The ever popular chipped paint techniques

Greetings,

I tried this technique and it really worked well except for one problem. I found that the tape pulled the top coat off real nice and very realistic looking except that too much came off. I woud up with large areas "chipped". It would look great on larger scales but for 1/48 the overall effect was too much. No matter what I tried, I could not get small "chips". Maybe someone out there has a suggestion for smaller chips. If so, I would like to hear it.

I also tried the salt method. A lot of work but also looks very realistic. With this technique, you can get chips as small as a salt flake. That is if it stuck well and you didn't blow it off with your airbrush. Hope this helps.


Chuck

I've had the best results from the salt method also. definatly worth the extra time and mess for me.

I think most paint chipping is way overdone, but I have tried using Microscale Micro Mask, a liquid masking agent, as you suggest. It worked ok. You don't have to use tape to remove it, just a little rubbing with a finger tip will dislodge it, sort of like rubber cement. It does give a more 3D effect to the chipping, but you have to be close up to see it. Problem for me was controlling the size of the chips, as it's difficult to only get very small points of the liquid mask over the aluminum. Although the effect is not as 3D, I much prefer doing chips with a Silver Prismacolor pencil. I just feel I have better control and can get a much more subtle, and more realistic effect, using the pencil. Just IMHO. Haven't tried the salt technique yet, but plan to try it on a scrap piece one of these days.

rjkplasticmod,

Rick, never thought of using the micro mask, great idea. Seems like you would have better control over the size of the chip. Was wondering if you clear coated the base aluminum color before you apply the mask and shoot the color coat.

I have experimented with the salt method and though very realistic, I saw a couple of problems. First, you have to be careful how much water you used. Too much, and the water disolved the salt crystals creating another problem. I am trying to think how to describe what happens with too much water but just say it affects the paint around the chip. Looks like another type of weathering but nothing you would find on an airplane.

Other problem is that the smaller individual crystals can be blown off the model with too much pressure.

Anyway, used the salt method on the cowling of a 1/48 Corsair in the works and I was impressed. I think I will try wour liquid mask tip on the fuse.

Thanks,

Chuck

I use the salt method, tape method and paint the chips with a brush. All l3 methods look fairly good. Makes me happy.

Mike

cbreeze, I didn't top coat the aluminum, but I used Alclad2 which is a very durable paint. If using something else for the aluminum, it might be a good idea to topcat, but I haven't tried anything else.

Swanny has a decent how-to on the salt-chipping technique:
http://www.swannysmodels.com/Salting.html

And there's the salt-weathering story in the July 2003 FSM: http://www.finescale.com/fsm/default.aspx?id=150&c=i

We also have a fascinating story coming up in the October issue (on sale early Sept.--I know, a long time away, but worth the wait!) by Darren Roberts about an "extreme" weathering technique the uses Micro Mask.

This methoid is the most expensive, but extremely relistic: get a paasche turbo eraser, and spray some.

I tried the salt technique, as well as using Humbrol Maskol.

The salt technique was fine up to a point, but reacted with one of my paint mixes. All the other mixes were fine, so I'm assuming it just needs a little fine tuning.

The liquid mask method, in my case Maskol, works OK, but does not look as good as the salt technique.

However if you want that generally scuffed and faded look, I use a fibre glass pencil, and just rub the surface gently. This can be done sufficiently to take you back to the base coat, or just enough to suggest a scuffed area of paintwork.

Karl