well, im making models for almost 2 years but until recently i only built airplanes, couple months back i transfered into armor and figures in 1:72 and 1:35 and i almost finished my first one (Revell 1:72 T34-85) , actually i have few 1:35 models builted before which still waiting for weathering so i decided to try new metods i learned here on armorama on this small scale for test. what i dont know how to do is:

My model is painted and already recieved a coat of gloss (Revell No1) and an oil wash (also my first time doing it) now i need a drybrush and pastels for "dust"

1. am i supposed to do the drybrush first or pastels?
2. am i supposed to use just dry sanded pastels or should i mix them with some water? (i think mixing with water could ruin my oil wash?)
3. Should i use bare metal color (as in airplanes) for drybrush or Light grey as i read in most of articles?
4. Can i add another coat of matt after the pastel chalks? (NOTICE! I dotn have an airbrush, all painting and coating is bu brushes)

I hope some of u can help me

Mirko

Hi, personally I paint the model a base coat colour. Then i begin dry brushing starting with red brown, hull red, dark brown to get an overall grimy, rusty finish, especially tracks, exhaust covers and anything made of thinner metals. Then I dry brush with Tamiya Nato black, used sparcely for exhaust blackening etc. Then I dry brush on Citadel miniatures Gunmetal over areas of wear or non ferrous metal areas as well as the raised surfaces of tracks, hinges, handles, gun barrels etc. Then used sparcely I use silver for the most highly polished areas, but very sparcely. I then do a wash with either a rusty colour or an earth tone (some difficulties here, depending on your choice of thinner - White spirit is very nasty to completed models!!) Then I scrape up some pastel chalks usually red browns, and earth colours. I put these on with a dry paint brush, then using a little water I rub into panel lines and recesses, cleaning up the excess and overspill using a moist Q tip and kitchen paper. Once dry I dust on with a dry paint brush, the dust colours from my dio and brush it into anywhere that dust would gather. Note: if you use a varnish to seal in the pastels, they will lose most of their effectiveness. However, with practice you can judge how much you need to add during the application phase to compenstae, or just put the model into a dust free cabinet and never touch it again!!

Hope this helps

Tnx winch!

Anyone else please? i need to continue my work today and i need this info!

Pastels in my opinion are the last bit of weathering after everything including dullcoteing. Although sometimes I use pastels mixed in with washes in weathering.
See this link Click on "tips and tricks", then "AFV weathering using washes, pastels & drybrushing".


No ... you can use both. If your oil paint is properly dried, water wont effect it. Dry and wet pastels give different effects .. look to another recent thread where this was asked about.


I personally use some bare metal colours for edges ... but avoid bright silver. Gives a metallic look to the the plastic. But bare metal wont stay like this long before rusting in a wet environment. Rusty scratches can be used as well.


you dont need matt after pastels as they are very matt anyway ... to seal will lose alot of the pastel work. Brushing sealer ... I would think ... would lose all pastel work. Maybe some sort of spray sealer or fixative might work if it is misted on from a distance and lightly. Better to make sure it is not handled and kept free from dust in any case,,,, in a glassed in shelf if possible.
These are my opinions only. Other modellers may have a lot more experience of this than me. Other modellers might have different methods as well. Practice and experimenting is the best thing for pastels.

Just trying to help out a lil more:
Try to use very soft brushes with the pastels to avoid grinding lines in case your powder is not to fine and also to avoid very "hard" effects unless you need them somewhere. Usinf pastels only gives effects related to dust and generally stuff that is dry for some time and aged. Using them with water or alcohol or thinner can give bolder effects like mud that is dried now or oil that has run (better do it with washes anyway) and in general more hard effects thinkin that with the liquid the pastel is not only touching softly the surface but is well stack on it. Experiment with many different pastel colours and remember that on the model they usually look much different in colour than when they are on their own stick. try scribbing them as fine as you can and you ll have better effects .

Good luck and remember for most modellers pastels make the difference and add reality to a model , so try to learn using them

Tnx to all of u for helping out... already tried it out last night with dry pastel and it looks really nice, except i over done it so i had to remove it but i think i can manage it with time...

Only trouble is where i live there is a LOT of dust so even if i keep my models in glass-shell some dust always goes onto them... how am i supposed to clear a model from it if i used a dry pastels? It will go off with the unwanted dust?!

A half way decent way to keep your pastels on is aerosol hairspray, or watered down glue from a spray bottle, make sure that the water/glue mix is pretty thin. The cohesive properties will still be apparent, but it'll cover lightly and won't clump up. As for keeping the item dust free... You might want to just LIGHTLY take a very soft brush to the parts that don't have pastels used. my 2 cents worth.

well, tnx for the tip! I already tried aeroslo hairspray but even from the distance of 30 cm my pastels dissapeared almost totaly... maybe bad pastels.... well, im gonna try it again ofc!
and again...and again...and again...

and in the end , if i dont make it... im gonna put whole scene in glass aquarium that will protect it for sure

many tnx
Mirko