In the previous post I applied the decals. This post covers weathering the main body of the aircraft.
Aside: I’ve decided to take a break from posting videos of the build. Although more visually compelling, it takes more effort than I anticipated to capture, edit, render, and upload the videos. In short, I spend more time on the videos/blogs than model-building. I still plan to continue blogging to share my progress and things I’ve learned.
Panel lines
I’ve spent several hours on YouTube watching people execute various techniques to make the recessed panel lines have increased contrast. The three most common techniques are…
- Panel line accent — a thin, dark wash that gets into the grooves in the plastic via capillary action
- Pre-shading — air brushing rough, thin, black lines over the recesses, so that when the primary color goes on top, the recesses appear slightly darker
- Sludge wash — similar to panel line accent, it’s a dark wash applied broadly over the entire surface to weather everything (including the recesses)
I’ve even seen some modelers use multiple of those techniques on the same kit. For my attempt, I used Tamiya panel line accent, which is enamel-based. The basic technique is to apply it, let it dry, then use a damp (lacquer or enamel thinner) cotton swab to remove the excess. Here’s a video showing how it works.
Here’s how it looked before:
The accent went on well, but removing excess was a problem. If you use a cotton swab while the accent is still wet, it removes all your work. If you wait until it’s dry and use lacquer thinner, it eats through the wax and paint. I think the root problem was I didn’t put near enough gloss coat on. What I ended up doing for this kit was to be more careful when applying the accent.
Here are pictures of application and cleanup. Click to enlarge to see how the cleanup lightened the paint near the panel lines.
Streaking
This effect simulates water or other chemicals staining panels of the aircraft or getting into joins, such as where the wings attach to the fuselage.
Here are some products I tried out based on watching other modelers on YouTube…
- Mig Oilbrusher — oil-based pigments that have a convenient applicator (instead of squeezing pigment out of a metal tube)
- Mig streaking grime (A.MIG-1203) — pre-thinned enamel-based brownish pigment
- Mig panel wash (A.MIG-1621) — desert brown enamel-based wash, also pre-thinned
With the oilbrusher and streaking grime, you apply the product, then use a barely damp (with turpentine) brush to feather it in the direction that airflow would push the liquids. A related technique is called pin washing — where you dot small amounts of oil (often of different colors), then use a brush to blend and feather.
I found that subtlety is the key with the streaking grime. Also I learned that I could have achieved the same effect using the oilbrushers. Some of these products exist for convenience or consistency of color. I’ve heard from several folks in my model club that you can save money by skipping the scale model products, and get oil paints from the art store. The point is for me to try things out and see if they’re worth the fuss.
Here’s the desert brown panel wash in the wheel wells:
Battle damage
To start subtly I used Alclad transparent smoke (lacquer-based) on the damaged areas. It wasn’t giving me the effect I wanted, so I switched to Alclad burnt iron. I also used that color to cover up the places where the masking tape pulled up the paint and primer.
Next, I experimented with dry-brushing on the exposed areas that were damaged Model Master aluminum. Dry brushing is something I need more practice with, as the effect seems too subtle. It makes sense when I watch others do it, so I’m not sure what I’m doing or not doing.
Rivets
One of the members of my local modeling club suggested dry brushing to make the rivets stand out. Even with my brush designed specifically for dry brushing, the areas near the rivets also took on paint, which looked sloppy. Again, maybe this is my lack of experience with dry brushing.
I switched to another technique I had seen somewhere which involves using a graphite pencil. (This reminded me of how rubbings work with pencils: The raised portions get graphite.) I tried out white and black colored pencils on some test pieces that looked decent enough.
Here are the before and after pictures:
My issue was that it was too easy to get colored pencil on adjacent areas. Cleaning them up with a damp cotton swab removed everything, meaning I had to redo work several times. Given the scale of the model and how poorly this worked, I only did it on one section of the aircraft. Perhaps I could have been more painstaking or used masking; I didn’t consider it worth the effort.
Here’s an example of how easy it was to smear and get sloppy results:
Lessons learned
- The clear coats needed to be thicker to protect the paint underneath from weathering products.
- I don’t trust the cheap floor wax as a clear coat. Maybe I didn’t go thick enough with it. Next time I’ll use the lacquer-based clear coat and make the coats thicker.
- There’s a reason why most quality kits don’t have raised lines or rivets: They’re more difficult to weather than recessed lines or divots.
- I need more experience with dry brushing.