Engines,engines, engines

[Deleted member 3568]

Hi all some people have said they thought my engines looked very realistic (I think it helps in that most of my life I've been around or worked on either motorcycle or car engines) so I thought if anyone wants to know how I do any aspect of weathering an engine they could just ask or if it would help maybe I could try and post a video (pretty rubbish at social media)

Here is a random sample of the hundreds of engines I must have modeled over the years

 

[scottie3158]

Ken,
Excellent results.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Ken
They look superb. Details are great.
Jim

 

[Airborne01]

Obi One Kenobi.
When I do my next Opel Blitz or Hanomag I'll ask permission to sit at the feet of the master - I'll even put two hard-boiled egg halves in my eyes for the first few minutes! Excellent!
Steve

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Hi all so the first installment, I'm basically the laziest modeler ever and if there's a short cut or an easy way to do something I'm there.

So heres the first bit of aging an engine, since I'm working on an engine atm I decided to use that as the first example.

First requirement talcum powder.



Here's our nice clean engine




I use enamels so in this case I dip the brush in white spirit before picking up some talc(you can use water but you would have to matt the engine first as the water will just bead otherwise) I then dab the loaded brush on the engine (really load it all up with the white spirit and talc)once that's done flood with white spirit till it looks how you want.




I used gun metal from ABT



To highlight the bolt heads.



I then dust it all with Uschi powders



Then buff that with a soft brush






My ref pic



This is going to end up being a very long post as I have lots of stuff to add to it (assuming you want it)

 

[Tim Marlow]

Great stuff. I always find it interesting seeing how someone does something really well.

 

[Mark1]

Yeah keep it coming

 

[JR]

I'm in, engines are all ways open for weathering Ken, interesting to see how others do it .

 

[PaulinKendal]

Ooh, this looks excellent! I'd not heard of Uschi - what a great finish you've achieved there!

 

[minitnkr]

......partial to Fords & Porsches eh.

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Partial to lots of engines Paul

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Hi all well I have been given lots of ref pics of this engine and none of them are as distressed as this is, so a bit of white spirit and a cotton bud and it's looking more like it should.



So next method, here is the sacrificial engine for this example (and for most of the others)



OK as I said at the start of this I use mostly enamels so I can't say if this works with acrylics (although I've found in the past adding washing up liquid to the solution tends to have the same effect as white spirit)

If you want an engine that looks like it's been in a dusty environment (as in my mad to the max bike)

Get an empty tin or bottle into that pour some matt colour of the earth in the area your engine has been driving in ( for the mad to the max bike I used sand as it was set in a desert, for this I've used earth)

Add talcum powder to it and mix keep adding talc till you get paste like consistency then add white spirit keep stirring till you get the consistency of milk, add the talc to the paint first don't thin it till you've added the talc as the talc doesn't seem to take the colour if you thin the paint first.

OK so use a big brush and load it with this mixture and dab it all over the engine(really cover it so it gets in all the nooks and crannies, then load your brush with white spirit (this is the important bit hold engine as it will be in the car or bike and flood the engine with white spirit just let gravity do its thing.




This is how it looks when dry



All the plastic parts I dab with ABT copper oxide blue patina

And again blend with white spirit

I also add ABT engine grease anywhere you might expect an oil leak

 

[Tim Marlow]

Among all the lunacy on here at the moment it’s nice to see some modelling has broken out. Great work and a very informative blog.

 

[PaulinKendal]

This is shockingly real. Makes me feel quite distressed for that poor Ducati.

 

[Mark1]

I've spent a lot of time around engines but wouldn't know how to get a model one looking so realistic, superb work.

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Sorry for such a long wait before a progress report but I have to wait till I'm doing something that relates to this topic.

OK so for headers I use ak real metal steel



Ak real metal gold



And valejo Arctic blue



First paint the headers with AK steel ( if I was doing bike headers I would buff the steel up first) (the AK range of metal finishes are amazing and all can be buffed) (the buffing works even better if you have of the paint on the cotton bud or cloth you are buffing the work with)

Slightly off point my airbrush died so I decided to try and replicate finishes without one.

So get some of the AK gold on your brush(medium flat brush) work most of it off on a tissue and dry brush only on the first bends of the headers.

Next get a cotton bud dip it in AK steel and rub most of it off then dip it in the Arctic blue and starting at the dry brushed gold blend from the gold down towards the exhaust.




Here's how it should look.





If on a motorcycle you would blend less and the header would be highly polished.

 

[JR]

Very impressive shine Ken.

 

[Mark1]

Very effective method

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Hi all here's my method for aging plastic parts on car engines you know fuse boxes, air boxes drive shaft gators and such.

I use mig 502 Abteilung model colour copper oxide blue patina

I roughly dab the 502 over the part



Then hold the part the way it will be in the car and scrub loads of white spirit over the part and let gravity do its job

 

[Mini Me]

Well done Ken.......some of these are so real looking you have to start hunting to see if it's a model or not. Rick H.