Hi all

Thought I'd share what I've been working on recently in the form of a small step-by-step. I'm working on the classic "After The Battle" bust by Andrea.

I'm new to this forum having taken a break from figures for a few years. I've been struggling to master acrylics for a while now but since I have recently switched to Acrylic Gouache I find I am having much better results. However, the bulk of my painting is still done with Andrea acrylics.

This bust is WIP at the moment, it's an old figure I know but I'm new to busts, and when it came to working on the helmet I wanted to achieve a worn metal look similar to that seen on the box art. Now there are a few techniques that can be used to achieve this look. There is the 'airbrush spatter' technique - but try as I might I can't get my Aztek airbrush to spatter. So I thought I'd try the technique using masking fluid.

In this step-by-step I'm going to show the technique of spattering masking fluid. It's an old technique and I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere.. but then you can't have too many tutorials! Anyway, I will show my results here and maybe this article will be of use to someone else.



First off I have applied the base colours to the helmet. For metallics I currently use the Valejo liquid metal alcohol-based metallics, however since I will be airbrushing the colours for this helmet I decided to use colours from the Andrea Silver set and Andrea Bronze.

I applied a coat of Base Steel from the Silver Paint set to the helmet using an airbrush and then with a brush painted the bronze areas and left to dry.

Now onto the spattering technique...



I use Winsor & Newton art masking fluid as it's what I have always used in the past since it has the best consistency of any masking fluid I've used.





Pour out some masking fluid in a shallow container and then get an old toothbrush.





Dip the toothbrush into the masking fluid. The spatter effect is created by dragging your finger along the toothbrush. I test this first on some rough paper or card to make sure I am getting the effect I'm after and also to get rid of any excess masking fluid from the toothbrush. I'm looking for fine, controllable spatter....





Now using this technique I spatter the masking fluid onto the helmet both above and below. When doing this I try to ensure I spatter from different directions across the piece so as to create a more random effect. The difficulty is in judging when you have applied enough spatter for the effect you want without overdoing it.

The helmet with the masking fluid applied.









I leave the masking fluid to dry throughly.

I then mix a dark mix of Shadow Lead from the Silver Paint Set with Matt Black and appy this in a very thin coat with an airbrush over the whole helmet.



I leave to dry thoroughly.



Now comes the moment of truth... or at least the fun part. Using my finger I gently rub the masking fluid off the helmet. The fluid comes away quite easily.

Here is the helmet with the masking fluid removed:









The underside seems to have quite a nice effect. Looking at this its is easy to imagine this technique working for other effects too. Marble? Stone? Don't forget this technique can be layered too. There is nothing stopping you using this technique more than once on the same area with different shades or colours.





Lets see how the helmet looks so far on the WIP bust:





Using a brush I subtly reinstate the bronze colour as I do not want it to look so worn and to further differentiate the bronze metal from the steel.

I then begin working on the lights and darks by adding high-lights in silver and applying darks with washes of dark brown and black











So, after all that was it a success? Here is the WIP bust:



Thanks for reading and all feedback welcome.

Cheers

Martyn

Excellent stuff Martyn.
I tried the same effect with maskol but it was too difficult to remove.
Very convincing.

Agreed! 10/10 Thanks for sharing Martyn

This technique is also used to depict worn and chipping paint with aircraft, armor, and ship models as well. It can also be done with salt sprinkled on dampened areas, allowed to dry, and airbrushed over with paint.

Cheers for sharing.

Fantastic results there. Can it work with the paint just brushed on or does it have to be airbrushed? Also, it's as simple as just rubbing off the masking agent?
Ed

I used on my AFV's the salt technique.
But this is very effective to.
Thanks for sharing.

marc

I would definitely suggest spray painting with either the airbrush or aerosol can in the case of the salt technique. The crusted salt is rather fragile, and brush painting will knock most of it off. It gives wonderful results however.

You can brush paint over most liquid masking mediums as long as you let it dry completely first.

Removing either masking medium is rather effortless as long as you don't spray/brush too thick a coat of paint over it, or let the paint cure for too long (as in weeks).

Not that it is likely among most painters, but I wouldn't try either technique with the more potent lacquer type paints if using a paintbrush.

Fantastic Mike. thnx. Looking forward to trying this method soon.

Nice article thank you

martyn, neat technique. thank you.

Hi Martyn, have added that one to the little black book. Excellent sbs. By the way, if you don't have a spatter nozzle for the Aztek, you can make one by sticking a piece of masking tape around the end of the nozzle you have. This should look like a tube extension and needs to be at least 10mm longer than the end of the nozzle. Reduce the air pressure to the Aztek (8-10psi) and voila, one spatter nozzle.

cheers

Ron

Thank you everyone for your positive and encouraging comments.

As I said it's not a new technique but thought I'd share my results.

Ed - as Steve says, yes you can use a brush, not tried it myself, but I'd imagine you need to go really careful with the brush otherwise you risk lifting off the masking fluid - especially the W&N stuff.

Cheers

Martyn

Ron,

Thanks for the tip on making a spatter nozzle for the Aztek. I'll give it a try. The Aztek is a good all round airbrush but when I've tried to get it to spatter as in the technique I read somewhere where you let the air out and then just start to release the paint I can't seem to get it to work. However, thinking about, I may have had the psi too high at the time, I can't manually adjust the PSI on my compressor so it's a bit hit and miss.

Cheers

Martyn

Hi Martyn, if you can't adjust the psi then make the tube 15mm not 10mm and thin the paint a little more than usual. You can get the spatter nozzle for £8 ish online.

Cheers

Ron

amazing stuff,

Cool technique and very clear SBS. Thanks!

Adrian