Chipping Fluid Process

[sheppsea]

Hi,

I am currently painting Messerschmitt Bf109 and my intention is to put some aluminium down (which I have already done) then some AK Heaving Chipping Fluid and then the camouflage, obviously with the intention of creating chipping effect afterwards

To do the camouflage I will need to use masking tape, but if I were to put the masking tape directly onto the dried chipping fluid would I be running the risk of pulling up the chipping fluid up when I remove the masking tape?

Hopefully this makes sense - I am basically trying to figure out whether it would be best to put the chipping fluid all of the plane, mask and paint the entire plane as necessary, and then apply the chipping, or whether I work in sections (so mask, paint, chip the dark green, and then once complete mask, paint and chip the black-green colour). I think the first would be my preference as I suspect this would create a more realistic effect but just wanted to check what everyone's experience was

[schweinhund227]

just take what I am saying with a grain of salt !

The chipping fluid is there to help you achieve that effect... painting it over a large area is no problem but... it's the paint cure time that is your enemy here...

It may sound weird but many have tried painting an entire model and later came back to get the chipping going by "wetting" their colour coat only to find it was very hard to get the paint to chip... and even dug down to bare plastic from trying too hard ... because by the time they got to the area .... the paint had time to cure !

if you watch AK or AMMO videos on-line or on DVD's about that stuff.... they actually start chipping only a few minute after the top coat is applied... enough for the paint to look dry to the eye but not cured ! that way... you still have time to Wet the surface... and reactivate the fresh paint and the chipping fluid underneath ! after a while... it stops being effective as the paint hardens and your water no longer reaches the chipping fluid.

So you may have to plan ahead !! Select some key areas you want the paint chipped ! Mask off the areas you won't be able to get to in time... only to revisit later !
as you progress, mask off the areas you chipped previously and continue your paint scheme and repeat the chipping on those freshly painted areas... and continue this way till you get the whole model done if that is the effect you are after ?

You can test your chipping fluid effect and desired paint colours on a ""test piece"" and see how long you actually have ... before the paint no longer lifts or chips...
My motto is, never try a new technique on a fresh model !

Best of luck with your project !

[sheppsea]

Very informative and interesting, thanks a lot

I will work through in sections, I suspected that would have to be the case but it may need to be more sections that I initially thought

I will also give it a go on a model I have given up on, I agree that is best practice but I sometimes can't help but just get stuck straight into it!

Edit: I just realised this may also make fading a little difficult

[jmatt]

I don't know if this will help but I spent a night doing some chipping fluid experiments for a previous build. From a thread on another board...

My research into the AK Worn Effects product led me to many threads claiming that you had only 10 or 20 minutes to lay the surface color over it and begin the chipping effect.

This concerned me: I had to put down a few coats of the product, let it dry, immediately paint the entirety of the model and begin chipping straight away? What if it cured too much and I could chip in some areas but not others by the time I got to them?

So naturally, I am performing another experiment. I took a few primed and rust colored test pieces, laid down two coats of the Worn Effects product, let them dry and then sprayed a surface coat over them. (White, for maximum visibility)

I divided the pieces up with a marker and am testing the limits of just how long I have before the effect is impossible to achieve. Checking at ten minute intervals until one hour, then moving up to longer stretches.

And I'm learning a lot:

1) Use a new, stiff 20 cent brush
2) If you leave the water on the area and let it evaporate, it crackles the surface coat, adding to the effect
3) Strike at an off angle, not directly downward
4) Rotate the brush strikes by 90 degrees, come at the area from different angles
5) The longer it's on, the bigger the chips (not exactly a desired effect)

I'll post a pic when I get to the three hour mark. But apparently, there's no rush.

No doubt about it, the longer it's on, the bigger the chips. Bottom two are the two hour mark and three hour.



Here's the crackling, I think it adds something.

[sheppsea]

Really interesting post - thank you

I will be have a go at this over the weekend hopefully, just trying to get the masking done in the evenings at the moment