I just tried to use a wash for the first time to fade my black Atlas hopper and the result is a disaster! [banghead]
This is what I did: I mixed 20 parts water to 1 part Poly Scale reefer white. I dipped the brush and spread it on the side of the car. It seems that the water will not spread out. Do I need a wetting agent? I tested with a drop of dishwashing detergent but no success. It refused to mix with the water/paint. Maybe I should have mixed the detergent with the water first before adding the paint, I don’t know. I have read in Model Railroader about Robert Smaus that he used Kodak Photo-Flo wetting agent together with 30 parts water and 1 part paint. I NEED HELP
Sorry about your recent misfortune. This is exactyly why I keep my old “Tyco-ish” cars to practice on.
For my washes, I just use straight 70% or 91% isopropyl alcohol and Pollyscale paint then brush in downward stokes. The alcohol quickly “washes” down the side of car and fills in the knooks and crannies with “dirt” then evaporates. No “wetting” needed.
The ratio is entirely up to you and your preference but here’s what I have currently mixed in a bottle:
Soot (dirt) - 100:1 PollyscaleGrimy Black/alcohol
Rust - 50:1 PollyscaleRust/alcohol
The higher ratios require more application layers but I can control the subtlety much better. The rust works for both rust and “yellowish” dust.
Also, as far as personal preference is concerned, I would “handbrush” your washes instead of air brushing them because you have better control of the application in this instance. For me, downward brush strokes work best.
I agree with using the alcohol as the carrier and wetting agent. There is no real formula, you just have to experiment until you find what works for you. As someone else said use some old cheapo cars to practice on.
BTW, if you hit that car with some alcohol and a brush you should be able to “refloat” some of the pigment and even out the coverage again. experiment with car angled between vertical and horizontal.
EL, did you wash the car body first? Warm water and dish soap, and a soft brush to get into the grooves and cracks. Rinse very well and air dry. Then try dry brushing first, followed by washes. I’m certain the washes will work much better over a thin substrate of acrylic imparted by the dry-brushing.
No, I did not wash the car body. Maybe that’s one of the problems. Do you guys always wash a car before painting? I have heard that dullcote will give the plastic some tooth. Maybe I should start with dullcote?
I use Matte-Finish instead of Dull-cote, for two very notable reasons. First, it’s much cheaper and I get a lot more than I would with the little Dull-Cote can. Second, Dull-Cote is very hard to find here. the local Wal-mart used to carry it but deleted it from the inventory and my LHS doesn’t stock it.
Fade consisted of half an airbrush bottle, 70% alcohol and about, 5-6 drops of Pollyscale reefer white. It’s good to keep the mix weak and up the layers that you apply. It only takes three or four coats with the mix until you see the effects start to work.
This is what I was going for, but I sold the car faded as-is… Too many progects, too little time.
We all start some where. A little practice and you will have it packed down. You might wanna try powder’s of the color car you want to fade. I use a rust brown powder on my brown car’s, and like a yellow powder on my yellow car’s, etc… Just a idea.
I see people talking about alcohol washes, and I see electrolove mentioning Dull-cote, so I just want to mention that there can be unwanted interactions between the two, which I have experienced it first hand (in my case, it gave kind of a white frosted look - I didn’t like it and had to strip the paint and start over),
I get the same problem once in a while with Matte-Finish. This tells me I didn’t shake the can enough. After giving the can a good shake I spray the effected area again and the problem is gone.
So I have since read - but what’s odd is at the time, I did give it another spray of Dull-Cote (more of desperation than scientific reasoning), and it had no effect that I could see. I didn’t go for a third try.
Sometime afterward, I found that (the hard way, of course) that certain dish soaps (palmolive, I think) would strip off Dull-Cote (& Model Master Semi-Gloss) without mucking up the underlying paint - I have used this a few times since, but I am not certain if it applies to every dish soap, or to every clear-coat finish.
Is Poly-Scale even water based? I suspect that’s the problem. You can make a wash with water and acrylic paint, but not the “higher-end” paints like Floquil, which are solvent-based and really don’t dissolve in water very well.
What do you clean your brushes with after using Poly-Scale paints? If water won’t clean your brushes, then it’s not an appropriate medium for you washes, either.
All that is needed to reverse the affects of the alcohol over Dullcoat, is to recoat with Dullcoat. I have used this procedure just to gain the interaction affects for some weathering.
Once I accidently got alcohol on a Dullcoated shell when cleaning the wheels. A quick shot of Dullcoat removed the blotches almost instantly.
