Propeller weathering

Before using silver/alu, do a touch of drybrushing with a light grey, followed by a little bit less of white. The edges of the blades are where you want most of the paint to be, but a light stroke over the entire blade will tone down the stark black paint. I'd use artists' oils for this, but it can be done with enamels or acrylics - you just have much less control!

Chuck, you can also use an artists silver pencil. These can be sharpened to a very fine point, thus allowing small scratches to be added. They are also great for paint chipping around hatches etc.

Karl

Thanks for your responses.

dj,
I am familiar with dry brushing but never tried it with artists oils. I was just
wondering what is the technique. I do have artis oils that I use for washes. Do you just pick a color, say white and add enamels to your desired shade then dry brush as usual?

Thanks again.

Cbreeze, I would not mix enamels and oils, no. Just work with black and white to get a medium grey, then with pure white, but brush it on oh soooo lightly. In any case, oils do take longer to dry, so if you overdo it, you can always wipe the excess off with a dry rag. Karl is right about the pencil though, it's much easier to apply that sort of weathering with a pencil than a brush.

djmodels,

Glad you got back to me on drybrushing with oils. I have been meaning to try that and never piced up that you are only dealing with black and white. I thought though that you mixed your color with the oil base. Just another reason why I really enjoy this fourn. Thanks again.

Cbreeze, I only have 4 tubes of oil colors: white, black, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. I know they are expensive and I'd advise you to buy the best you can afford, but they last forever (I bought those four tubes in the late '80s and they'll probably survive me!) Those four colours, mixed up or straight, are really all you need to weather most military models.

I also use artist's watercolors in tubes for washes though (black, sepia, burnt sienna, and white to make greys).