[Serpiko]

One of the things that I like about scale modeling is that experience constantly improves your skills: the more models you build and paint, the better you make them look.
Another one is that, in most cases, the results you get are related to the effort you put into it, so that a long and patient job is rewarded with greater satisfaction.

Of course, "pro" builders get their wonderful models not only by skill and patience, but also by using advanced tools and techniques, such as airbrushes, hand scribing, oil washings, aftermarket details, and so on.

This may discourage beginners, making them think they cannot make a nice model without a ton of dedicated equipment.

Well, that's NOT true!

This topic is intended to be a sort of "tutorial" for amateur model builders who'd like to add a little more detail to their creations, WITHOUT the need of the above-mentioned advanced tools.

Here, I'm showing how I paint and weather my models by using simple hand brushes, with the help of a few little "tricks" and inexpensive items; anybody wanting to share hints (or alternative methods) in this sense is welcome.

Anyway, no "scale modeling for dummies": let's assume that the reader is already able to assemble the pieces of an airplane kit into something that resembles an airplane, and to safely handle a brush without hurting him(her)self or nearby people.


Revell's 1/72 B-17G "Little Miss Mischief" (on the workbench at the time I'm typing) is an excellent example model, since it allows me to show the different steps required to paint either camouflaged (but worn out) surfaces or bare metal ones.




1) If you want bare aluminuim surfaces to show some differently shaded panels, you may consider "pre-shading". Choose the panels you want to highlight (also think about which ones are more likely to have been replaced, i.e. gun bays or maintenance doors) and paint them with either lighter or darker grey than the surrounding plastic. You can use black and white at your own risk, since they may later cause an excessive difference.



2) Then, You can paint the base color layer on both metal and camouflaged surfaces. Choosing among "silver", "aluminium" or "steel" for metal surfaces is up to you, but I suggest using a light tint, since later steps will already add darker shades. Depending on the thickness of the paint, you may need one or more layers to get the job done; just be careful not to exceed, or you may vanify the pre-shading job and, even worse, partially delete the engraved details.

Now, a disadvantage in painting with hand brushes is that large surfaces will more or less show the "trails" left by brush strokes. There's no way to fully neutralize this issue, but you can effectively "hide" it (or even use it to your advantage) with a simple trick: while painting, apply brush strokes according to the direction of the airflow on the real plane in flight. If you plan to apply multiple layers, you can try painting them with crossed stroke patterns, but the final layer should follow this rule for better results.



3) You may want your model to show some scratches and paint chipping. Somebody achieves this by actually scraping off bits of paint, but I prefer to simply draw the scratched areas with silver/aluminium paint. In this case, instead of using a brush, you can apply the paint with a toothpick for greater accuracy. When doing the job, consider the areas that are logically more subject to wear out; i.e. leading edges, boarding steps, panel joints, bay doors and refuelling/rearming hatches. Obviously, there's no point in doing this on surfaces that are supposed to be bare metal.



4) If you're not satisfied with how the shading of bare metal areas turned out, don't worry! Here's another way to darken some panels: use a cutter to scrape off the tip of a pencil (a light one, I used a 2H) so that you get some powder from it; then mask out the desired panels with tape and brush the powder on them as long as you are happy with the "darkening" effect. IMPORTANT: use a DRY brush, because if the powder gets wet, it will draw neat stripes instead of shading. Anyway, don't be afraid to mess up, since any excess or undesired mark can be easily removed with moist paper.



5) Here you can see how the aluminium surface may look like at this stage (the actual look depends on the lighting and it's not easy to fully catch it in a picture).



6) It's now time to highlight panel lines. With a soft-point eyeliner pencil (you may also try an oil pastel) "fill" the engraved lines and details, then remove the excess with soft dry paper. It is important to fully remove all the remaining "grease", so a second wiping is recommended; unfortunately I'm not sure how to traslate into English the product I use, it's something like "cleaning rubber" (third stage in the pic) and it's perfect for the job. (in this pic, a test piece was used)



7) Now, in order to add some shading to panel lines, you can use the same "dry brushing" technique as with metal panels. But this time, let's scratch the powder from a charcoal pencil instead: it is darker and more suitable to "dirt up" surfaces. Use a thin point brush and apply the powder along panel lines at will. Again, don't be afraid to overdo: not only are "dirty" lines easy to clean out by dry or wet wiping, they're also going to attenuate as you manipulate the model (until the final coat will "seal" them down).

Don't focus too much on the single line/panel: what matters is the overall look. While doing the job, take a break from time to time and look at the whole thing from a slightly greater distance. This way, you can judge if the shading is being evenly applied or not.



8 ) Again, the picture may not render the actual look, but you should be able to notice the difference between the shaded wing and the yet-to-shade one. Is this subtle difference worth the extra work? Try and judge!

The charcoal brushing technique will prove to be useful again, when it's time to draw smoke and exhausts stains. But we'll see that later.

So much for now. Next step will be post-decals weathering, exhaust stains (for which the charcoal brushing technique will prove to be useful again), "sealing" coat and final bits... but only when I've finished that on my model!

[LeBigTed]

hock: hock:

Oh Serpiko, That is an amazing and a very interesting post !!!

Thanks a lot for the work you did there (taking photos, write your tricks, show your tools...) I am sure many will enjoy it !!!

It will help a lot of modelers, and I hope to see other works soon (from you and others too ;o)

Cheers !

Ted

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Agree!, very nice post Serpiko and your way of doing that is very interesting.

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[Ice_Eagle]

Nice tutorial, I can see this method being used on my 1:5 scale RC also!

[Serpiko]

9) Now that the main shading is done, it's decals time! While applying them, you should keep your model as "dry" as possible, in order to avoid ruining the previous work. To remove any excess of water, gently tap it with a cloth or toilet paper, and absolutely do NOT swipe!

You may consider sealing the shades with a coat of transparent paint before applying decals, but I prefer not to do that, and rather apply the sealing layer only when all the weathering is done. This is to prevent multiple paint layers from creating a different surface, that would "react" differently under dry brush strokes (thus making it harder or impossible to make further additions/corrections). In this case, since we're working on both camouflaged and bare metal surfaces, that would be very annoying.



10) With the charcoal pencil, you can redraw the underneath panel lines over large decals. Just don't sharpen the pencil too much, or you're going to rip them open! Then, by simply tapping with your finger you should be able to blur the lines a bit.



11) And now, here we go with the "dirty" job! As with shading, dry brushing with charcoal powder gives excellent results in reproducing blurred smoke stains, be them engine exhausts, shell ejection ports, or similar. No refrains here, go as heavy as you want your model to be dirty! And again, you can easily remove any undesired excess and retry.



12) By dipping a wet tootpick tip into the charcoal powder, you can draw tinier and sharper details, such as fuel stains pouring out from tank refueling caps.



13) There it is. The weathering job is done, and it has been sealed by transparent paint. Matt paint was used on the camouflaged areas, while bare metal surfaces were painted with a semi-gloss one, in order to furtherly highlight the different look.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Applying the transparent layer is a crucial step requiring particular care, because it's a "no-going-back" work, whose outcome is threatened by a few "traps":

- So far, all the shading/weathering has been done with "dry" powder. If you already tried this technique, you should have experienced how easy it is to wipe it off, expecially with water. This becomes a problem now, since brush strokes with wet paint may alter or even delete powder marks. As long as you use a hand brush, there's no way to avoid this risk: in order to minimize it, the only way is to go easy with the brush. Dilute the paint a little, to make it easier to spread, then apply it as softly and regularly as possible, trying to avoid multiple strokes on the same point; and once again move the brush according to the direction of the airflow, so that any undesired charcoal "trail" will turn into nothing more than a slightly longer dirt stain.

- No matter how careful you are, the wet brush will "pick up" at least a little bit of charcoal (expecially from larger and darker stains) and mix it with the paint. This means that (A) the whole "transparent" layer will actually have a slightly darkening tint; (B) you should be careful and clean up the brush a bit after painting over the dirtiest zones, in order to avoid ending up with undesired darker areas; © should you ever need to redo and/or "patch" a particular spot later, it will be a pain in the [bottom] to match the same tinting.

- If, despite your efforts, part of the shading/weathering got lost after painting, it is still possible to try and redraw it; but, as I said above, painted surfaces may now behave differently when getting dry brushed. For example, the job will probably be quite easy on matt areas, while semi-gloss ones will now be harder to effectively dirt up and more likely to lose detail while applying a further sealing layer.

Unfortunately, if you end up with the "transparent" coat showing undesired dark spots or trails, they will be almost impossible to remove.



14) Matt colors are supposed to have been used to paint anything on the plane: therefore, after painting the semi-gloss coat on the bare metal areas, a matt transparent layer has been applied on decals only (but the tiniest stencils). Since I have bad experiences with masking tape ripping off decals despite any caution, I did this job without masking, following decals edges with brush tip; hence the somewhat uneven look of the paint. If anyone asks, I'm stating that's intentionally done to recreate paint deterioration due to sunlight! :mrgreen:



15) The final touch: dirt stains are supposed to look dirty (you don't say? ), but the ones on bare metal areas are now covered with semi-gloss paint. If you want them to look opaque, pick a small piece of sponge, soak it into water (not too much), then dip it slightly into matt transparent paint. This way, by tapping with the sponge along the stains on the model, you can apply a small amount of very diluted matt paint which, once dried, will give to dirt areas an adequately opaque look in contrast to the surrounding "clean" gloss surfaces. Obviously, stains on already opaque surfaces don't need this treatment.


That's it! These are the techniques that I've exploited so far with this model. Should I experiment something new (and if that works, of course) I'll try and show how to do that in other posts. Stay well, and keep on modeling!

[LeBigTed]

Hi Serpiko,

Really Great Job !!!

A lot of good tips and tricks here, thanks a lot for the good explanations and congratualtions for all the stuff you did for that thread !!!

Definitely, you mastered modelling ;o)

Ted 8)

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Nice tutorial great stuff Serpiko

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