Preshading Question

Tickmagnet

 

I've just recently started doing a pre shading pin wash on panel lines that seems to work pretty good. I do the panel lines with black water colors or pastels on top of the primer then put the paint on top of that in thin coats until it looks the way I want it. If you look at the picture you can see the panel lines and they are a nice darker shade of the paint as opposed to the post pin wash dark black. It's a bit more subtle and I like the way it looks but I'm still fiddling with it. After you do the panel lines let it dry real well and clean up the excess and then apply your paint to your liking. After that do a lighter coat of paint in the middle of the panels which I try to mottle a bit to produce a faded look to the paint. Then I top it off with a 70/30 thinner to paint light coat of the original paint color.  It's like a three layer technique and it somewhat looks like an airbrush preshade but it isn't. Time consuming yes but what's the fun if you don't try something different once in a while.

I agree with Pawel - you'll probably see the brush stokes of the pre-shading in the airbrushed paint. Unless, of course, you wet-sand the pre-shading with a fine-grit sandpaper first. That might work. You can try it on a scrap piece of plastic first to see what happens.

Gary Mason

Hello!

While I've never tried something like that, I think it's safe to say NO, you won't get the same results. And I'm afraid it won't even be close. The thing is airbrush lets you control the paint coverage pretty well and the idea behind shading is to do some color blending - between the centers of the panels and the panel lines. With the method you describe I'm afraid the sharp lines from the brush will either show through or the preshading will disappear completely under the next layer of paint.

Good luck with your projects and have a nice day

Paweł