What am I doing wrong? Weathering

1:1:1?

You should have: 1:1:100 - vinegar:soap:water. You just need a drop or two of soap and vinegar.

Your probably getting the white pastiness from the vinegar reacting with your clear coat.

Never done it, so I’m not sure how to fix it. But, here is my suggestion: You might want to let it dry for at least 48 to 72 hours, then clear coat it to remove the white stuff. If you don’t wait, then the fix may not work. These symptoms are similar to how decal setting solutions can sometimes react with acrylic clear coats of future…and this is how you are supposed to fix it.

Yes, go easy on the dishwashing soap and vinegar. You don't need that much. A drop or two for each is enough.

I'd go with Vinny's ratios, 1:1:1 isn't going to make it. The white pasty gunk could be Gum Arabic, which if I recall correctly, is used as a binder in watercolor paints. (Renarts, please correct me here if I'm wrong). I have had similar problems using tube watercolors as washes and abandoned them. I didn't use any vinegar and still got the white pasties, so I don't think it is the vinegar. After over 35 years of modeling, I have tried virtually every wash technique imaginable: Oil Paints, enamels, acrylics, watercolors, tempera, inks...you name it. What I use now are transparent airbrush pigments made by Golden Artist Colors. See; www.goldenpaints.com look under Airbrush Colors, Transparent. They make an entire range of these extremely fine pigmented transparent paints, which IMHO, make the best washes available. I use a combination of their "Shading Gray", (which looks black but isn't) and burnt sienna, diluted with water to produce a dark brownish-black wash. You will find these paints only at art supply stores. "Try it, you'll like it!" They help win shows for me!

Try this instead .... http://www.swannysmodels.com/Weathering.html

QUOTE: Originally posted by leopold What I use now are transparent airbrush pigments made by Golden Artist Colors. See; www.goldenpaints.com look under Airbrush Colors, Transparent. They make an entire range of these extremely fine pigmented transparent paints, which IMHO, make the best washes available. I use a combination of their "Shading Gray", (which looks black but isn't) and burnt sienna, diluted with water to produce a dark brownish-black wash. You will find these paints only at art supply stores. "Try it, you'll like it!" They help win shows for me!

Leopold,

I went to the web site, and they look great, except that one of their properties is that they are supposed to be: "* Non-removable film - durable, non-water soluble, non-alkaline soluble." So if you're doing a wash, how do you remove the excess? Also, are you applying these paints over Future?

Regards,

-Drew

Lufbery: If you are using Future and washing a aircraft, you might be better off using the sludge technique, such as Swanny's excellent webpage shown above. I am a Tread-Head and use a different technique. I actually outline every nut, bolt and right angle joint with a 0.20 mm tip black drafting pen and then blend it in with the wash. Some people think this makes too stark of an appearance, but by the time I get through with dry-brushing, weathering, colored pencils and pastels, it looks just right. I don't generally wash the entire vehicle, just carefully wash the recesses, unless it has Zimmerit, then I wash all the zim. While the wash is still wet, you can remove any excess with a damp rag. Use alcohol on a Q-tip to remove any excess when dry. I don't use Future, because I don't use decals. I either use dry-transfers or paint with stencils. I can't see any problem though with using them over Future. While there are a myriad of wash techniques floating around and I'm sure someone would find fault with this one, the trophies on my wall tell me I'm doing something right.