Jump to content

Salt Weathering Technique Tips


Recommended Posts

What I'm after is information on the layer you paint over the top of the salt layer. How thin do you make this? Many of the examples I see are single colour aircraft (all Light Ghost Grey for example). For multiple colour schemes (like Chucks Phantom), do you still apply a top coat of a single light grey? Or do you have to basically redo all the camo in extremely thinned versions of the base colour?

thanks

David

Hi David,

As you know, the salt is only a mask and it doesn't change the color of the paint underneath, so you need to overspray a different color to create the weathered blotchy look. For my Phantom build, I thinned the existing paint color to about 75% thinner, but I also added some white to lighten it. When the salt is washed off, you get slightly darker blotches of paint under each salt glob, with the majority of the paint slightly lightened and faded.

I don't stop here, however, because the salt can also mask much darker stains. For this I also use a dark umber overcoat- again highly thinned- to dirty up areas I know should be darkly stained. This can be done while the above lighter coat is sprayed on, but for the best results, the salt should be washed off after the light coat then reapplied prior to the darker coat. This creates overlapping dark and light blotches which can look very realistic.

One last note: Experiment first! Since I've done this so often and usually know how things will look ahead of time, you should experiment on a spare piece of plastic with how thin the cover coat should be and how light you want it. If you overdo things a bit too much, a light coat of the existing unaltered color will tone things down or totally remove what you've done according to your wishes.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...