Oil Wash for cockpits 

(and other areas)

Tools 'n' Tips Article by Daryl Johnson in 2002

Photo of Daryl's finished 1/48 NeOmega cockpit 

 

In-progress photos by Steve Bamford

Here is a scan of the 1/48 NeOmega cockpit I have "underway".  (In quotes, the kit is dead). 

How to Weather Your Model Airplane, one Method Discussed

Weathering is a topic of much confusion, dispute, and challenge.   It is also one of the highlights of model building often separating great kits from ones that are spectacular.   The following few tips may assist model builders in successful weathering.  While there are many ways to weather a kit, this method has proved the most successful and trouble-free for me.

Materials:

  • Enamel paints of your choice

  • Tamiya X-22 clear

  • Windsor and Newton oil paints:

  •         Burnt Umber…very dark brown

  •         Burnt Sienna…reddish brown

  •         Yellow Ochre…earthy yellow

  •         Ivory Black….use sparingly

  •         Titanium white…use sparingly too

  • 3-0 or 5-0 red-sable brush.   Pricey but vital to this process.

  • Turpenoid

  • Something to mix paint on such as a Yogurt lid left over from lunch

 

Here are the items needed

 

I begin with spraying the enamel color.   I neither pre-shade nor tint the paint.  After the enamel has dried adequately, I airbrush Tamiya’s X-22 Gloss Clear on to the enamel.  It is important that the enamel paint be generously covered.  I apply 2 coats of the gloss coat about 2 or 3 minutes apart....the first is a thin coat...the second coat is a thicker coat.  The clear coat must, must, must be gloss.  Flat clear coats will spread out the wash everwhere and cancel the effect if not ruin the paint job outright.  

The Tamiya  gloss will serve as an armor plate against the drubbing the kit will be getting  a little while later on.   It is very critical that the Tamiya clear cure for at least 24 hours.  48 hours is better.   If the clear coat is inadequately cured, you’ll wind up stripping paint off and having to begin all over.  DOH!    

Note from Steve Bamford:  I also tried Future as a barrier on another fuselage half and it was stripped by the Turpenoid slightly faster that the Tamiya clear.....but only slightly.  I found the wash flowed just as well on the Future coated cockpit sidewall as it did on the Tamiya coated cockpit sidewall.  The turpenoid should be used sparingly to avoid too much of it as this will soften the clear coat and the underlying paint.

Now, a day or two later the wash begins.   Take Windsor and Newton oil paints (again, this is the brand that works best in my hands) and use 1 part paint to 10 parts turpenoid thinner.  Mix it up on the yogurt lid or suitable container.  Please note the mixture is very thin and watery and how you can see through the mixture in the center of the container where the mixture isn't very deep.

 

Taking your 5-0 brush (a very tiny, pointed brush), dip into the wash mixture until the brush is loaded.  Lightly touch the brush to a raised panel line in the cockpit or a recessed panel line on the fuselage.  One will notice that the wash will “wick” itself along for a little ways.    

Disclaimer From Steve Bamford:  brush in photo may not be the brush Daryl is talking about.

 

Reload the brush and do this again where the wash seemed to quit.   There will be a little dollop of extra wash here and there that makes your model looked very pock-marked when the wash is done.  

 

Now, take a break for 12-24 hours.   Please note that removing the wash too soon will remove most of the wash, defeating your purpose.   Waiting too long will make removal of the wash very difficult and likely will damage your base color-coat.  After a break of not longer than 24 hours, dip a Q-tip into some Turpenoid and then almost throughly dried ina  kleenex and I begin removing the pock marks. Too much Turpenoid could soften the clear coat and lift the base paint.  A few gentle back-and-forth motions will soften and remove the excess wash.   The paint should “feel” smooth. 

 

 If the paint begins to feel like it’s dragging your Q-tip a little, the acrylic layer has been softened too much  resulting in  damage to the underlying paint. One can remove extra wash stains from between panel lines too if so desired.   Likely several Q-tips will be used.   Avoid using paper towels or Kleenex to remove the semi-dry wash as it leaves behind unsightly fibers. 
Less than 3 minutes of rubbing with Q-Tip covered in Turpenoid created these disastrous results.....this was on a  thick clear coat....be careful to rub sparingly.

 

When satisfied that enough wash has been removed, drybrush highlight using Titanium white mixed in with the base coat enamel color and drybrush.  As a variation, add very little Ivory black to the Titanium white to create a light grey.  Sometimes this helps keep the highlighting from being too brilliant.  I drybrush with enamels because they dry slower than acrylics and faster than oils.  Oils are the best, but I suffer from "admiring hands". :-) After this is complete, flat coat the kit.  

 

I always do cockpits with much more color than the real aircraft.  I make the shadows much darker than I would on the outside of the airframe and make the highlights much whiter.   Why?  It is very dark inside a models cockpit and I want to tell your eyes that there is a lot of detail in there.   If you look at the bright yellow part of the Buccaneer cockpit tub, it'll fit right under the red fire extinguisher.   You'll be able to see it in the cockpit.  In real life, both are grey....and in scale you'll likely miss it.  Your eyes will say " I see detail " and then glaze over.  With the dash of color here and there, your eyes will say " I see a fire extinguisher."   That is better in my opinion.

 
My airframe washing is very similar, but the contrasts are much more subtle to avoid "patchwork" images.  After following the enamel (with subtle highlights)/Tamiya gloss/subtle burnt umber & base-shade wash,  I flat coat with PolyScale Clear Flat and then use Carre brand pastels for oxidized paint.  

Disclaimer from Steve Bamford:  The in-progress photos in this article were taken by Steve Bamford and were not picture of Daryls Spitfire fuselage part, so the in-progress photos may not 100% appear to be the same level of wash as the finished Spitfire photo above.   

Further Disclaimer from Steve Bamford:  The in-progress photos do not include any detail painting.  The detail painting can either be done BEFORE the clear acrylic gloss coat before the wash or the detail painting can be done after the wash.  For the in-progress photos, I skipped the detail painting in an effort to focus the full effect of the photos on the wash being discussed in this article.

Some common errors include:

1.   Flooding the entire kit with the wash.  

  •   While appropriate for many uses, this causes the basic color to darken immensely.  

  • And the basic hue changes unacceptably.  

  • Cleanup takes a very long time

 

Do NOT do this

make sure you apply the wash very carefully and not to the entire area 

   2.  Removing base coat color

  • The clear acrylic coat was either too thin or not cured fully.

3. Wash is too dark.

  • Use burnt umber instead of black. 

4.  Wash turns into particles instead of being an even color

  • Too much thinner, too little oil paint

Bonus tip:

Use too much bright color in a cockpit.   In reality, it’s not there, HOWEVER……you want people to notice details.  This will help it stand out.  One of the very unusual things about our eyes is that we begin to “color fatigue” after only 2 or 3 seconds.   What this means practically to one’s modeling is that the viewer of your kit will not notice your hard, excellent work.   With a dab of color here and there, the detail “pops” right out at them.    It works at contests. :-) 

Bonus tip:

Pastels make excellent final weathering touches.  Sand  the chalk with 80 grit sandpaper to get a powder or use an X-Acto knife to shave powder from the side of the pastel powder stick and apply with a soft brush (or even a Q-Tip cotton swab in some instances where you want a thicker application of the pastel powder covering a larger area....such as exhaust stains).  Keep a spot or two free of pastel so the model can be touched without the risk of fingerprints.

Bonus tip:

When weathering with an airbrush, don’t limit the “oxidized” paint to inside panel-lines.  Bring it over panel lines and completely to the edge of the color being shaded.  It avoids the “patchwork kit” look.  The weathering with oils will represent your panel lines adequately. 

Bonus tip:

Experiment.  Experiment.  Then experiment.  It’s all artwork. :-) 

Enjoy!!!!

Dr. Daryl Johnson

 

Daryl Johnson

Photos and text © by Daryl Johnson