. So the wash is used to emphasise this. You may have seen, for instance, a 1944 Luftwaffe aircraft model that looks like it’s crisscrossed with thin black lines. That will be weathering, slightly over emphasised, yes, but this seems to have become the norm. Try the same thing on a USAAC aircraft model which used similar construction methods to that German one, & someone will criticise it!
On something like Brandons F-18’s, which would be kept highly polished therefore, I would simply go around the panel lines (as above) with a sharp pencil, just to darken those line’s & make them stand out slightly. That should be all you need.
Hope this makes things a bit clearer.
Pete
i would say a subtle wash would work. dont overdo the effect. something else you could do, do a google search online and see what pics of the blue angels you can come up with. this will give you excellent references to work from.
joe
Brandon, if you don’t want to do a “wash” you can try what I do…I use a fine tip artists pen made by Micron, #005. The tip fits perfectly into the panel lines. When you run the pen through a panel line or rivet, take a piece of cloth or paper towel and drag it backwards, like most corrosion on an a/c. If you put to much on, a soft eraser will remove some of the excessive ink nicely. Now this is time consuming but I think it looks great, especially on modern Navy and Marine Corps a/c. Good lucky buddy!
Also, the “Blues” are spotless, no corrosion whatsoever. Recessed panel lines are something I wouldn’t bother with, lots of Future though.
navyao, thanks for the correction. havent seen the blue angels, not even pics, in years that i remember. my own attention to other winged craft is to blame. [:D]
joe