Hi,
I'm on my first WWI model. I hope it won't be my last. I tried using dry brushing to highlight the wing ribs on my model. I'm discovering that what works well for armor doesn't work well on canvas wings.

What't the right way, please?

Thanks for reading,

Gaz

Gary,
There are several options-- I like to airbrush pre-shade the ribs with a dark chocolate brown, then go lightly over the whole thing with the lighter wing color, so the darker color shows through. After that's dry, I use fine masking tape to cover the ribs only, then I spray on a lighter shade of the wing color. when that coat is dry, I spray a light mist of the final wing color over the entire wing surface, blending it in a little. You can reverse this procedure, substituting a lighter color for the ribs, and a darker color for the space between. I'd direct you to Des Delatorre's wwiaircraftmodels.com (world war one aircraft models). Des uses several building techniques, including a lead pencil for rib shading. You'll find lots of help there for detailing and painting.
VR, Russ

Russ,
Thanks for the reply! I've gone to the site and joined the forum. But I have to wait for an admin to allow me to read or post there.
A lot of the trouble stems from the fact that my upper wing surfaces are done in a rich brown and pale green scheme. It's not the light from below that I'm trying to show, since I don't think light passed through the scheme I'm using.

Thanks again!

Gaz

I am an artist,(sometimes) so I look at your problem (and I have) as a shading exercise. Take a piece of paper and draw a wing frame which should look like a ladder. Now imagine the rungs as a series of waves, the crest on a dark surface are lighter than the bottom of the wave. On a light surface the crest are darker.
With a blunt Pencil lightly start to darken the bottom of the wave (the center of the space between the crests the when you are satisfied wth the center color feather it both ways to the crests on each side. Depnding on the way you do this you get the illusion of a deep center or a flat (tight canvas) center.
For a light color the crest(ribs, rungs, frames) are dark.
Practice this on paper with pencil brush or airbrush before you work the model.
Hopefully I have attached a picture of a Sikorsky S-38. To this message. If not it is in my gallery. Ther is also a picture of a Pfalz that illustrates a silver finish.
Enjoy
Captn Tommy