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To Pre-Shade or Not To Pre-Shade?

by Mal Mayfield
20
Comments

The thoughts behind the technique.


I have in the past done a little figure painting. The technique I used was to undercoat with the basic color, using Humbrol enamels, then use artist's oil paints for final painting. This requires the use of three shades of the same color, base coat, shadows, and highlights. These three shades are blended to give the overall effect. The idea is to simulate where the light would be falling. If I were to transfer this technique to model aircraft, it would not work. Imagine a Messerschmitt painted with that technique, it would look very odd.  I use artist's oil colors for washes on aircraft because they can be mixed together for many different affects. This is partly due to the fact that some are opaque and some are translucent. Also you can get some startling affects, because you don't always get the color you expect when you mix them. This, I believe, has something to do with how the pigment is derived. I use Warm Grey a lot because it has a brown tint to it, and is ideal for some washes. Using washes will darken the underlying color, as does applying Klear (Future) or any other varnish. Using oil paints, in a wash, can add a tint as well, or instead of, darkening the underlying colors. Experimentation is the word here but I've more or less found what works for me. The next step is probably lightening the camouflage colors. This is normally advocated for "scale effect" but I would do it because of the darkening effects of varnish coats and washes. I haven't gone that route yet because I'm not convinced that straight lightening of the base color is the answer. Thoughts on this would be much appreciated.  So what I was looking for was a way to vary the hue of each camouflage color without making it look to contrived. When I first saw the affects of pre-shading I knew it was for me. The big problem, though, was that it only appeared to work with light colors, and I needed something that would work on any color.  This technique, I'm sure, can be adapted for armor and other modeling pursuits. When I was modeling Armour (faint) I tried Verlinden's method of pre-shading, which basically used a darker shade of paint under the main color, i.e. dark earth under the yellow shade, the name of which escapes me but I'm sure modelers of German WWII armor will know what I mean.

 

About the Author

About Mal Mayfield (Holdfast)
FROM: ENGLAND - SOUTH WEST, UNITED KINGDOM

Hi, my name is Mal Mayfield and I have been modelling seriously for about 25 years. My main interest is 1/48 scale second world war. I build all types and all combatants. I have built 1/35 scale "targets" and 1/72 scale modern aircraft, plus a couple of cars. I have also dabbled with figure painting...


Comments

TwistedFate
Exactly!! That was my reasoning behind my original post, not to try and tell you how to do something but maybe give you some ideas to help you find a technique that works for you. I don't use David's technique exactly. I pre-shade on light colors because I feel it gives a better effect. On darker colors I pre-shade and then spray Tamiya's smoke as a post-shade color. Whatever works is my motto. I'll be a little longer on my wing, I had to go practice with my teamate tonight for a tournament coming up so I lost time to that. Should have pics tomorrow.
APR 23, 2003 - 03:08 PM
brandydoguk
I've been thinking about this preshading for a day or so and am going to give it a try when I get my airbrush sorted out. I think I may try a base of white, then follow the panel lines with a wide setting with grey, then do the same areas again with a thinner setting with black, this should give a slightly greater tonal variation showing through.
APR 23, 2003 - 03:52 PM
Holdfast
:-) Tim Totally agree. :-) I am open to all suggestions, If it sounded otherwise, then I apologise. It is sometimes difficult to understand what someone means when you only have the written word to communicate with. bdUK Interesting veriation, need to see pics of the outcome. :-) Initial reaction is that this is adding to the process. In theory sounds like a great idea, but from what I have managed so far, and the reason I use black for pre-shading, is that the grey primer is pretty easy to cover. However, up to this time, I don't think I have thinned my paint enough, therefore coverage is easier. If you use well thinned paint (70:30?) or what ever gives you translucant paint, so you have to build up the coverage, and do a panel at a time, using a fairly fine spry pattern it should work. If this does work then other colours used in pre-shading can be thought about to give different affects. Nice one bdUK :-) Mal
APR 23, 2003 - 06:25 PM
TwistedFate
Here you go, Mal. It was primed white, then painted PollyS Grimy Black, then post shaded along the panel lines with Tamiya Smoke at about 4:1 thinning. I didn't dull coat it, because the only dull I have is MM Acryl and it has a milky color to it instead of clear so the shading has a shiny appearance in areas because it is a gloss paint. If you want to email me your address I'll ship you the actual wing so you can see it better, it's from a piece of crap Airfix kit I'm NEVER gonna build anyway.
APR 24, 2003 - 04:08 PM
Holdfast
:-) Nice one Tim, looks pretty good. Is this what you do on all your aircraft models? Or was this an experiment? Does look something like what I'm trying to achieve. Would Tamiya smoke work over all colours? I will, hopefully start spraying my Spitfire, in the next couple of days. If my air supply machine (can't call it a compressor) holds up, I hope to be able to try spraying a panel at a time, so I will have some idea if it will work. Post shading might be an option when I can replace my compressor and get a better air brush :-) Thanks for sharing Tim Mal
APR 25, 2003 - 02:59 AM
TwistedFate
I do it on all my dark colored models. Preshading is easier to do and control so on light models so I preshade when I can. Smoke works good on most colors becuase it will won't actually cover the paint. It will darken the color without actually recoloring it. What I do specifically is spray the color and then rinse out the color cup instead of actually cleaning it real good. Then when I put the Smoke and thinner in the cup, a little of the previous color will be there to tint it ever so slightly. Since it's so thin I use a low air pressure (10-15 psi) or you can easily get spiders and centipedes from the air blowing the paint mixture out. A thought occured to me last night, and I may try this with my BfB entry. Prime the model white, then paint a couple of panels gray, then preshade, then paint the color. This will give some of the panels a slightly different hue.
APR 25, 2003 - 06:45 AM
Holdfast
:-) Thats an idea Tim priming with white and grey. It will be interesting how that turns out :-) And thats a good idea of letting the colour coat tint the smoke. There is obviously a lot more to this pre/post-shading lark. It might be handy if you could write an article about your technique and maybe the outcome of your twin primming. I intend to update mine, when I can try out my latest theory. Then we just need some smart arse to combine the 2 and come up with the way it should be done lol Getting back to being serious, I use very diluted medium sea grey (seems to work best) to give a faded look, to Pacific and Hot climate based aircraft. I used to spray this in a "cloud" pattern all over upper surfaces. I now thin it more and build it up within panels (that's where I got the idea of applying the colour coats over pre-shading, to a panel at a time), this is also sprayed over decals and it fades them pretty well. Tim I would like to keep this discussion about pre-shading/ post-shading alive. I also keep studying Davids article, one of my goals is to do a really neat job of weathering a Neutral gray/Olive drab model. So I can build up the confidence to tackle one of those 4 engined beasts. I expect to only have one of each in my collection so I need to get them right. :-) Mal
APR 25, 2003 - 07:36 AM
TwistedFate
hmmmm, 3 weeks until the BfB campaign starts. Maybe I'll give it a run with this Spitfire I have sitting here since I've decided to go Axis for the BfB campaign (my first German plane, come on HLJ ship that BF109E-1, don't make me convert an E-3 LOL) and won't need the Spitfire after all. I should be able to get the model finished by the 19th. Then I can write the article while I work on the Emil. It will be a good trial run before I try it for the campaign. Let me ask you this, when you do a 2 color camo as on a Hurri or Spit, do you spray the whole plane one color then paint the 2nd overtop or spray the individual areas seperately? If I overlay the 2nd color, the way I usually do, it will obscure any of the fun stuff I do under the colors.
APR 25, 2003 - 01:59 PM
Holdfast
:-) Tim In my article I talk about this problem and you have hit the nail on the head. The traditional method, as you say is to paint the whole plane one colour then the 2nd, but this negates the effect. So I, roughly, mark out the areas for the first colour, they need to be a tad bigger than finish size. Then mark out accurately, or mask for the second colour. Of course you do get an area where the 2 colours overlap but this will give you a different veriation. No pre-shading showing through and the hue of the second colour is alterd slightly by this "new" underlying colour. So you are able to have the pre-shading effects on both top colours. Part of the reason for taking this route is because the monotone affect of a nice even coat of paint. Of course this is what we are all after, at first and there is nothing wrong with that. I have seen lots of well built and painted models but, for me, the ones that really stand out are the ones that don't have monotone coats of paint :-) They are more interesting. I suppose in the end it's all amatter of taste. Mal
APR 25, 2003 - 11:07 PM
TwistedFate
Guess I'll whip out the Tac 'N Stick and see what I can do then. If I mask both colors, I can probably keep the overlap to a minimum. I agree with the color variations making for more interesting models. I always did mine in smooth perfect colors (the auto modeler in me dictated perfect paint) and couldn't figure out why I was always unhappy with it. You may have it right there. Maybe I'll try to vary the color saturation a little on the fly and see how it comes out.
APR 26, 2003 - 01:24 AM
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Copyright ©2021 by Mal Mayfield. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. The views and opinions expressed herein are solely the views and opinions of the authors and/or contributors to this Web site and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of AeroScale, KitMaker Network, or Silver Star Enterrpises. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2003-04-21 00:00:00. Unique Reads: 43033