Hi guys,
My first post here in Armour/AFV,go easy on me...On my current dio project i have built a Italeri Opel Blitz 3t(nice kit btw).I have already painted a light grey primer over the truck and was planning on doing some (matt black)pre-shades with my ab over the panel lines etc,followed by dark yellow, a white winter wash then weathering.My question..Is the pre-shade really needed at all?If i do a dark wash after the white wash would it be sufficient enough to 'bring out' all the fine panel lines etc.?Should both be done??Any guidance would be helpful!Cheers,Shay

Shay, the effects of a wash and pre/post shading is very different. My question to you is how worn will the white wash be? If its not very, its kinda pointless to go through painting the base color everywhere. I would just spot paint (using pre/post shading) those areas that will show. If it will be very worn, then by all means do the whole job.

Now to answer your question. Pre/post shading simulates the way light and your eye preceive the light striking the panels. By lightening the areas in the center of the panels - where the eye tends to focus - it gives the model more depth. Washes in panel lines can still be done, but they do not replicate the effect as well. It more compliments it.

HTH

IMHO, no. I've rarely seen it look natural. What often happens is the pre-shaded areas overwhelm the rest of the paint scheme. Since you're doing two other colors over the primer, most of the effect would be lost, anyway.
As far as I'm concerned, this is a fad promoted by a major magazine, much as they did with their salt method chipping. What has subsequently happened is that builders have started using models as reference material and increasing the effect to make their models supposedly more realistic, when, in my eyes, they are becoming more modellistic.
Stepping off my soapbox, now.

I don't know Al. Any technique, excecuted poorly will look, well, poor. If done correctly, and subtly the technique is effective. I feel it must be used with post shading to really work well. IMO is it actually the begining of the weathering stage.

I have to agree with John on this one ...If done right and used along with other weathering techniques it can really look good...and I too agree that you should do the whole process even if you have two other colors to add over it ...it might not show much but where it does show through ,you'll be glad you did it ...You'll probably get some good effects with some post shading as well.
Maybe a dark brown would be better than black on the dark yellow but that's up to you.

Rick

I have to agree with John and Richard. I myself like to pre and post shade on my Aircraft/Armor. Doing so the effect looks more realistic. I have seen some that were overly done that just looked like a drawing. You have to look at the Aircraft/Armor your doing, I like to study the effects of the paint, weathering, dirt and exhaust.

What I like to do is this, my base color, I’ll darken it for the pre-shade. Then I’ll spray on the base color, and once it dries I’ll lighten the base color to post-shade (mix ratio 20% paint to 80% thinner). I never use a black to wash for the panel lines, most often it’s a gray. And depending on it’s base color I’ll darken/lighten my wash accordingly.

This is the effect I'm looking for...

I think the biggest problem with pre and post-shading is they are sometimes overdone. Any weathering technique, when taken to an extreme, looks "modellistic" to quote LaFleche. When done sparingly, I think it can look very good. Of course everything is subject to one's personal taste! and we all have our differing opinions.

To answer the original question, though....
I wouldn't bother with pre-shading in this case. You probably won't ever be able to see it after adding the white winter camo unless it's Extremely worn.

Shay

I finished my first model in 25yrs last July. At the time I was worried about ruing my paint job by applying the wrong wash/highlight etc because I had no experience with these methods. AFter some thought I decided to go with James Blackwells post-shading method because it seemed fairly forgiving. I prcatised for days with the AB before I touched the model but once I did found it easy to apply and very forgiving of mistakes. You can see the result here and judge for yourself http://www.bsbit.co.uk/kt/article.html