I’ve got a quick question about what to use to seal my model after ALL the weathering has benn done so the pigments dont keep getting brushed off. Thank you for the help.
A clear flatcoat or dullcoat. You have to spray it on easily, best if done w/and airbrush. If it is too heavy a coat or too much pressure, you will wash the pigments off. The dullcoat will tone the pigments down anyways and make them less noticable. But they will stay on.
The problem is is that i dont have an airbrush. I should have mentioned that. Thanks for the help Gino.
Actually, with all due respect to Gino, I have to disagree with this advice. I mean, you could use a dullcoat, but if you use a heavy sealant like lacquer over pigment/powders, they will essentially disappear.They completely lose the effect that they are suppposed to have.
You should seal the weathering with a flat coat FIRST, and THEN apply pigments or pastels over THAT. Then, to seal the pigments, all you need to do is to drop some thinner over them with a soaked brush. Just load up the brush, and gently touch it to the model next to the pigments–capillary action will suck the thinner into the pigments and secure them. You could airbrush it too, but be far enough away so that you don’t blow them off.
Or, you could use MIG’s Pigment fixer–that stuff rocks!
Pigments are fragile things–you just have to resign yourself to that fact when you use them, and not handle your model excessively.
okay doog. Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.
I’ve used hairspray (Aquanet, specifically) as a fixative for pastels and have had pretty good results with it… I purposely over-do the pastels because I lose some of the colors and effects when I spray it on, but, after a few attempts, have succeeded in being able to judge exactly when to STOP… It doesn’t take much to lock 'em down either…
Interesting tip about thinner, Doog… May give that a whirl, m’self…
If you use a lacquer-based flat coat, don’t apply thinner over it under any circumstances. The thinner will attack the flat coat and cause the fine particles that produce the flat characteristic to come out of suspension and you’ll end up with a very nice fogged/whitish result. [;)] I tried this once (and only once!) with Testors Lusterless Flat and the end result was, shall we say, quite unexpected. [(-D] Respraying of the flat restored things though so I was very, very lucky.