Well I I have had a lot of questions of people who wanted to know more about the Painting technique I use to call "striping". I use it a lot to make rainstreaks on vehicles and it is a part of my filterign technique on AFV`s. I also found out it is a great way to make woodgrain on big surfaces as in my latest example Furniture. I don`t say the technique is limited to onlyFurniture or rainstreaks it probably has like 20 other uses but that is for your imagination of how to use it.
Well let me try to explain the technique to you guys and gals. Basically the whole method of striping is based on the filering method. I made this graphic also posted in the Diorama forum.
Ok To start with
Step 1
I first paint the basecoat. ( in the case of the writingdesk this was quite a dark brown.) Let me also state that all colors used are Enamels from Humbrol. I don`t write any numbers as for wood almost all variants of brown are good and I usually mix my paints to get a specific color I like
Then comes
Step 2
The part where the striping comes in. Take or mix a color that is darker (Much darker in the case of the writingdesk it was a brown so dark it was almost black) And thin it heavily. Now take a really small brush (I used a Tamiya High Finish 000) and swiftly put some really thin streaks on the surface of which you want the woodgrain. Make sure all the lines follow the same direction as there are not much woodsorts which have lines running criss cross.
Step 3
Now you have your basecolour with some dark (thin) lines runnign across. Take the turpentine with which you diluted the dark paint and do the same as in step 2 only don`t try to follow the streaks you made in that step. Yes they can overlap each other some may be covered completely this is no disaster but try to make a difference in lines. A little hint here is to use turpentine that you already used for a couple of other jobs I tell you why later. In the drawing in step 3 you see some parts are dark and some are light the dark part is where you striped the turpentine.
Step 4
Now blow the turpentine dry this takes only a couple of blows not that much work. What you see is that the turpentine diluted the stripes you made in step 2 but also it made the stripes blend in in the basecolor more and giving it a nice transition. Also it gave it a more diversity in colour. The reason to use " old" turpentine as stated in step 3 is for this reason. The turpentine functions as a filter itself and is giving an extra colour to it. A good example of it is the 2nd pic of the top post as you see a darker line running through it and some lighter lines this is the effect of old turpentine. Usually when you are doing a wash or a filter you try to avoid these lines but when making woodgrain it is perfect. It is an easy way of doing things and it is easy to recreate rainstreaks with this method. It needs some experimenting only.
As you can see in the explanation I often refer to the Writingdesk. People who have not followe dor read the initial post about the furniture. I will post a pic of what the result should be when done according the steps.
The Writing Desk
And a gritty close up of my woodgrain
From this topic
I hope this is clear to you guys and see something usefull in it. If there are any questions I`m more then willing to answer them.
