by sargentx » Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:48 am
Here's my method:
I've read on here many times how modellers will paint each deck plank....each with a slightly different shade of tan to achieve an individual board look. The result is very effective but quite tedious to do. This may be nothing new, but I've discovered an incredibly easy way to achieve the exact same look in an afternoon.
I apologize if this is not a new idea.
Step 1: Before painting, use a wash of isopropyl alcohol and black pastel dust to flood the cracks of the decks. This is done right onto the primer layer. You can even do it onto bare plastic if you don't prime. Use just enough to make the lines in-between the boards come out to black. Don't worry about perfection here, just run the wash over everything, do some wiping and fiddling until the cracks pop out. I use rubbing alcohol as it evaporates quickly. Just make sure it doesn't dissolve your primer coat before you do this. I guess you could use an acrylic wash to do this, but it doesn't fill the cracks as nicely as the dust. The pastel dust is forever workable so you can fiddle with it ad-nauseum. Doing this first will save you from having to pin-wash the boards later.
Step 2:
Take a pencil, I use a B hardness. Using the sharp pencil shade the boards different darknesses. Don't be afraid to make many of the boards as dark as the pencil will go. You're going to be spraying on top of this so make it punchy. Really make the boards pop...very different from each other. Some black, some grey, some the colour of the plastic. Try to make the pattern look random and balanced. You could even use a white pencil crayon and make some lighter than your primer colour. The final result will be about 50% as visible as this step. Be bold.
Step 3:
When the boards look effectively differentiated, mix up a deck colour for your airbrush. The idea here is that you're going to lightly spray the decks until all the previous stuff is barely visible. The boards that you've shaded show through the airbrush layer and appear to be different colours/darknesses of the same wood tone. Done deal! No hand-painting, no pin washes.
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Here's my method:
I've read on here many times how modellers will paint each deck plank....each with a slightly different shade of tan to achieve an individual board look. The result is very effective but quite tedious to do. This may be nothing new, but I've discovered an incredibly easy way to achieve the exact same look in an afternoon.
I apologize if this is not a new idea.
Step 1: Before painting, use a wash of isopropyl alcohol and black pastel dust to flood the cracks of the decks. This is done right onto the primer layer. You can even do it onto bare plastic if you don't prime. Use just enough to make the lines in-between the boards come out to black. Don't worry about perfection here, just run the wash over everything, do some wiping and fiddling until the cracks pop out. I use rubbing alcohol as it evaporates quickly. Just make sure it doesn't dissolve your primer coat before you do this. I guess you could use an acrylic wash to do this, but it doesn't fill the cracks as nicely as the dust. The pastel dust is forever workable so you can fiddle with it ad-nauseum. Doing this first will save you from having to pin-wash the boards later.
Step 2:
Take a pencil, I use a B hardness. Using the sharp pencil shade the boards different darknesses. Don't be afraid to make many of the boards as dark as the pencil will go. You're going to be spraying on top of this so make it punchy. Really make the boards pop...very different from each other. Some black, some grey, some the colour of the plastic. Try to make the pattern look random and balanced. You could even use a white pencil crayon and make some lighter than your primer colour. The final result will be about 50% as visible as this step. Be bold.
Step 3:
When the boards look effectively differentiated, mix up a deck colour for your airbrush. The idea here is that you're going to lightly spray the decks until all the previous stuff is barely visible. The boards that you've shaded show through the airbrush layer and appear to be different colours/darknesses of the same wood tone. Done deal! No hand-painting, no pin washes.