Washes, need help.

[Guest]

Good evening or morning as the case maybe,

I'm a relative novice to the modelling scene and was wondering if there were a few people out there that might share some of their knowlage with me.

The main thing that I'm struggling with is "washes" (please forgive the length of this posting and some of the inane questions that I might ask)

*What are the best paints to ise? eg.. oils, acrylics, enamels?

*How thin should the wash be? Thinner than milk, water, vodka, Ghandi on Jenny Craig?

*Whats the best way of applying the wash and removing it to leave the pannel lines or other detail behind?

*Is it best to apply the wash with an airbrush or a hard or soft brush?

*How does one achieve the defined pannel lines without discolouring the 'pannel' itself too much?

*What is 'dry brushing?'

The reason for these rather inane questions is that; 1, like I said I'm a relative novice to the scene, so I'm not up on all the tricks of the trade, so to speak, and 2, I've just been building a MI-24 'Hind' and am having touble "defining"the pannels on the grenade and rocket pods. Not to mention the rest of the Helicopter. I thought I would start with the pods first, just in case I sod it up. Turnes out that it was a slight bit of good thinking on my part. What started out as Light Grey ended up as a murky dark grey. ( Yes I let the grey dry proper like before the wash.) Do you understand where I'm going ( Melbourne I thought...) with all this. If you would like an example of what I'm trying to achieve, have a look in any Tamiya catologue (or any other that has pretty picturres in it) and have a look at the detail of the panels etc and yet the pannel remains the proper colour ( good English huh?) I realise that such a standard takes many years to get to ( patience grasshopper ), but it would be nice to know a few tricks that would make my models look a hell of a lot better ( such grammer ). Any help on this subject is and will be greatly appreciated. ( My folks are already booking my room in the Happy Home.)

regards from Scott and all his other personallities.

[Guest]

Hi Daemon, firstly a very warm welcome to the scale models forum where I hope that you will find some very usefull resources and gallery postings and I hope that one day you will share some of your own experiences with us all.

The first thing I would suggest is that you put 'washes' or 'drybrush' into the search facility and see what has been discussed already on the subjects but one of the best links we have all seen recently was this one:

http://www.scaleworkshop.com/workshop.htm

A superb site with just the sort of step by step tutorials that you are looking for. I hope that you enjoy it as much as we all did.

[Guest]

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply... Checked out the site you gave me and know one of the contriputors (is that how its spelt??). So will be tracking him down.

But thanks for the info.

Scott

[wonwinglo]

Regarding washes for realistic effects.

Hello Daemon,regarding your enquiry on washes,can I suggest that before you commit any weathering like this to your Hind you conduct some simple experiments first,get hold of one of your older models and use this as a 'Paint Hack' from this useful model you will learn how to apply the washes and get the idea of the general effects,but please do not fall into the trap of overdoing it ! remember if a real aeroplane was so dirty as some models that I have seen then they would be declared un-serviceable,the idea is to make a subtle effect whereby areas that are subjected to the effects of the atmosphere and oil and fuel spray the finish darkens slightly,get hold of a photograph of the Hind that shows the way the exhaust stains the finish,every aeroplane has a different way that it looks,take for example the Skyraider with its upswept exhaust stains,then we have the Hawker Fury with its sleeve valve engine which gives wisps of exhaust at the lower cowl area,you see what I mean ? every type is different.

So having got the pros and cons of weathering out of the way lets discuss the very basics of colour washes,firstly you will need a small tube of artists quality burnt umber,or vandyke brown oil colour,this comes in a thick paste and needs to be highly thinned down to almost like water,to do this use a lid of some sort and place a small amount of the oil colour into the lid,with this mix some Sansador ( obtainable also from art shops ) use a brush to do the mixing and just aim for a slight tinge of colour,you can always go over it again should you need and slowly build up the wash.

With a lint free cloth wrapped around your middle finger dab ino the mix,then apply a small amount to the area or areas that you need to render,if you need to emphasis panel lines ( but be careful ) rub a liitle into the etched lines,as the oil colour dries very slowly it will take some days to dry off ( place under a shoebox or similar to keep the dust off the model ) any surplus will need to be rubbed off with the lint free cloth,remember the old saying that little is more.

Another effective way of adding weathering is by the use of artists soft pastels,use the dust and stipple with a stiff artists bristle brush,this is a very effective way of simulating exhaust stains and general weathering,once applied the finish can be sealed with Johnsons Klear liquid polish.

The emphasis is on experimienting until you are confident in your own mind that the end result is what you want,so just a quick re-cap-

3/Obtain a model to experiment with.

2/Select a photograph of the actual machine to determine the weathering required.

3/Once happy and comfortable with the techniques,then is the time to apply them to your good model.

[Guest]

some very sound advise there barry.

THE most important part being to have a "model hack" i have an old mosquito that i use for making sure i have the right consistancy for spraying and lets just say it would be very well camouflaged against a rainbow!!!

i also have other bits (half a fuleslage, a wing...etc) that i use for other random practices.

even though 99.9% of the time i get it right the first time i still ALWAYS give it a go on the "hack" first of all to prevent and dissapointments on a project.

i find some people after applying an effect squint to see if it looks ok, NEVER do this, as obviously your vision will not be 100% so even though it may look perfect when you squint it may not be with your eyes fully open so dont kid yourself!!!

have a look at the pre-shading video on scaleworkshop. this can help alot, or take a look at colins lighting and buck build...

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2759

[Guest]

Of course you can set your airbrush to fine and fill in the panel lines free hand