Global Scale Modeller

When I was a wee young lad I tried this by drybrushing the area behind the exhausts. I knew nothing of washes, oils etc back then (when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and TV was B&W)

Now fast forwarding to the 2nd decade of the 21st century, how do people do this?

Just spray the staining on? what if it goes wrong and ruins the beautiful paintwork underneath? Should I use oils? can you spray oils thinned with white spirit through an airbrush? Have I asked too many questions? Should I stop now?

I use highly thinned tamiya xf1, or if looking for a slightly less,black look I use tamiya smoke.

Just make sure you stop before it looks to much, less is more.

I spray on a very well thinned (30/70) Tamiya XF1 in very light misting strokes. I always practice before doing it for at least 5 minutes (20-30 strokes) before actually doing it on the model just to get the feel of it and how I want it to look.

It is probably one of the scariest parts of spray painting as it goes on right at the death and there is a good chance of messing your work up, although I always spray over the Klear cote so, if it is a cock up then you have a chance of saving it

As with everything airbrush, practice is the key mate - practice, practice, practice.....

thanks for the advice guys, I know an old P40 kit that is going to get the heck stained out of it as a test bed.

I use pastel powder that way I have a bit more control over it and put as much or little on as I want then fix it with hair spray and it gives it a nice flat Finnish.

Nige201980 wrote:I use pastel powder that way I have a bit more control over it and put as much or little on as I want then fix it with hair spray and it gives it a nice flat Finnish.

I second that !

Pigments or pastel powders... or the Thin paint.. all good in my book !

Less is more !

I use pencil dust, just sand a pencil then use the resulting dust like a pigment.v

My reference it all to armour, so it applies to muzzle brakes and exhaust pipes.
I'll shoot a very light thinned flat black on the area then add black pastels.
If it's a heat shroud, I'll spray it with a dark rust colour, then over spray with a light dusting of flat black, then add some black pastel.

i usually do that with Vallejo "natural iron oxide" pigments. i apply them without a fixer, they get simply brushed on the model to create those stains.

Am I the only one who use TAMIYA'S XF-1 black and dry brush streaks down the vehicle. That or you could (again using dry brush) dab it on the model gingerly.

Hope this helps!!

Thinned XF-1 and also some Tamiya smoke. Depending on the model and/or the placement of the exhausts.

I use Flory models washes, just spray it on in small streaks, cut to air to dry and repeat. You can build it up as much as you like and if you don't like it, just wipe it off and start again. I usually fix it with Matt spray varnish. HTH