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How to avoid 'tide marks' when weathering with oil paints and pigments ?


cger

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Hi, 

 

I am starting  to use oil paints and pigments for final weathering, but I am not so satisfied with the final result.

I model mainly 1/48 scale aircraft, and I use pigments to represent dirt  which collects at the wing roots. 

I use oil paints heavily thinned with artist quality white spirit to 'manipulate' the pigments, ie to push them close to the wing roots, panel lines etc, (basically everywhere dirt would collect).

My problem is that I often get 'tide marks', small ghost marks after the thinner has evaporated. This happens even if my base paint is covered with a satin and not mat varnish.

I am looking for any tips or advices to remove these marks and to get a nicer looking blending effect.

 

many thanks,

 

Christian.

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Are your pigments revealing where the thinner has reach out to, yes? I went through that phenomenon once when I first learned OPR; and it caught me out, too, because it happened on a 'live' model but not on the test model. It was down to too much thinner combined with some unrefined application processes (e.g. trying to scrub dry pigments over OPR'd areas). Pause using these techniques on live models and refine and/or alter your process; try other ways of doing this; look at how Mike Rinaldi and Will Pattison manipulate pigments and oils; and experiment extensively with the many methods of applying pigments.

Edited by Ade H
clarity
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18 hours ago, Ade H said:

Are your pigments revealing where the thinner has reach out to, yes? I went through that phenomenon once when I first learned OPR; and it caught me out, too, because it happened on a '

Hi Ade,

 

yes exactly. I suspected that the culprit was too much thinner on the brush, because I could not control where the thinner went. I will have a look at the videos you suggest,

many thanks !

 

Christian.

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Not a  hijack at all, Weedlesketch. It's a good question. I found that I had to remove the offending pigments as much as I could and use a stronger thinner to blend away the traces of the first, milder thinner. I used a fast-dry thinner, but anything which smells a little stronger ought to be about right. Then after that was left to evaporate thoroughly, I improved what was left by OPR* over the problem area instead of using pigments again. These days, I rarely apply pigments using the dry scrub method, as there are several better methods which I prefer. Ultimately, almost any error like this can be fixed, even if it means buffing down through the top coat and respraying the area.

 

* Oil Paint Rendering. Not to be confused with other, less targetted oil-based techniques such as dot filters.

Edited by Ade H
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