Quick Q for painters

U

UKVoodoo

Charter Member
Quick question for the many outhouse painters

Ive done loads of repaints for a lot of Itos aircraft but they all look too clean and fresh as I have no idea how to do weathering and smoke stains on repaint, is there any tutorials that anyone can point me too

p.s I use PSP and am well aquainted with using layers and such like if that helps

Cheers :salute:
Matt
 
Check out Simmerspaintshop.com. That site has a ton of tutorials on skinning. Tutes for Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, Gimp. Read them all...techniques used in one program can pretty much be done in the others....just the name of the tools is different in most cases.

OBIO
 
I think removing the specular shine (via MDLMat, I just learned how to do this...) from some of Ito San's models will already make them appear 'less clean'.

To get more dirt, I usually add one (or more...) dedicated stain layers, allowing them an opacity of about 60 to 80% in "multiply" mix mode. A soft airbrush with decreased density and some softening should do the work.
The easy way will of course be to "borrow" some dirt or stain layers from sophisticated paint kits and tweak them for your purposes...

Cheers,
Markus.
 
Cheers guys will go have a gander and experiment see how things go :jump:

Case in point my Viet Vet Skyshark looks far too clean :)

Cheers :salute:
Matt
 
Another tip - don't use pure black for weathering. Try a shade of very dark brown, or perhaps with a tint of red. Using opacity as Markus said is the trick. I typically make several layers for differing degrees of weathering, that I can turn on or off, or layer on top of each other as needed when exporting. I use an soft brush on airbrush settings, about 25% opacity in the actual brush setting, then gradually apply as described above. Then, at the end of it, if it looks too strong, you can just turn down the layer opacity until you're happy.

Simmerspaintshop really is worth its weight in gold, I would recommend it too.

Oh, and above all - get a Wacom tablet. You'll never look back ;)
 
One thing I will add about weathering....it takes far more artistry to add realistic weathering to a plane than it does to paint the plane. I have tried and tried and tried to weather planes...and have never really been satisfied with the results. And, the amount of time it took me to achieve a crappy weathering job just wasn't worth it....that is why my skins are always clean and neat. I don't have the knack/touch/feel for weathering and I am just too darn lazy to try to achieve the knack/touch/feel.

OBIO
 
True indeed, it is very easy to overdo weathering, as any plastic model kit maker will also tell you. I think it's a case of less is often more, and take breaks in your session to come back and review it with a fresh pair of eyes. I've often caught myself a little over zealous with the airbrush.
 
nazca_stevw said:
True indeed, it is very easy to overdo weathering...
Click to expand...

Well spoken!
I had to learn it the hard way when I painted exhaust stains (as seen on many P&W PT6 driven aircraft) on the "Screaming Hawker" HS.748 (powered by RR Darts). Some folks insisted that "Darts don't smoke!", under no condition. So these stains actually were overdone.
I should have checked this out before...

Lesson for me:
No repaint (except fictional ones) without sufficient reference pics!

Cheers,
Markus.
 
If you can get up close to a real aircraft, take some shots close to the rivets you'll get a better idea of how weather affects the metal. You can also see other little things in there like grease and bugs and mud. Chips of paint missing. The thing is to try and replicate that. Look at this picture:
. View attachment 13726
Here you can see something I'm working on. I've used layers to build up a look of wind beaten- aged metal using different colours and different opacities which give the look of depth. I'm still trying to find the best look that pleases me. There are many talented artists here at SOH, take a look at some of their work. Some that come to mind are Morton, Cazzie, Duckie, HenryW, Epsillion, Bomber12th, and one of my favs, the artist who painted the Shockwave P-47s. I can only aspire to their quality, so hope this gives you a better idea of what you are trying for.
 
While the gurus are looking in this direction, can I ask a supplementary question please?

Any tips in how to set up a PSD paintkit would be greatly appreciated; there are a few (relatively) decent older models out in the wild that are totally ruined by appalling paint jobs - classic example is the JR Lucariny Meteor IV, an old model but the only game in town, with possibly the most unrealistic paint scheme ever seen!

I guess it is just going to be a case of patience, building things layer by layer, but guidance would be appreciated. :salute:
 
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