What is your best weathering technique and how do you work your majic?I am trying to gather all weathering techniques and am trying verious ones to do.This sharpens my skills as a modeler and have tryed a slou of techniques to get where I am today.Thanks Digger
Washes and drybrushing are what have worked best for me. I usually do a wash, using Mineral Spirits and oil paints, over sealed paint, once that’s dry let the drybrushing begin. A little white to bring out detail, maybe an alluminum or silver for chipped paint and worn areas, and lighter tints of the base coat over the whole kit
I do pretty much what George says, and some chalk pastel staining for exhaust and stuff… sometimes I use the chalk for shadowing to give a cockpit a more 3D appearance or accent some neat external detailing like on a S-boat I built awhile back… I used it to slightly darken the far inside corners of the torpedo loading station to make it darker at the far ends of this semi-enclosed space… to give it a little depth… I also used it around the main gun mount area to simulate the wear of boots and falling brass over a busy period of missions… I didn’t use real find chalk powder for that, I just crushed it a little and used a narrow flat brush to rub it across the deck in light short fast strokes to simulate ‘scratching’ of the deck paint…
I am liking the salt technique…but I think it is best used on heavily weathered models
imo…it’s a combination of washes, drybrushing, stipling & paint chipping…
since i’m a fan of the PTO and specifically the CBI theater where aircraft cosmetics was almost an afterthought…my rendering attempts are heavily war weary…w/ engine exhaust stains, oil streaking, muddied tires and wing undersurfaces, distorted markings, mismatched paint touch-up & hurried patch repairs…
chalk pastels, acrylic washes & drybrushing, styrene panel patches, silver undercoating is appied as the “need” arises…
i love the freedom of innovation…
Definately drybrushing, and pastels.
Just a little chalk pastel, some clear gloss, and some drybrushing.
Washes and drybrushing are the most basic weathering technique (I use the singular term, as to me it feels like a wash and drybrush should be part of one overall process) and the begining of any weathering project.
I usually apply a localized wash, followed by very light drybrushing over edges and raised areas. As far as paint fading goes, I rely exclusively on my airbrush for that. I’ll lighten the basecoat, usually with Tamiya buff and a little flat white, then gradually build up the paint in the center of large, flat areas. After that, it’s a drybrush of a metallic tone, followed by drybrushing of mud tones on lower parts of the vehicle. Then, an overall dustcoat, possibly followed by more muddy drybrushing.
Basically I just spray on future apply a wash, apply flat overcoat, drybrush pastels, and a really thin flat overcoat. It’s what a couple guys around here suggested to me and so far it has worked well.
I like to apply a coat of Future, then a sludge wash to highlight the panel lines, followed by a coat of matt varnish.
I then apply a little shading along the edges of panels, followed up by exhaust staining and gun smoke. The final touch is to add paint chipping with a silver pencil around panel catches, wing roots etc.
I find this gives a nice grungy look, as I can’t stand pristine warbirds!
Karl
My wash is windex and ground pastel chalk applied liberaly with a wide brush. Followed by a dry bush when the wash is dry.
I’m a little outside the norm in that I don’t use washes at all in the traditional sense. Since I paint strictly with enamels instead of acrylics, this plays a big factor in weathering methodology. Standard practice is to use pre-shading and basecoat with the airbrush and then add scratches and drybrushing. Apply glosscoat and markings, seal with dullcoat, apply weathering with artist pastel rubbed off the stick as a fine powder, seal with another coat if appropriate, then apply MMP weathering powders depending on the desired effect/subject in question.
I’m more in the moderation camp when it comes to armor weathering since most of my builds end up as stand-alones in a display case as opposed to on a base or in a diorama.
It may seem too simplistic, but I use wood ash in water (after the decals are sealed, of course) and slop it on with a 1/2" brush. Once it dries, take the same brush (also dry) and dust off most of it.
What is left looks like road dust on armor. I think it etches the paint a bit and flattens it.
This system also works for aircraft and ships if you are more selective where you apply it - on ships mainly on the hull sides where salt water leaves deposits, and combine it with a little real rust in water where the water drains off the deck and leaves streaks down the side.
On aircraft it is best to apply it, leave it for a while and rinse it off, unless you are doing a really grimey old bird that doesn’t fly much. This will give the effect of sun weathering on active planes that are not hangared.
When weathering a multi color camo (I have just done a Tamiya T-55 in Iraqi colors of Sand over Russia Green), I first airbrush the green overall, much in the way it would have been done in real life. When this is dried, I apply HUmbrol Maskol where the sand stripes will go. The Maskol is applied with a piece of Scotchbrite in a stippling motion where you would expect wear or the paint to chip or flake. When it is dried, I spray the sand, and when this is dry, the blobs of Maskol is rubbed off leaving a flaked chip mark, This can be repeated with as many colors as needed. I follow this up with selective filters to enrich and bind the colours and then by selective concentrated washes to high-light detail. Exhaust stains and muzzle staining is airbrushed on, and dirt build up on the running gear is pastels applied onto wet matt or gloss varnish as needed.[bow]