Dyrbrushing with Oils

What are you weathering? I use oils to weather AFVs in particular but also for inside of cockpits and the like. I only have 4 colors: white, black, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. That's basically it! I can manage with those four and mixes made from them.

I'd weather olive drab with yellow ochre and lighter shades of yellow ochre. Greens gets lighter with yellow, not white, hence using yellow ochre rather than pure white. In the case of say panzer grey, I'd start with lighter greys made from white and black and finish with pure white.

You can't mix oil and acrylic, though you can mix oil and enamel. However, you can use oils (or enamels) over acrylics as long as the acrylic is dry.

Saw this thread and had to respond. I have always wanted to try dry brushing with oils and experimented a little this morning. Wasn't sure if I liked it more than using enamels.

Can anyone tell me what the advantages are and are there any different techniques that you would use? Also, If yuu goof, can you correct the mistake.

I tried a little this morning on a old cockpit part. Used white and black oil applied with a microbrush. Though I was careful to get the majority of the paint off, it seemed like a little went a very long way and the coverage was more than I am use to with enamels. I do want to experiment a little more but was just wondering what the different techniques were.

Thanks,

Chuck b.

I use an additive with my oils which increases the drying time of artist oils. I mix the color I need, add a tiny pinch of the "alkid additive" called (Liquin), dampen the brush, wipe off most of the color and drybrush as normal. If the color is still to moist, let the paint stand for a couple of minutes then re-apply.

I recently started dry brushing with oils and now that I have figured it out, I will never go back!!

Yes, a little goes a very long way, so this is what I do:
I load the brush with the appropriate color, and dry the brush as usual. Then, before applying the paint on the model, I dip the paintbrush into some thinner, and dry the brush again. Once the brush is dry, then I start brushing the model. I will do this process several times to finish a typical 1/35 scale model tank.

So far, I have only needed to dry brush with one color, white. Although, as DJ suggested, yellow sounds like a good idea. The one thing to remember is that it is much better to have too little paint on your brush than too much.

The reasons I like oils for dry brushing are that the paint seems to go on much smoother, and if you are painting with acrylics and dry brushing with oils (like I do) then the oils will come off easily with thinner and leave the dried acrylic paint in tact

Here are a couple of pics of some models that I have used this type of dry brushing on:






Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!!

The main advantadge of oils is their longer drying time, meaning you have more time to blend the color in the background color(s) than with any other medium. Acrylics in particular dry too fast to give you that.

However oils can not be used to cover a whole area (even just the frames of a canopy) in paint because they are so thin and transluscent. You'll always need a base color to which oils can add depth.

edog & plasticmod992,

Thanks for the tips. I did notice, with my little experiment, that the oil dry brush appeared smoother. Edog, I will try your tip about preping the brush with thinner and plasticmod992 the drying additive sounds like a good idea. I bet I can get that at Hobby Lobby.

Thanks again,

Chuck B.

I really should check in more on topics I've started!

Thanks for the advice and help. I appreciate it.

-Dan