paint test and weathering

[Eddm87]

Me again

I got thinking about different thinning ratios and priming, so I did a little test.
For those that are interested

3 washes,
Acrylic sea green by revel
alternative stroke action
Left for at least 8 hours between coats

4 samples
1 on primed surface (Halfords spray can surface primer, one coat only) not thinned at all
1 on unprimed plastic, not thinned
1 on primed surface, thinned to a 50/50 ratio (well overthinned, but will show obvious differences)
1 on unprimed surface 50/50 ratio.


Full on the right, 50/50 on the left
First coat


Unprimed, full on the left, 50/50 right


Third coat






From all of this, I definiently found that priming the surface gave much better results. There were brush strokes in both the unprimed samples, with the 50/50 giving 'bad' coverage, while the solid lost all the detail on the piece.
The primed surface solid was good, had a little brush marks in it and surprisingly didn't really loose much of the detail. The primed 50/50 gave the best result for me, even coverage with just a tiny blemish from the brush marks.

In future I will be priming and thinning (to a better ratio).

Just thought I would share.

To another matter...
Weathering,
I've painted and glossed my model, this will be my first time weathering, so don't want to go too crazy, I've read tons about it, and there's tons of ways of doing it!
I planned on pin washing the panel lines, then a full wash (with emphasise on 'dirtier' parts)

Then I would like to add some chalk pastel dust stuff (haven't bought yet).
I worry that the dust will just rub off when I put my final coat on.
Any tips/ideas/particular weathering dusts to get?

Cheers
Edd

 

[Doug Hughes]

Hi Edd. Speaking for myself, I use the Flory washes for pin washes and generally dirtying things up. Over gloss varnish it wipes off easily with water, so is pretty stress-free (I don't want to spoil things at this late stage). I use artists' chalk- or charcoal-based pastels only for exhaust stains. I scrape them to get a dust, then brush it on very gradually with a soft brush. I do this over the final matt coat, otherwise it doesn't stick, and it seems pretty permanent without any extra varnishing.
There's loads of ways of skinning the weathering cat, though, and I'm sure others will weigh in with their ideas...
(No cats were harmed in the writing of this post)

 

[Thorbrand]

Priming is definitely the way to go, it gives the colour coats something to bond to