Some weathering tips:

Objective: U've seen the armour surface of those mobile suits that's spent too long in space right? Pot Marked surface, after spending too long being plummeted by space debries of various sizes, especially the smaller ones that don't really damage the MS, but just leave marks on the surface. So was wondering on how to achieve this.

Considerations: Thinner that eats plastic was my first thought. However the tough part here is trying to figure out how not to overdo it, and how to do it right. Rubbing thinner on the surface wont do, as it'll just leave a rough surface all over. Same goes for submerging the plastic in thinner. It'll just warp completely.


Solution: Took a container of water, added thinner (1 part thinner to 30 part water) into it (they don't mix btw.). Put in a little bit of detergent to help reduce the liquid tension of the water, as this will help to get the thinner to spread throughout the water in smaller blobs. Close the container, shake very well. Soak the plastic pieces in there for about an hour, then check the results. Leave longer if needed

The Results:



The piece was originally a dark blue, and this is after I've sprayed on a thin layer of Mr Surfacer (to get it ready for painting, and also to make the markings more visible to be shown here). Should there be too much of such markings for your liking, then u can fill it up by applying Mr Surfacer using a paint brush right out of the bottle, then do a bit of sanding work.


Afterthoughts:

This method pretty much allows for those marks to be randomly scattered throughout the model, which is both good and bad. Good 'cause it looks realistic, bad as u cant really control it, resulting in the possibility of more marks in an area that's partially covered by a larger piece of armor (which is not really realistic).

So the best solution around this is to plan your soaking of the pieces in batches properly, rather than chucking everything in at a single time. Outer armor pieces which r to look the most battered will receive the longest soak in the solution, of which u can also play around with the water to thinner ratio. Other pieces will go in for a shorter amount of time once that's done.

This post has been edited by fyire: Jun 27 2007, 07:11 PM

cheapest mods r of the DIY variety, where u use your own imagination. But make sure to practice on a Bendi model first before doing it on ya Bandai

Acrylics, I tend to use a mix of water and spirits for the thinning. No idea about using retarder on acrylics, but I tend to get pretty good surfacing when I mix Tamiya Acrylics with Citadel Acrylics, on a 1:1 ratio. The paint has to be pretty diluted when applied using a hand brush, so u'll need multiple layers. The key here is patience. I only use acrylics for hand brushing.

Lacquer paint, I've been using hardware thinner (Zebra brand, available for RM3.80), and so far so good. Lacquer is what I use for airbrushing.

Enamel paints, I've only used those for lining work. Thin those with Zippo fluid. A cheaper alternative will be turpentine, but that stinks like mad, and dries rather slowly too, so hence Zippo fluid's recommended.

Its really up to your imagination on how you want to use each type of paint, so lacquer thinned with hardware thinner can also be hand brushed, just that I was stating my personal preferences earlier. Personally I find lacquer to be too fast drying to hand paint for my liking, but you can do your own experiments and see what results u can get if u're to add a retarder to the paint mix.

As for spirits, the Zebra brand methylated spirits works pretty well for me (this' only for acrylics!). Isoprophyl, never used that, but from what I've read elsewhere on the internet, this also works well.

Mr Surfacer is available in 2 types, one is the bottle (the one u were refering to), and the other is in the form of a spray can.

The bottle variety can be used in 2 ways, one is to thin it down for spraying (using it as a primer), or brushed right onto the bottle (using it as a liquid putty). For the kind of use that u've got in mind, u'll need to thin it down using thinner, and spray from an airbrush.

Or if u don't have an AB, then just look for the spray cans.

paint stripping may help at times, especially when the original layer isnt done that well, or is not smooth. thick application of primers may help with this but also risk obscuring the details

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Added on July 1, 2007, 1:51 pmlook at the original paint job first, u may or may not need to strip off the paint. if there's some uneven parts, then just sand those away, then prime, the look at the results.

basically, its a series of sand, prime, inspect. if there's parts u're not happy with, then sand again, prime, and inspect till u're happy with the results.

its only in the most severe cases that u need to resort to paint stripping.

This post has been edited by fyire: Jul 1 2007, 01:51 PM

Woo! really looks like investing in an airbrush is really worth it, considering that the upkeep is much lower after that. The bottled paints r far far cheaper than the spray cans, and all u need is heaps of thinner (cheap industrial thinner will do also)

No lar, that one's just a generic list. If u use spray cans, then u wont need the paint bottles.

Basically if u're intending to spray, then u just need these:
- spray cans
- top coat
- primer

however those can be pretty expensive already, considering that each spray can costs like RM24 to RM30

then for the lining, u can use either the gundam markers, or u can use Tamiya Enamel paints thinned with Zippo lighter fluid with a fine paint brush.

here's something that I find rather useful. Not to do with actual modelling itself, but helps a lot in the finishing.

if u've got a decent camera with decent optical zoom, take various zoomed in pics of your model, different parts of it from different angles, in good lighting.

study those zoomed in pics, and u might find that there's various areas that needs cleaning up that u may have missed, as its easier to detect those by studying pics taken with good light and zoomed in, compared to scrutinizing your model with your naked eye.

Yup, it can be done. but he's using spray cans made for models.

Also, what bottled paints r u using? Lacquer or acrylics? I personally prefer acrylics for hand painting, 'cause I find that lacquers dries too fast for my liking when hand painting. I've been hand painting acrylics for years before I finally got myself an airbrush, and I can say that its very much possible to get a smooth coat on your model by handpainting acrylics (although the shadowing effect may be kinda difficult to do. thus I make up for that by dry brushing instead).

This will also depends on the paint itself, as there's a lot of different types. U know the left over plastic frames from your models after u cut out the pieces? Spray on those first to test if it'll be ok or not.

U can assemble the model completely first, but you'll need to take it apart again in order to paint.

For the paint brushes, you'll need a size 8 flat, size 4 flat for surface painting, and a size 000 for getting into the smaller areas. Not sure about how the panda brand brushes is like, but well, there's really no need to go for the super expensive types. At the same time, its also a good idea to get decent types, especially for the flats, as this will have an effect on how smooth the paint will be on your model.

acrylic paints, for simple messups, I clean up using spirits (not thinner!). for the more massive paint stripping jobs for acrylic painted models, I take apart the model completely, and soak the parts in a solution of detergent, dettol and water. Leave it there for 12 hours, then just scrub using an old toothbrush.

Its more towards the technical definitions here. Clear paint is mainly defined as paint with color, but leaves a transparent finish. Meaning u can still see the layer under it after u've sprayed it on.

Top coat is clear and without color, but it is not the same as clear paint that I had described above.

I like switching to acrylics for the weathering effects after applying the final lacquer topcoat. This' very handy for stuff like like stains like mud (for the ground types in the jungle) and sand marks (for those in the desert), especially if u want to add texture to the weathering.

Adding in baby powder to tamiya acrylics works great to achieve that textured mud stains, but clogs up the AB like mad though.

Furthermore, cleanups at this stage can be done easily using spirits, as it wont touch the lacquer topcoated paint.

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Added on July 11, 2007, 12:38 amThis' one big disadvantage to using spray cans, u cant control the spray velocity. The only way is for you to spray from a further distance, where u get a mist onto the plastic rather than drowning it, but can be rather wasteful in terms of how much does not go onto the plastic at all, but rather onto your hands, your table, your walls, your floor, u name it.

This post has been edited by fyire: Jul 11 2007, 12:38 AM

Got no idea about the battery water, but seeing that battery water is caustic, I don't think that its a good idea.

Acrylics r best mixed with distiled water (although tap water will do just fine). The detergent is to reduce the liquid tension of water, allowing for it to flow better, but the mix ratio is just to use a tiny tiny bit of detergent. If it can form bubbles when u shake it, then u've added too much.

Hmm.. no idea actually. My reasoning that I gave was that there's often a warning sign on those car batteries about the liquid inside being caustic, hence my thinking that it's probly not distilled water inside.

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Added on July 12, 2007, 10:09 amJust go add to Vinc's reply here, lacquer paint goes with thinner, while acrylics goes with spirits.

U can probly wash your acrylic encrusted brush with thinner, just that using spirits will be less damaging to the brush in the long run.

This post has been edited by fyire: Jul 12 2007, 10:09 AM

Ok 2 things first:
- Tamiya is crap!
- Whites r always a big big challenge.

Now, with that settled, I'll first address your paint issue, then after that look at some tricks at how to handle whites.

It looks like you've added too much water or thinner to your paint. So just reduce the amount of water/thinner that you add. Different colors even from the same brand tends to behave differently, and thus the differing amount of water/thinner needed to thin them down.

Next, the detergent. if it bubbles, then u've added too much. U're only supposed to put a tiny tiny bit in there. If it can form bubbles, then you've added too much already.

Finally, doing whites. Pure whites (and also pure black) is always the toughest to paint, so best practice is, don't bother. Add a tiny drop of black to your white, to bring the shade down to a very very very light gray. In fact, so light gray that you'll still think that its white. This can make a world of difference, as it does 2 things:
- that drop of black in the white helps to strength the paint pigment
- its no longer pure white, so it wont get dirty too easily

Here's something that I've been using with great success for painting whites. I mix Citadel white (Wolf's Game Shop no longer carry Citadel, but according to him, the formula P3 that he now carries r pretty similar to Citadel) with Tamiya white in equal parts. Add in that drop of black as per normal. Dilute with water (so the thickness is about the same as milk). The great thing about this mix is that you don't need to worry about brush marks on the plastic, as it'll magically smooth itself out before the paint dries. Needs a bit of patience though, as the paint's to be applied in rather thin coats, so u may need 3 or even 4 coats of paint, but the result is a very smooth and matt coat of white (and harder to scratch compared to using either Tamiya or Citadel by themselves too)

this' always a problem with these kinda blades. When not in use, I never keep it out in the open. I'll remove the blade, and put it back into the little bottle that it came in (usually comes in packs of 5) to reduce the exposure to air. I guess greasing it a bit after use and before storage helps a lot too.

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Added on July 22, 2007, 12:35 amI've been using those hardware thinners all this time, and while they do melt the plastic, its still alright to use as long as you dont flood the plastic with it.

There's no real formula for the thinning of paints, as even different colors from the same brand of paints may need different amounts of thinner for thinning.

So all I can say is... mix with enough thinner so that it sprays out of the AB smoothly, and the paint is able to pretty much dry almost immediately after hitting the surface you're painting. In other words, never mix then spray onto your plastic immediately. Always spray onto a test surface first every single time you fill up your AB to make sure that the paint coming out is alright.

If the paint runs after hitting the plastic, then that means either you've added too much thinner, or you're holding the AB too close to the surface.

This post has been edited by fyire: Jul 22 2007, 12:35 AM

spray the blade with WD40 before storage can already lar.. a lot cheaper, and probly a lot more effective too.

Cools The tracks looks pretty good

What kinda paints r u using btw? I'm asking 'cause of the tricks that can be done by using different paint types for different purposes.

For example: what I would do for the tank tracks is to start by giving it a pristine color, using lacquers. Then switch over to something like acrylics (or pastels like u did) for the rust effect, then finally take acrylics mixed with baby powder (to give it more texture) and dab it onto the tracks to simulate builtup of mud. This way, should I mess up, I can just dip the whole thing into alcohol to remove the weathering effects while keeping the original layer of lacquer paints intact, then start again.

For rust, there's no one color. Orange like what StormV suggested is good, u can also try various mixes of colors to it. Some areas, use the dark copper that u've tried before, some areas, use orange, some areas, use a mix of dark copper + orange, and some areas, u might wanna mix in a bit of black as well.