A few questions about weathering....

[709thsoldat]

Howdy fellas,

I am broadening my horizons somewhat and I would like to work on my weathering skills.

My current weathering technique is limited to watered down brown acrylic paint, pastel chalk dust mixed with pva, and real dirt mixed with glue and paint.

Questions I have:

1. How do you do paint chipping? do you paint base coats and then mask it off? or just paint it on?

2. Are pigments worth the money? If so, where can I order them in the US?

3. What is pre/post shading? I am pretty good with the airbrush, is it difficult?

4. What color oil paints should I get?

Thank you all in advance for your help, perhaps I will turn this into a WIP if enough interest is shown so that others may learn from my mistakes.

-Chris.

 

[dubster72]

Hi Chris,

I only build armour, so if you're talking about aircraft I'd amend my techniques accordingly.

For chipping I use a colour that's a few shades lighter than the base colour, and usually I'll lighten greens with yellow or flesh, yellow's with white & brown's with flesh. Using a 00 brush, I make tiny irregular marks around heavy use areas, such as hatches. For deeper chips, I'll add a further mark of dark reddish brown with a 000 brush to simulate rusted bare metal or a silvery-grey for a fresher chip.

It's time-consuming, but I think this method gives more control than the sponge method.

Consistently of the paint is very important - too thick & it's an unwanted raised blob, too thin & it won't look right. If you look at my WIP threads for my Jagdpanther & Panzer II, there's some examples of chipping there.

I don't buy ready-made pigments, I grind my own using artists soft pastels. Whether you buy them yourself is down to your budget & convenience I guess.

Preshading is tracing panel lines & any nooks and crannies with a thinned dark paint. Then when you airbrush the main coat, the lines remain faintly visible. Postshading is essentially the same thing, but after the main coat. My airbrush control isn't usually that good & I lose the pre-shading so I tend to stick with post-shading.

I've had a pack of 20 Windsor & Newton oils in the usual colours that's lasted 4 years now. I just mix the shades I need by eye.

Hope this helps.

Patrick

 

[wbk666]

i've had some success with these by Tamiya

Tamiya Pastels Burnt Blue Burnt Red Oil Stains D 87088

really impressed with how easy they are to use.

 

[stona]

Chipping.

As an aircraft modeller I tend to keep this fairly minimal,walkways etc. I find it difficult to get salt type chipping in scale. This is when you first paint an aluminium (or other suitable colour) before masking chips with salt,liquid mask,marmite etc before applying a camouflage colour. Removing the masking reveals the chips. Some people do this very well but I apply chips with a fine brush or silver pencil after painting.

Pigments.

Don't use them. Someone else will answer that one.

Pre/Post shading.

As per Patrick. I post shade as I have far more control. Pre-shading can be very effective but I'm not a fan of models looking like patch work quilts. It,like any other effect,is easily overdone. Knowing when to stop is the trick with any weathering.

Oils.

I inherited a box of oil paints from my late mother and still use them. What colours depend on what you are doing. They are good for pin washes or general mucky washes on engines or the undersides of vehicles. They may also be used for applying filters where many colours come in handy.

Cheers

Steve

 

[noble]

Chipping

I mix matt black and matt white together 50-50 and with a 00 brush and the paint slightly thinned i make irregular size and shaped marks around the edges and around the areas where the crew will most often frequent, to take this a step further i mix black and burnt umber oil paint thin them slightly and do the exact same thing in different areas adding in dots here and there to look like rusty sections. I will complement this with pin washes of burnt scienna oil paint to add rust streaks.

Pigments

I have only used them on my U69 project so someone else will need to advise you on them iam afraid.

Pre/Post shading

This is done using dark brown or black paint thinned quite a lot about 70% thinner 30% paint and airbrush this into all the panel lines, this helps to enhance the panel lines when painting is complete, post shading i use more often now and needs a steady hand, i used this on my morser carl and leopold projects and is done by airbrushing darker than the main colour into the recesses and nooks, which adds and enhances the shadows.

Oils

If you can afford it windsor newton oils buy all the basic colours and a colour wheel which will enable you to mix any colour you need, if you can't afford every colour then Lamp black, burnt umber, raw umber, burnt scienna, titanium white and yellow ochre.

hope this helps

scott