Page 2 - B2B 13 to 18

Paints
Paints are incredibly versatile when it comes to weathering from a mixing a custom brew to get a particular shade or thinning to produce home-brew washes and filters. The paint the modeller is likely to come across in the contents of weathering as opposed to livery painting are acrylics, enamels and oils.
In terms of colours you don't need a wide range depending on how confident you are at mixing different colours. A good starting point would be the following colours; Black, Black Grey, White, various Rust shades (most ranges do a light, medium and dark rust colour), a light grey and 3 or 4 mud / dirt colours.
A word about using Black and White in weathering; I do not now use either straight Black or White for my weathering as the effect either of these colours gives is too harsh and unrealistic; what works better for an effect like exhaust is either a very dark grey or an off-black or white mixed with a spot of a light tan. My personal favourite for off-black is Vallejo Model Air NATO Black but other paint ranges include the likes of 'Rubber Black' or 'Burnt Black' or 'Exhaust' that produce a similar effect. Black and White do obviously have their uses as a mixing colour for lightening and darkening
Acrylics: In the case of a true acrylic these use water as the carrier for the pigment and thus have little smell and are the least potentially harmful to the user or the environment. They can be thinned with distilled water although the brand appropriate thinner usually works better as it will have additives to deal with surface tension and extend drying time a little. Acrylics dry quicker than, say, enamels (around 24hrs to fully harden) which can mean quicker progress on a project but also gives less scope for re-work adjustments. That said they are generally quite soft even when fully dry. In most cases mistakes can be removed with the relevant brand's thinner.
There are numerous brands of acrylic paint brands out there but personally I have found I get on best with the Vallejo Model (white cap) and Model Air (black cap) ranges as, in my experience, they thin well, spray well and have a decent shelf life.
A quick word on Tamiya paints. Although the squat jars of paint you can pick up in most model shops and Hobbycraft say ‘acrylic’ on the label they are actually lacquer-based hence the smell and the flammable warning labels on the jars. They are great to paint base colours with and being a lacquer give a harder finish but I find them hard to manipulate once on a model compared to acrylics.
Enamels: Humbrol enamels have a special place in my heart as the paint I used in my teens for painting and producing crude washes for my initial attempts at weathering. Enamels require a chemical thinner and thus are smellier and more harmful if sprayed. They have a slower drying time to acrylics but are easier to re-work and manipulate to create streaking etc. Having a different carrier, they are ideal to be used over an acrylic base without adversely affecting it.
Artists Oils – Comes in tubes and as the names suggests are mostly oil based, although I personally use Windsor and Newton water soluble (!!) oil paint. The main advantage of oils is their very long drying time (we are talking days) which gives plenty of scope for re-working into different effects, into nooks and crannies and correcting mistakes. Although the high-end brands like Windsor and Newton may seem a tad expensive most of the effect we are likely to use them for in a modelling context require very little paint so a tube can last for years. Hint: Drying times can be reduced by squeezing your dab of oil paint onto an old piece of corrugated card and let it sit for 15 mins or so while the excess carrier oil soaks off.
Metallics – If we are aiming to recreate bare or partially exposed metal then the use of a specific metal finish is required. Most paint manufacturers have metal colours in their normal range but they don’t work that well in recreating the lustre and shine of metal. However, there are some paints specially formulated to give a true look metal finish e.g. Alcad, AK Xtreme Metal and Vallejo Metal. Especially useful for giving the impression of worn paint exposing underlying bare metal is dry brushing with a 'buff-able' metallic paint such as Mr Hobby Metallizer paints (insert pic). The 'Dark Iron' in this range can be especially useful as it dries to an off-black finish until polished when gives off dull sheen that gives a very good impression of exposed underlying metal.
Clear coats – A coat of vanish (or clearcoat) isn’t just a finishing step to protect all the powders and potions you have applied to your model, it also can act as a protective layer for the original factory finish and then for subsequent layers of weathering. The type of clearcoat you use (matt, semi-matt or gloss) can also affect how some weathering effects work e.g. thin washes for picking up panel lines. As you might expect every paint brand produces its own Matt, Semi and Gloss clear coats; from my experience Humbrol from a rattle can works as does the ‘daddy’ of matt clears that is Testors Dullcote (if you can find it). If you are using an airbrush then my go-to clear coats is Tamiya thinned 50/50 with either Tamiya X20 thinner or Mr Hobby Self Levelling thinners.
Fig 2 – A selection of paints (Left to Right): Acrylics by LifeColour, Vallejo, Mig and AMMO; artists oils; Tamiya and Gunze (Mr Hobby) lacquers.
16 ROUNDHOUSE - December 2018