Weathering tips, in search of

[pinehilljoe]

I have yet to add weathering to my skills. I think weathering is like figure painting, it separates the artists from the rest of us technique modelers. I tried Tamiya panel line highlighter on the underside horizontal stabilizer of the Buffalo I'm working on. To me it just looks like black smudges. Any tips you can offer on panel high lighting?

 

[SaparotRob]

Can't wait to see this finished!

 

[fubar57]

I'm waiting 40-45 minutes now to remove Tamiya. That seemed to stop the smudges and residual.....so far. You might have a look at Ak Weathering Pencils. They come in a full range of colours. A fine point will get you into the panel lines. The beauty of the pencils is you can remove mistakes and excess with water. You can also use them wet to produce spills and leaks. I think artist pencils do the same thing. I'm still in the early stages of the weathering curve myself

 

[pinehilljoe]

I'm waiting 40-45 minutes now to remove Tamiya. That seemed to stop the smudges and residual.....so far. You might have a look at Ak Weathering Pencils. They come in a full range of colours. A fine point will get you into the panel lines. The beauty of the pencils is you can remove mistakes and excess with water. You can also use them wet to produce spills and leaks. I think artist pencils do the same thing. I'm still in the early stages of the weathering curve myself

Trying the AK pencils will mean I'll have to figure where my pencil sharpener is.

 

[Crimea_River]

Always gloss coat your model before applying washes. I find the Tamiya stuff to be overly aggressive and I use it sparingly. Artist pastels are useful and a simple, easily removed wash can be made with water, a drop of dish soap, and ground pastels. The dry powders can also be brushed on to simulate gun smoke, general streaks, and exhaust stains.

 

[Casor]

There are tons of Youtube vids on doing this.
Couple of takeaways:
You can use acrylic on top of acrylic for weathering but you can't use enamel over enamel since the weathering coat will soften the base coat. So, always use disparate paints to weather
Easy technique for panels is to clear coat and then apply a dark acrylic wash over the entire model and then remove it after 10 mins with a tissue slightly wet with acrylic thinner, sweeping in line of flight
If airbrushing, tint flat clear with your weather color and reduce w thinner so it can go through the airbrush. Less prone to making mistakes this way