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Lesson One. the basic wash Part 1

Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Overnight, I washed the remainder of the parts. The furnace is drying out the house and the wash is drying quicker than usual.

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First, I'll give a preview of the next series of lessons. This post wraps up the washes. There are a few canvas items on the truck that was painted with Humbrol matt 72, one of the colors in the package. It was washed along with the olive drab, not differentiating at all. Now, I will try to make it look like canvas. The photos run dark in my workshop. My photo setup is in the museum and it is simply too far away. I'll go out there and take some photos for the end of this session.

With all Humbrol enamels, the first rule is to never mix the paint. Humbrol pigments fall to the bottom of the tin. That is where you want them. I use a mini screw driver to go through the carriers, the somewhat clear liquids that float on top, down to the pigments at the bottom, scrape a small amount and bring it to the top and out of the tin. Do that with Matt 72.

Place that on a pallet.
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Then, use it straight from the tin. I take a Number 8 sable filbert and swirl it in the pigments. Then take a clean t-shirt and using your thumb and forefinger on your left, (Right if you are left handed), hand and squeeze out the paint. Repeat three times and then push the brush down on your pallet and twist as you are doing so.

When you can see just a translucent circle on the pallet, you have it right. Now, I begin jabbing and twisting the brush on the raised areas of the canvas top.

The major mistakes made in dry brushing are;

Too much or too wet paint on the brush.
Too different a shade of paint than the color you are dry brushing.
Dragging or wiping the brush across the area instead of punching, jabbing and always the twist at the end.

Any other way will result in streaks, obvious dry brushing appearance, or too much contrast between the area and the highlights. Dry brushing must be built up in layers, from almost the same shade to a lighter shade, the lighter area always towards the center. If your color jumps out at you from the base color on your first pass, it is too light.

You can go to pretty much any show and see the entries that were dry brushed poorly. They stand out like a sore thumb!

The best modeler at dry brushing I have ever seen is Francois Verlinden. The man can spend hours dry brushing a tank and when complete, it looks as if it was airbrushed. I wish I had his patience.

Punch and twist the matt 72 straight from the tin on the canvas. When it gets to this point, stop and lighten your mix.

72DB01.jpg


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Then, on your pallet, take the Humbrol matt 34 white, using the small screwdriver or similar tool, and scrape the bottom of the tin for a small amount and place it on the pallet. Then mix equal parts of the two colors, matt 72 and matt 34.

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Then, dry brushing as previously described, punch and twist., apply this mixture to the canvas tarp.

DB01.jpg


When it is just right, I take a 003 brush, mix the wash again, and gently line the straps and details on the tarp. Later, I paint the buckles with the polished steel and buff. You can see them later down in the final photographs.

DB02.jpg


It is like a program for us to do the wipe or drag thing. I've been doing this for more years than some of you have been alive and I still have that urge. Suppress it!

Next, I will finish the tools. I start with a tin of Humbrol 270003, polished steel. Again, the same process, use the small tool to remove the pigments from the bottom of the tin and place on the pallet.
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Then mix with the rectified turps until the consistency of paint. Then proceed to paint all the metal parts of the tools.

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As that is drying, maybe 15 minutes at most, I used an acrylic flesh paint to paint all the wooden parts. The best base color to simulate various kinds of wood is an acrylic flesh. Tan doesn't work. Once dry, I'll demonstrate how to use oils to make the wood.

with these two oil colors, Raw Umber and Burn't Sienna, you can make several types of wood. Walnut, dark or light, oak, teak, and mahogany. For our purposes, I will mix an equal mixture of the two. Just as with the wash, when first applied, they appear too much. After they dry, they will go dead flat, soften and become several shades more subtle.

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Then blend.

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And, finally coating the flesh base coat.

oils04.jpg


OK, finally, here are some pics I took at my photo booth in the museum.

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A close up of the tools with the polished steel buffed and the oils applied to the flesh painted handles.

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Finally, an over all shot of the canvas and the dried wash on the front of the Diamond T.

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One last thing, The way I weather never involves pretty models at the end of each step. My goal is to have a realistic looking model when I have finished. In between, it can look pretty ugly at times. I'm just saying this because I forgot to mention it at the beginning.

Next up, lesson four, dry brushing, metalizing and adding scratches, blemishes and chipped paint.

Bob
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Hi Bob,

Would love to be following along on a build with you, but work commitments have me watching on from my usual seat on the sidelines. :idonno

Keep up the inspiration its far better than pay Tv or a movie :popcorn

Mind you the wife wants to know where all the kids T-shirts have dissapeared too

Regards from Down Under,

Adrian
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Mind you the wife wants to know where all the kids T-shirts have dissapeared too

Regards from Down Under,

Adrian

I was thinking the same thing, she was telling me the other day that I have too many tee shirts, hehehe...got a solution for that now.

Remember that when you do have time to do a OD subject and use Bob's weathering techinque, share it here and we'll give you full course credit in the "Sprue U". (y)
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Thanks MP will do!

Unfortunately i've developed "Lettermanitus" :notworthy whereby i am now unable to complete an individual kit one at a time, I'm currently amassing a collection

of around 15 Soft Skins and Armoured U.S vehicles and intend to roll out a production line. :gogo

Just cant seem to do anything small anymore!

Adrian
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Thanks for all the thanks you guys, but, the truth is, I'm having more fun doing this than you are watching it!!!! (y) (y) (y) (y) (y) (y)

I really enjoy teaching things!

Bob
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Bob, this is amazing! :notworthy Is there any chance you'd turn this into a video?

No, I have been giving some though to a series of books though. For every photograph I have posted on this, I have another 9 or 10 that I haven't. Many of the photos here are very high definition, 14 pixels, but I haven't had time to clean them up in photoshop.

Who knows. Ken Jones, retired editor of Military Modeling magazine and I have discussed doing a book on my current project, the huge dio Logistics, some others I have done and a section on the history of modeling. Between the two of us, I believe we have known just about everybody involved for the last fifty years, plus all the major events and on and on. Who knows?

Bob
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

It's just hard to picture your brush techniques in words. Watching you do it in video would be much easier to understand.
 
Would you do a wash on an interior? If so how do you handle interior white or Elfenbein ? Thanks Bob.
 
Would you do a wash on an interior? If so how do you handle interior white or Elfenbein ? Thanks Bob.

OK, I will cover this in detail later, but for now, if you wash the interior, especially if it is white, use the pin wash method as explained in "201. Dry brushing part one". Even yet, be even more conservative. Use tiny amounts in only the indentations and corners, any recessed lines and blot with the t-shirt. Using the raw umber wash on white or any other very light color is very difficult and tedious. A tiny bit overdone just looks sloppy and not easy on the eyes.

I used this to wash the interior of a British Lancaster bomber about 40 years ago and got into real trouble with that light bluegreen interior. I don't like to be pessimistic, but with little experience, I would walk on eggs with that one!

Bob
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Today I tried to do the washing with rectified turpentine and ... I discovered a new world! Before I always had problems with washing oil. I seem also to go very well for the figures. Thanks again for sharing with us all these methods ... :)
 
Lesson Three The basic wash part 3

Question on the metal Bob. You mentioned that the polished steel was buffed. How did you go about this?
 
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