Bert Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 I've been checking out this website for a while. Seeing a post awhile back on this subject I thought my method might be of some interest. Using an airbrush were most of the responses. I use chalk pastels. Here are some photos of my Italian Breda 88. Same method of mottling, Just a different nation. Here is a Bf 109 I built some time ago. go. Thanks for looking, -Bert 24 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Hello Bert, Please tell me more as I'm doing a whole series of Luftwaffe planes, and always looking for new ideas ? It looks like you use a stippling brush and possibly grind the pastel into the surface ? If I'm wrong then maybe you can tell me or point me to a tutorial ? I like your work BTW. Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Hi Bert +1 on Dennis' request above. Particularly interested in how you 'fix' the bottling once complete. Your Breda looks lovely, btw. Regards Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 +2 on that request. It looks very good but needs more explanation of how it works, as Martin says above. Looking at the 109, the upper and lower photos show a different intensity of green. Which one is closer to how it looks in real life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonT Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 +3 Very interested in your technique! More please 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG X Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 7 hours ago, Bert said: I use chalk pastels. Good Morning Bert - this looks like a really good way to create the effect - like those above a step by step with more info would be most appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Looks excellent but how do you seal it all in without washing the pastels away? Duncan B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Very impressive! Might be good for more awkward camouflage schemes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nheather Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 13 minutes ago, Duncan B said: Looks excellent but how do you seal it all in without washing the pastels away? Duncan B +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Looks effective and quite controllable. I guess sealing is done with Pigment fixer then a flat coat. Just like you'd do with armour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tail-Dragon Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 I've used pastels for weathering, but not for the schemes themselves, it looks great, thank you for sharing this idea. The one issue I've found is that the lighter colors fade, and the darker colors intensify when I seal them. Is that what you've found also? What do you seal with? (and beware, I'm absolutely going to steal this technique!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elger Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 maybe even skip the Pigment fixer and spray on several really really -really - thin coats of clear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Posted September 29, 2019 Author Share Posted September 29, 2019 After the base coat of color is airbrushed and then flat coated (I use Testor’s Dullcoat), I take an Xacto blade and lightly scrape along the pastel stick until I have a small mound of powder. Pastels come in dozens and dozens of colors. You can actually mix shades of pastels to achieve the color needed. When that's done I use a small brush to apply the pastels. You need to cut off almost all the bristles until you end up with barely anything remaining. The end of the bristles should be flattened like a stippling brush used for stencils. Dab it into the pastel powder and apply to the model using a dabbing motion until you build up the color. I usually apply quite a few "spots" at a time and then use another larger and softer bristle brush cut the same way to soften and blend them. Then I repeat this process over and over again until it's all done. I use white cotton Photographer’s gloves while doing this to keep the model free of oily fingerprints in the areas yet to be done. When finished, I seal them with Testor’s Dullcoat, spraying slightly away from the model at first, and then applying a heavier coat. In the 1st photo you can see some of the mottling on the tail of the Breda 88 has yet to be blended. It takes me several sessions over a few days to complete the task. Believe me, after a while you’ll need to take a break. It just so happened I had acquired a very large number of different colored pastels along the way. I'm not sure how I came upon this idea. Maybe out of necessity, because airbrushing this type of camouflage is beyond my scope of talent. Especially, since I use a single action airbrush. I never got the hang of the double action. I've been using this method for years now. Like everything else about modeling, I've gotten better using this method over time. Some of my earlier work is less convincing. So, if you give it a try, don't be disappointed at first if things don't turn out the way you want. It will take some practice. This only works using darker colored pastels over a lighter base color, not the other way around! These are all 1/72 scale models, my one true scale. Ed, the green pastel color is all the same on the Bf 109. Here are a few more. Thanks everyone for your interest. -Bert 9 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Many Thanks Bert, now I'm off to check my inventory of pastels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cngaero Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Like so many other great inventions, your idea is so simple that it's brilliant. I really like your Me 262. It's whetted my appetite to have a go. Thank you for sharing your method with us and feel free to show us any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 2 hours ago, Bert said: the green pastel color is all the same on the Bf 109. Thanks for the explanation, it sounds simple but it gives an excellent result. I do appreciate the colours are the same all over the 109. Maybe you don't see it on your monitor but in the upper picture of the 109 the mottle spots are a more intense green than the lower picture - it's obviously a function of the lighting. I was just wondering, when you put the model near the screen, which picture looks more like the model is in real life. They are all very nice models and thank you again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demetri Miranthis Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 What if you can’t get a spray? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 (edited) Seems a very similar approach to the "Drybrush" method used with enamel paints, but presumably capable of finer fuzzy edges? I must admit finding that a double-action airbrush made life much easier for doing mottles, at least on larger aircraft. Certainly much quicker, and less likely to end up with splodges or streaks here and there. I type that as a long-term traditional brusher, who has owned several airbrushes but found little use for any of them - except for mottles. Edited October 30, 2019 by Graham Boak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 3 hours ago, Jordi said: Am I the only one who can’t see any of the images thanks to Photobucket’s piracy? No unfortunately, the things I'd like to do to the powers that be at PB would get me banned if I enlarged on it, save to say I think they're mongrels, I thought when they did what they did originally they were cultural & social vandals, I've felt no reason to modify that since. Steve. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I can see them fine. Maybe it's because I have an add-on. Put "photobucket fix for (whatever browser you use) add-on" into a search engine and you will find a patch to make it work. Like this https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235025955-photobucket-fix/&hotlinkfix=1572501807462 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Thanks Ed, the links in that old thread did nothing but the first hit when I put your suggested search terms in worked a treat. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seawinder Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 I can see photographs, but they're blatantly out of focus and partially covered by the PB logo. I'm running Firefox on an iMac, and I'm not seeing any currently active links to any fix. Can anybody explain what's going on? p.s. My apologies if this has hijacked the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luka Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 15 minutes ago, Seawinder said: I can see photographs, but they're blatantly out of focus and partially covered by the PB logo. I'm running Firefox on an iMac, and I'm not seeing any currently active links to any fix. Can anybody explain what's going on? p.s. My apologies if this has hijacked the thread. That's what some of the posts here are about; PhotoBucket (tempted to do the obvious letter swap but I'll keep the thread clean) has 'hijacked' many of its users' photos by adding a blur filter and a huge watermark. For a fee (ransom), users can link their photos once more without the filter and watermark. This outraged many users but PB won't budge. Several attempts to circumvent this policy with add-on fixes have been thwarted by PB by changing their server code (making a lot of fixes useless). An article on chalk mottle with the same pics (which have not been messed up by PB) by the OP can be found here; http://ipmsvagabonds.com/page2/page28/page28.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seawinder Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Thanks, Luka. I was aware of PB's hijacking/ransom policy (I cancelled my account a year or two ago for that reason), but it seemed odd that recently uploaded (I assume) photos would be being blocked in the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Smith Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 1 hour ago, Seawinder said: Thanks, Luka. I was aware of PB's hijacking/ransom policy (I cancelled my account a year or two ago for that reason), but it seemed odd that recently uploaded (I assume) photos would be being blocked in the same way. no, it's an archival thing, previously they just blocked them, then the stuck a watermark on them, and now for free user over a certain (measly) amount of storage or bandwidth, they blur them.... The pics are unmodified for the users account if you log in, I have had a few archival images I have gone on there, downloaded and then re-upped to Flickr for this very reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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