fading panels....

I'll look for some pics, but just go with the yellow pastel on the olive drab finish. It may look very light once you are done, but it will darken once you seal it with Future or a dullcoat.

I lightened the flaps on my Avenger with medium blue colored pastel (on sea blue finish) at first then sealed with a dullcoat. Could barely tell I did anything. I went back and re-did it with a light blue pastell and re-applied the dullcoat. Ah... better.

This thread caught my eye, there was an aritcle on this technique in the last issue of FSM. The photos of the models in the aritcle really demonstrated what a difference this technique can make.

Can anyone explain the color principle in using this technique. By that I mean what colors do you use to get the faded look. I believe in the article they used yellow to fade olive drab. Or do you simply pick a lighter version of the base color and fade with that. Thanks in advance.

One small caveat to this whole thing. Be very careful how you blend the pastel chalk into the panels. Scratching can occur, and I recommend doing all your fading before sealing with Future. Blending can scratch the Future clear coat. Remember, before you seal.

As for color. Well, generally you want to go with a lighter shade of the same or complimentary color. In the case of an OD finish Yellow is close enough to provide a nice faded finish. I have experimented with OD, Green, Metallic, and various Blue finishes.

OD and Green finishes
Generally, I use Yellow for OD and Green finishes. I've tried lighter greens, but the colors that I have for the chalks are pretty generic and resemble a box of crayons so yellow, given what I've got, is my best bet. I'm sure plenty of art stores have pastel chalks in complimentary shades of OD and Green that would suffice.

Metallic
This was an adventure. All I really succeeded in doing here was making the panel look dirty. Which was not what I intended to do, come tothink of it I cannot remember what my intentions were, but I actually like the end effect. Ya gotta be extra careful here though in trying not to make a mess on other panels.

Blues
I use a light baby blue to fade the flaps on most of my sea based planes. Mostly over a dark sea blue finish. I've tried white on Blue-Grey and Intermediate Blue surfaces, but it either looked too,well, chalky, or you couldn't tell once sealed.

Remember, the most important thing is if you plan to seal your model with future or something similar like a dull coat. It will darken, so go with a brighter color than you thing you need, and careful on blending in the chalks as to not make scratches.

Quagmyre,

Thanks for the info. I was wondering what you use to blend. I have been experimenting with a q-tip. The FSM article suggested a blending stump(I think)? I did pick one up from Hobby Lobby but haven't used it yet. I would think the stump would be more likely to scratch than the q-tip.

Thanks again,
Chuck

quagmyre:- thanks for the input. I've never actually used any pastels and I had no clue they would scratch. I planned to grind them really fine and then apply with a small soft fan brush. I guess experimenting is the real answer.
BTW, I already have the future on.....

Rich

Pastels won't stay on gloss surfaces very well either so you don't want to do it over future. Either do it after you dull coated it or before applying Future. You also need to seal the pastel afterwards.

I prefer to fade panels with a lighter shade of the base color. I add white to the base color and spray the panel surfaces to be faded. After that i spray a light coat of the base color overall again to blend in the faded panels.