Washes & Fine detail in cockpits

[albertz]

Need some advice on washes for high detail areas, im using acrylics and airbrush for applying main colours, but used an anthracite wash to add depth to the cockpit, however even applied carefully, brushing is still not fine enough, ditto with highlighting, ive used a brush and dried it off as much as possible but its still too rough, should i be airbrushing these washes?

Also for very fine detail on dials / gauges etc, its difficult to apply the paint without splurging an unwanted blob or leaving no impression at all, ive tried using an old airbrush needle but there is no control over flow, any tips / tools that can be used to achieve this?

Any help would be V appreciated!

[Tedfellows]

Hi Albertz,

This is my tip for you. Firstly pre-shade all shadow lines in your cockpit i.e. all corners, then lightly build up a nice and thin layer of paint to just let the pre-shade create a shadow effect that will look rather pleasing if done correctly!

Then, use either artists oil paints (Raw umber or Paynes Grey work fine) thinned with spirits and use capillary action to run the oil into all the detail of the cockpit/sidewalls.

As for the dials and gauges, try applying detail to buttons and switches using a cocktail stick with a very light grey Acrylic paint and gently touch each switch with that. Its important to look at reference photos to also add some yellow or red switches depending on which aircraft had them. Here's some examples.

Adam

[Av8fan]

Cockpit detailing is something that I struggle with.

Would Tamiya smoke work? Thinned down of course.

If you are going over top of another acrylic, then I think that you need to gloss coat before using the wash.(basic, but never assume). then you would have to flat coat when done. the gloss coat should allow for a fairly easy clean up of the wash though.

Edit - I just did some searching, annnnnd some folks have managed an acrylic pin wash over Tamiya base coat. they made sure that the base coat was well cured though.

See this link: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/tools_techniques_and_reference_materials/f/18/t/141198.aspx Post 6.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Av8fan

[Harry Lime]

Albertz,

I use a combination of dry brushing to bring out the highlights in my cockpits followed by a wash using Games Workshop water based washes. Careful application of these into the shadow areas works quite nicely and liberal application over a wide area can give it a quite dirty appearance.

Mark.

[gcn]

For the gauges they can be hard to get anything looking ok. If it was me I'd be buying a set of cockpit decals from the likes of Airscale and using them.

For the cockpit details I'd have the base colour and a light and dark shade of it plus a highly thinned black brown mix. I'd spray the cockpit in the base colour and then to add some variation in the tones by spraying the darker shade in the more recessed areas and the lighter shade where the cockpit is going to attract more light.

For the shadows immediately on bulkheads you could spray a thin line of the black brown mix and then brush paint an even lighter shade of the base colour on the raised bit. If you use tamiya you may have to invest in another brand of paint for the brush painting

For washes I'd stick to oil washes as they are easier to manage, either have a gloss finish for the oil wash or put down some thinner first if its a matt coat otherwise it'll spread out.

If you think you've gone too far you can tone it down with a thin overspray of the base colour until you a happy.

Edited January 24, 2013 by gcn

[albertz]

Hmm, lots to consider here, ive never thought of an oil based wash over acrylic, but then when i did the dark wash it did run with the base coat ( area behind ejection seat is obvious on the pic ), so i definatley need to seal before applying or choose a different medium.

I'll look into purpose washes, not something ive seen in my local modelzone, one problem maybe the brushes im using, i dont think they're good enough, so i'l hunt around, but previous brush painting results in a lumpy finish ( see previous SU-15 seat )

This is the best detail i could manage on my czech master cockpit, nearly went crosseyed doing this!

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated!

Edited January 24, 2013 by albertz

[albertz]

Hi Albertz,

This is my tip for you. Firstly pre-shade all shadow lines in your cockpit i.e. all corners, then lightly build up a nice and thin layer of paint to just let the pre-shade create a shadow effect that will look rather pleasing if done correctly!

Then, use either artists oil paints (Raw umber or Paynes Grey work fine) thinned with spirits and use capillary action to run the oil into all the detail of the cockpit/sidewalls.

As for the dials and gauges, try applying detail to buttons and switches using a cocktail stick with a very light grey Acrylic paint and gently touch each switch with that. Its important to look at reference photos to also add some yellow or red switches depending on which aircraft had them. Here's some examples.

Adam

Cracking cockpit Adam, looks really worn & weathered, i have some old artists oils in my cupboard, i might dig them out and give it a try

[Tedfellows]

Thanks champ, glad you like it! Just goes to show what can be done with a straight out the box cockpit. If you want a purpose ready made wash, I cannot recommend enough the MIG Productions Dark wash, just gorgeous to use and super thin.

Its £7.95ish a pot, but it lasts forever it seems!

And glad to see you're having a go, its a steep learning curve but judging by your efforts, you're on the way to becoming a pro :-)

Always here for help so just ask.

Adam