Dry brushing

Put a very small amount of paint on your brush, wipe most of that off on a paper towel or some card stock, and lightly drag the brush parelell across the hight points on the surface of the model. Hope that makes sense. Maybe someone else can explain it better?!
Lee

dry brushing is real easy, once you get the hang of it. simply put a bit of paint on your brush (as you normally would to paint) and then on a clean surface (such as a piece of paper) brush to get rid of the paint you just put on. little or no paint should come off before you are ready to 'dry brush'. on your model, brush over the desired surface and the end result will be that the raised surfaces will be highlighted. this seemed strange the first time i was shown how to dry brush, get rid of the paint before you actually pain?? trust me it works a treat.
i suggest you give the technique a bit of pracice on something other than your new fang dang model to get the hang of how much paint you need on the brush etc.
the advantage of dry brushing is that it will only apply a little bit of paint at a time so it means that there is a little bit of room to make a few mistakes.
remember the best way to learn is give something a go and then practice.

I agree with the others on how to. But I also 'chalk' my models (aircraft) with rust, exhaust stains, panel lines too. Don't like the fresh off the assembly line floor look. Gotta be battle weary.

Rick

click here for more: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/001-100/TnT087_Drybrushing_Bamford/TnT087.htm

I agree with the other posters here. Can't emphasize enough though that a little goes a long way. I have seen far too many models that have been "overdone" with this process. Some of those are even in my own collection. Practice on an old kit until you are comfortable with the process. You'll like the end results. I use a fairly large brush and apply the paint in a scrubbing motion.

Thx for all your input. For sure I will not try it on my newest model. Will try it first on a cheap one.

Do remember, on an Aircraft, dry brush from front to back. A gloss painted or natural metal Aircraft will be cleaner than a matt (WW2) type Aircraft. On a military vehicle, dust etc tends to 'swirl' on the sides, plus some splashed mud. But on the horizontal surfaces it may go all over, may gather in crevices, or may have been washed off by rain. On the front it may be splashed up towards the back. It's a subtle process but the end result can really make a model stand out.

Hi Sinjin!
I love drybrushing! One method which helps me a lot is this: After I remove the excess paint off the brush and just before I work the model, I'll actually pick up a scrap piece of sprue. I'll practice dry brushing the little numbers which identify the part on the sprue. This quickly shows me if I've got too much paint remaining on the brush or if it's juuuuuust right. I don't have many scrap models lying around so this technique helps me out a lot! Hope it works for you! :)

Eric

One thing to remember when dry brushing is to clean your brush one in a while. The small amounts of paint on your brush dry up fast and can create little balls of paint. This can cause streaks. So clean your brush often.

I agree with all the above, and I love the idea of testing the brush loading on a sprue ident. I frequently use artists pastels for the same thing, just rub the pastel on a piece of paper and pick up the colour with a brush from there. You need the "oily" feeling pastels rather than the more dusty type. I find that a drybrush of dark grey pastel is excellent over matt black to give a more visible surface, light just seems to fall right into matt black and this gives a nice scale effect.

The Bamford link above is great. I was wondering where and how to use this technique and the link gives a great step by step example. Thanks.

Ditto with shermanfreak, it is easier to add than take away. Go slowly, it will take two or three applications.

N.

thx, guys, my first piece of drybrushing has been finished. It is still a little bit rough but practice, practice. It is an improvement. So I will go on with drybrushing.

Good thread here! A little heads up: We've got a great article coming up in the July issue by John Plzak (one of our regular Workbench Reviewers) that explains and demonstrates dry-brushing (and applying a wash). His demo model is an absolutely righteous Tamiya 1/35 M1A1 Abrams that he built (so good we put it on the cover ).

Just one more quick "gotcha" I haven't seen anyone mention. Drybrushing plays havoc with your brushes. Set a side the ones you use for drybrushing and don't figure on using them for any detail painting.

Bill

I recently purchased a #2 dry brush from MicroScale and it looks nothing like the one Bamford suggest, in fact, it is quite narrow in comparison to Bamford's. MicroScale sells this product as something used specifially for this purpose. Is there a conflict here and should I use the one I purchased or go out and buy a wider brush? I agree that you should have seperate brushes for this job alone.

For the majority of my drybrushing I use the widest of the plain jane Testors paint brushes available just about everywhere. They take such a beating during drybrushing that by the time I'm done with one AFV, it's just about time to throw it away.

hiya guys... I agree with shermanfreak... when I drybrush I use a wide tipped brush because it lessens the bristles ability to roll over some of the lower surfaces and get paint on the places you don't want. By the way, Lawrence, DO I have to wait until July? Suspense has been known to kill.