Hey everyone:

I performed my first pin wash on my Sturer Emil today and was quit impressed the way it turned out. The only thing I wonder is what do you do after you have pin washed? I notice "wet" spots around where i applied the pin wash and wonder if I give it a coat of something like dullcote? Do I use fitler of Tamiya Buff to blend these "wet" marks blend ? Help

Base information:

Ole Emil is base painted with Tammiya acrylics. Sealed with Tamiya Clear. I used Testors Rust colour thinned with Testors Thinner to a milky consistency and brushed it around the seams and details.

Thanks in advance

The "wet" spots sound like tide marks, but hard to tell without a piccy.

You can do whatever you want after a pin wash, there are no hard rules concerning weathering, you can darken it with further washes, lighten it with dry brushing, highlight raised detail with dry brushing, cover it from head to foot in pastel dust (the latest crazy trend), or just leave it alone.

Any chance of posting a picture ?, cant really tell anything without a picture.

Thanks Matt. I thought I better take some pics since I dont know the proper terms.

This is my first attempt at a pin wash.

Here are some pics





I am wondering how to blend what looks like the "wet" thinner outline? What did I do wrong and how can I avoid it in the future? Should I not have gone over the seam?

Any tips or advice welcome.

Yep, you got tide marks, best way avoid them is to "wet" the whole model with whatever thinner you are using to do your washes with, use a wide flat brush and just wet the whole area where you plan on doing your pin washes.

Then when you do your pin washes, work in small areas at a time, as you move to a new area keep going back and look at the areas you have done, if you see tide marks forming then blend them in with a clean brush and clean thinner, takes a bit of practice but you soon get the hang of it.

If you want to remove these tide marks, ie try and blend them in, then try putting some further washes over the surface to try and darken it down a bit, these in effect would be filters, and it would be best to practice on a part of the model that is not easy to see, and keep the wash/filter heavily diluted, ie dont go mad, otherwise you will end up with a mucky mess.

In terms of the seams (weld joints), that was the right thing to do, these are the areas where you want washes, they just needed blending in as you went along to stop the tide marks forming.

Everyone seems to do Pin washes and overall surface washes/filters differently, I tend to do it like this -

Apply an overall surface wash to the entire model, heavily diluted, this is just to add some colour variation to the surface, could be called a filter, it also acts to "wet" the model surface helping to prevent tide marks.

Then I go back over the model and apply more localised heavy pin washes to bolt heads, raised detail and weld joints, working in small areas at a time, as you finish one area and move to the next, keep looking back at the areas done, checking for tide marks, if any have formed then blend them in with a clean brush.

I tend to do all my washes, pin washes and everything on a Satin surface, satin is a very good middle ground for letting you do everything all at once.

And forgot to mention,

On a Gray colour scheme, try and use a dark black gray colour for your pin washes instead of browns, this will blend in to the surrounding gray much better than brown will, and will still create that dark mucky look.

Dark brown washes work very well on any sand colour paint schemes, and in fact with any sand colour base coats dark brown is your perfect starting point for a pre-shade, then work back to sand, and then light stone/white.

MAtt:

Thanks for the advice. I am going to digest what you have written and then try and apply it to my Sturer Emil.

Thanks again

Brian

If you do something and your not sure about it, just post some more pictures then we can have a look and try n work things out.

And btw, you picked a fantastic subject to model, the Sturer Emil is one mean looking beast, only 2 ever made I think, both went to the Eastern Front and one was captured at Stalingrad I think, ended up in the Kubinka collection.

Post more pictures when you finish it, it's a good looking subject.

Since you've sealed the base color with Tamiya acrylic clear, the pin wash won't be absorbed by it, and you can move it around, including removing all the excess you want till you achieve the results you're after.

To remove the unwanted pin wash, I use Q-Tips dampened with the same thinner that you made the Pin wash with. Rub in a light circular motion, and it will start to remove the excess wash. You will notice that while it's removing the excess, it's also feathering out the wash, you can continue to spread this effect out, making it lighter and lighter, or remove nearly all to all of the excess. When dry, seal once again, and move on to more washes.

I usually seal once again before I start dry brushing, which is my final weathering procedures.

Thank you gentlemen for your advice and insight. I was able to get rid of the tide marks. I will post some pics when I am done.

Thanks again.

Brian

Here is a few updated shots. Seems to be going better now.

Hi Brian, good fix on this. The pointer I would give is to use a smaller brush or 'empty' some paint off the brush so not too much flows off the bristles when you touch the model with it. This way you can aim at just a bolt, small line, etc.

Thanks for the advice. I suspect that I had too much on my brush. I was using a 0/3 brush. Perhaps I will also see if I can score a finer tipped brush as well.