Drybrushing and B-52 s

Drybrushing is a very old technique, and means using a regular bristle-type brush to highlight small raised areas of the kit you're building. Try the following:

Get a nice, small brush that is clean, with a minimum of stray bristles, preferably none.

Dip about 1/3 of the bristles into the paint, then remove it. Immediately start wiping the brush on a papertowel or a cloth to remove as much paint as you can. Ideally, you should be able to still see paint on the brush, but none will rub off on the cloth.

Use what is left on the brush to LIGHTLY brush across raised details on the kit that you're building. I usually use this technique on a radial engine cylinder's cooling fins, instrument panels, etc. Anything with raised details that I want to highlight. It works very well, after just a little practice. Hope this helps you out.

As far as B-52's go, sorry I can't help you there. A 1/72nd B-52 is gonna be one huge kit!! Good Luck!!

I have built the Monogram B-52 a few times over the years, and have one along with the AMT B-52G just waiting to be built (where do I find the time?). It's an impressive model when done and it does take up a fair amount of space. Assembling is easy enough, just take your time and don't rush it........Now wheres my DVD of Dr. Strangelove?

Good luck with the drybrushing. Im not a very talented model builder but I still manage to learn new things and sometimes even have the courage to try it on a model Im building. :) Having read so much about this "Dry Brushing" I decided to give it a try. My experiment piece was painting the miniguns on an MH-53J flat black and then dry brushing them with gunmetal to enhance the detail... the results were awsome. So much so that i decided to use the technique to weather the rest of the model using aluminum to dry brush areas like the air intakes, rivets, and the rear ramp. Dry Brushing is now something I do regularly to add detail to my models... now if only I could learn things like , scribing panel lines... using after market detail set (something bout cutting a model to pieces to change the version doesnt make sense to me, why dont they just make the kit that way in the first place?:) Half my problem is I want every model I build to turn out like a master piece worthy enough to display in the monthly finescale magazine and I hate experimenting for fear I may ruin a model by trying something new. One day Ill get there.
As for the B-52, I built my first one a few months back and while I think I did a nice job Im waiting till my talent improves before I tackel AMT's B-52G. One tip if you have the Monogram/Revell kit. you may want to decide how you want to flaps and bombbay doors posistioned and glue them inplace. Both are designed to be movable but if you decide to have the flaps up and hang the model as I did youll walk in on it from time to time with the flaps and doors fallen :) Good luck with the kit

I found that the key to drybrushing is when you feel that you've taken enough paint off the brush, you're not done, keep wiping it off. Once I took this to heart, my drybrushing went from nightmarish to beautiful and effortless.

Good tip there! I had the exact same experience myself.

Ohh another note. The wing tips of the Monogram kit will have the correct sag when it's sitting gear down. I read that the wings of the AMT kit is what one would look like inflight, more straight out from the fuselage, the tricycle gear on the model will not touch the base if you have this kit gear down.

Trust me, I'M hanging this sucker up!! Besides, how will I display the BIG BELLY mod I'm scratchbuilding?! no, i'm not insane, i'm just obsessive... somebody get me some rubber wallpaper..heeheehee