TallDarkandDisfigured
Sr Member
Anyone got any ideas or tips on how to make blast marks on a kit? I want to build up an MPC X Wing kit to look presentable. Any tips for painting it would be appreciated.
Blast marks??
- Thread starter TallDarkandDisfigured
- Start date
PHArchivist
Master Member
Most -- or at least a lot -- of folks air brush them on, but I just used a thinned down dark color and streak on blast marks with a brush... Biggest challenge is just getting them all in the right direction. Don't use strait black. Use a dark grey, or some other variation. Black, in scale modeling, doesn't look right.
PHArchivist
Master Member
TallDarkandDisfigured
Sr Member
Looks great!! Do you have any close ups? That's exactly the look I'm going for. My airbrush is dead so it's gonna be all brushwork. A big job but worth it.
I plan to do the X wing, Falcon, AT-AT and Hoth Speeder. Of course I don't even have the kits yet...
I plan to do the X wing, Falcon, AT-AT and Hoth Speeder. Of course I don't even have the kits yet...
Raygun
Well-Known Member
I use Tamiya transparents. I mix equal parts of orange and smoke with a drop or two of flat black and a few drops of alcohol to thin it and airbrush it on. Use a lot of air and a little paint and build it up. Then I black out the center with black weathering chalks. If you want a more dramatic blast, use a match. You have to be quick though. Strike a match and touch it to the surface and it will give you a 3D blast scar that you can dress up with paints. The mix above will allow you to build the color of the blast mark up from a light brown "singed paint" to a "black charred" finish. Basically, keep the color lighter toward the outer rings of the blast. This is also a great wash mix for grunge and gunk, and oily/rusty stains. If you add a lot of weathering chalk to it while it's wet you can get that "chewed metal in a puddle of oil" look on a kit too.
Hope this helps
Raygun
Hope this helps
Raygun
I've used a combination of brush and airbrush in the past.
A metal chip / 'burnthrough', some blackened edges, a mist of various dark shades for smoke / residue.
This isn't a great shot, the center of the blast is too dim to make out the details -
And a bow-on shot of the same kit, a bit lazy about the six major blasts, only layered a couple dirty colors.
I usually keep a few different bottles of thinner for cleaning my brushes, a blackish, and muddy-ish, a whitish, so when it is time for washes and detailing, I just load some of this used thinner in the airbrush and fire away.
Working up a crushed snowspeeder project (finally), lots of scoring and soot work to do on it (AND the AT-AT's foot).
A metal chip / 'burnthrough', some blackened edges, a mist of various dark shades for smoke / residue.
This isn't a great shot, the center of the blast is too dim to make out the details -
And a bow-on shot of the same kit, a bit lazy about the six major blasts, only layered a couple dirty colors.
I usually keep a few different bottles of thinner for cleaning my brushes, a blackish, and muddy-ish, a whitish, so when it is time for washes and detailing, I just load some of this used thinner in the airbrush and fire away.
Working up a crushed snowspeeder project (finally), lots of scoring and soot work to do on it (AND the AT-AT's foot).
TallDarkandDisfigured
Sr Member
Very nice work there Rich. I've never built up a Space kit so I'm new to blast marks, space dirt etc.
How do you enhance the panel lines? A wash, or pencil them in? A monkey could build the kits, but a great paint job makes all the difference. I'm just a monkey...
How do you enhance the panel lines? A wash, or pencil them in? A monkey could build the kits, but a great paint job makes all the difference. I'm just a monkey...
Raygun
Well-Known Member
005 tech pens are great for lining panels. You can buy disposable ones at art supply stores for about $3. Make sure your paint is dry and is sealed before you touch it with the pens though. They clog easy and it only takes a light touch. Get 2 or 3 when you get them...I screwed up two the first time I tried this trick.
Raygun
Raygun
Thanks.
The above mentioned (drafting) ink pens are used by many. I've used fine-lead mechanical pencils and heavily blackened thinner and a fine brush to leech the thinner into place.
Best advice is practice practice practice, either on an old kit, or slap together some kind of scratchbuilt panel with grooves and details, paint it up with your intended basecoats, then cover it in blast marks. Your actual built and base-painted kit shouldn't be the first place you try this kind of thing. Recipe for disaster, or at least very strong discouragement, if you don't like the results.
The above mentioned (drafting) ink pens are used by many. I've used fine-lead mechanical pencils and heavily blackened thinner and a fine brush to leech the thinner into place.
Best advice is practice practice practice, either on an old kit, or slap together some kind of scratchbuilt panel with grooves and details, paint it up with your intended basecoats, then cover it in blast marks. Your actual built and base-painted kit shouldn't be the first place you try this kind of thing. Recipe for disaster, or at least very strong discouragement, if you don't like the results.
Raygun
Well-Known Member
Yeah...use something you don't care about to practice on. There's lots of cheap gundam kits on hlj.com that would give a ton of opportunity to try out these techniques on. The HGUC 1/144th scale kits are snap fit and reasonable well detailed for under $20. Who knows...you might end up with something cool when it's done too
Raygun
Raygun
PHArchivist
Master Member
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rayra wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Working up a crushed snowspeeder project (finally), lots of scoring and soot work to do on it (AND the AT-AT's foot).
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
Oooooh! Can't wait to see it! VERY cool project!
rayra wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Working up a crushed snowspeeder project (finally), lots of scoring and soot work to do on it (AND the AT-AT's foot).
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
Oooooh! Can't wait to see it! VERY cool project!
the trick I picked up from watchng the making of documentaries on various star wars flicks. a clean white cloth - fairly absorbant a fine tipped brush, put a very smal drop of paint and lightly wipe the paint smear. You will need to do this MANY time to build up an appropriate "streak" look. like someone else said - straight black is not a good idea really super thinned black is OK, but I find light to dark grays are better overall. I've also tried using a candle to actually burn the paint. This can work very well but you really need to be careful - its way to easy to actually melt the model, if you get a bit too overzealous.. Its usially enough to get the model over the flame and the normal snmoke from the candle can to the trick. The best advice to is to try all or most of these suggestions (mine and others) on a scrap model or scrap plastic (anything will do really try old pepsi bottles), and see which one YOU ARE GOOD AT and then try to perfect those to the point yo ucan do thm without thinkinga bout it too much. When you're confident you can make the streaks look right then look at your real model.
Have Fun,
Jedi Dade
Have Fun,
Jedi Dade
TallDarkandDisfigured
Sr Member
More great ideas. I have some kind of kit around here i can practice on. Gotta get the technique down before I go tackling the X Wing. I don't wanna have to ship another in from eBay.
I'll post pics here as I try each technique.
I'll post pics here as I try each technique.
Pilot
Sr Member
Just my twopence for bringing out panel lines and such...back when I built models all the time, my favorite medium for this was plain old India ink. I used it for several reasons:
-It's very thin and it does the whole "capillary action" thing very well along the panel lines, both raised and recessed. I cut brushes into various shapes to control the application and flow.
-Even though it's straight-up black ink, it thins as it flows and creates a very nice grime effect. A little goes a long way.
-It doesn't dry very quickly, so it's easy to load a bunch on and then wipe away the excess "to taste," so to speak.
-It's not solvent based (at least I don't think so) and I've never had it eat through or smear any existing paint.
And most importantly to me...I've never touched an airbrush in my life, so I needed something that I could hand-brush on and not leave any brush strokes.
-It's very thin and it does the whole "capillary action" thing very well along the panel lines, both raised and recessed. I cut brushes into various shapes to control the application and flow.
-Even though it's straight-up black ink, it thins as it flows and creates a very nice grime effect. A little goes a long way.
-It doesn't dry very quickly, so it's easy to load a bunch on and then wipe away the excess "to taste," so to speak.
-It's not solvent based (at least I don't think so) and I've never had it eat through or smear any existing paint.
And most importantly to me...I've never touched an airbrush in my life, so I needed something that I could hand-brush on and not leave any brush strokes.
I use powdered pigments.
They are different from pastel chalk dust, in that the pastel has a lot of binder in with the pigment, while powdered pigments used straight yield a much more vibrant and potent result.
Use them dry for built up soot and grime, or thin with isopropyl alcohol for oil and streaking. They work best on matte paints, and really must be sealed if you plan to handle the prop or model. Here's a few pics of the stuff in action (I use black, rust colors, light tans for rain streaks, etc... sky's the limit!):
Rock, Jason
They are different from pastel chalk dust, in that the pastel has a lot of binder in with the pigment, while powdered pigments used straight yield a much more vibrant and potent result.
Use them dry for built up soot and grime, or thin with isopropyl alcohol for oil and streaking. They work best on matte paints, and really must be sealed if you plan to handle the prop or model. Here's a few pics of the stuff in action (I use black, rust colors, light tans for rain streaks, etc... sky's the limit!):
Rock, Jason
PHArchivist
Master Member
Progress...? Done...?
</SPAN><TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
PHArchivist wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
rayra wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Working up a crushed snowspeeder project (finally), lots of scoring and soot work to do on it (AND the AT-AT's foot).
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>
Oooooh! Can't wait to see it! VERY cool project!
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
</SPAN><TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
PHArchivist wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
rayra wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Working up a crushed snowspeeder project (finally), lots of scoring and soot work to do on it (AND the AT-AT's foot).
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>
Oooooh! Can't wait to see it! VERY cool project!
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
Jedidade, that's exactly how we do it... streaking paint drops. Also, using thinned down rubber cement and applying it lightly in a couple of thin layers, then painting that. The bonus there is that you can take the cement off after you've finished shooting, and return the model to a more pristine condition.
As for airbrushing streaks, get some silly putty or a bit of that blu-tac poster hanging stuff... press it on so that you get a bit of a lip where you want the front of your streak. This is a soft-edge mask, and you want to use this to 'harden' the front edge of your streak, to give the bolt, beam, whatever an actual impact point.
Never, ever, ever use black until you kow how to tint and use warm and cool darks. Black is what you get from carbon flashing, but is really only best used on about :16 to :12 scale or higher.
Remember, if you have a :24 (for example) scale model... holding it 1 foot away from you, it should look as if you are standing 24 feet away from the real deal, etc... even at 20 feet or so, you get all kinds of interference in the colors and unless you are in a very overcast environment and focusing directly, a lot of values will be lost to you. Squint tests for value will help you see if you've gone dark enough.
edited this for a couple of dippy spelling errors
As for airbrushing streaks, get some silly putty or a bit of that blu-tac poster hanging stuff... press it on so that you get a bit of a lip where you want the front of your streak. This is a soft-edge mask, and you want to use this to 'harden' the front edge of your streak, to give the bolt, beam, whatever an actual impact point.
Never, ever, ever use black until you kow how to tint and use warm and cool darks. Black is what you get from carbon flashing, but is really only best used on about :16 to :12 scale or higher.
Remember, if you have a :24 (for example) scale model... holding it 1 foot away from you, it should look as if you are standing 24 feet away from the real deal, etc... even at 20 feet or so, you get all kinds of interference in the colors and unless you are in a very overcast environment and focusing directly, a lot of values will be lost to you. Squint tests for value will help you see if you've gone dark enough.
edited this for a couple of dippy spelling errors
PHArchivist
Master Member
</SPAN><TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Clerval wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Never, ever, ever use black until you kow how to tint and use warm and cool darks. Black is what you get from carbon flashing, but is really only best used on about :16 to :12 scale or higher.
edited this for a couple of dippy spelling errors
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
So true... On my speeder, most of the "black" is Testor's Euro Grey I...
True black is way too rich.
Clerval wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
Never, ever, ever use black until you kow how to tint and use warm and cool darks. Black is what you get from carbon flashing, but is really only best used on about :16 to :12 scale or higher.
edited this for a couple of dippy spelling errors
</TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE><SPAN CLASS=$row_color>
So true... On my speeder, most of the "black" is Testor's Euro Grey I...
True black is way too rich.
