Postshading

[jiawei_91]

Hey guys,

I do know the method of preshading. Basically highlighting the lines and letting the highlight show through the final finish ("shaded" effect).

What is postshading? Shading after the final finish? Isn't that risky?

Thanks,

Lim

[Britaholic]

It can be risky, I use highly thinned paint in my airbrush to highlight panel lines when the model is complete, the trick is to stop before the efffect is too heavy.

Cheers

Den

[limyc]

I use tamiya smoke, thinned down quite alot too. Build up in many thin layers rather than 1 single thick layer

[toadwbg]

Also think of post-shading in the negative- using a lighter color often to airbrush the inside of the panel. I'll also randomly postshade so things don't look to ordered.

[thegoodsgt]

Postshading, if you're implying use of an airbrush, can be risky unless you have a great deal of control over the air and paint. Obviously that comes with experimentation and experience.

I prefer pastels myself. You can get very subtle effects with careful application of darker colors over the panel lines.

[ThatJeffGuy]

Postshading (a.k.a. post-fading) works well for darker colours. The pre-shade method looks great for lighter colours. To postshade I

usually just add some white (6-8 drops) to the base colour and then spray inside the panel lines. The process is similar to filling

in panels when pre-shading. Here's an example of both methods on the same plane

The upper surface was post-faded and a paynes grey panel line wash was done

The lower surfaces were pre-shaded with RLM66 (dark grey) on top of Tamiya primer and then the

medium grey is shot between the panel lines

[gotarheelz14]

You can paint over a gloss coat right? Like if I put future on the paint and then I wanted to go back and lighten the middle of the panel lines with white I could do it right?

I ask because I have always loved the look of that effect and you have done it wonderfully!

[Matt]

What is postshading? Shading after the final finish? Isn't that risky?

Purely Post shading can be tricky. However, at the end of the day, both techniques are kind of the same, using various shades of paint with various levels of translucency to obtain an end result.

With pre-shading, you have to work on an assumption that you can lay down a coat of colour over a shading pattern that will be thin enough to allow the shading effect to show through, but thick enough to leave a consistent finish. Whilst you can keep adding thin layers until you obtain the level of shading you desire, if you go too far, then you are stuck because you can never take a layer away.

In addition, with pre-shading, you have to consider how you are going to handle situations where you have to lay down 2 or 3 different colours in a camo. Do you lay down the lightest colour all over the shading ? if so, how will the shading work when you lay down the remaining colours. ?

With post shading, you start with a nice consistent solid base colour and then build up the colours from there, slowly adding the lighter and darker shades as you see fit. If you go too far and the effect looks too contrasty (the darks are too dark and the lights are too light) then no problem. Take a very thin mix of the base colour and lay it down slowly to even out the effect. Almost like using the post shade as a pre-shade.

Once you have that first base colour done to the way you want it, then you can mask for a second colour and start over.

Although this sounds like a lot of work, in reality it isn't. Generally, with Acrylics, you can do this in one sitting for each colour.

Mix up the base colour in a separate pot, thin to spraying consistency and lay down your base coat as a nice smooth consistent solid coat..

Whilst that drys (not fully cured, but just not 'wet'), take a small amount of the left over base into a new pot and mix it up as a darker shade. Thin it more than usual.

With lower pressure, start to lay in the darker shades. With thin coats, you can build up the shading in layers as needed. Go a little too far than not far enough.

Whilst that drys, take a small amount of the base colour, lighten it up and thin it out more as well.

Still at the lower pressure, build up the lighter areas of your desired shading.

MidStone Base, plus lighter and darker shading, very over done.

Finally, take that pot of base colour, thin it right out, and just mist it over the work until you get the final effect you want. If you have some areas that are still too dark or too light, then concentrate additional passes of the base colour in those areas.

After another few passes with the MidStone base to even the effect out again.

Should you go too far with this last step, go back to those post of light and dark and keep touching up until you get what you want.

Let it dry, mask, and repeat for the next colour.

After adding a Dark Earth camo pattern the same way.

There is nothing in the rules that says you have to follow just one path or another. Airbrushing takes endless hours of practice, and you may find your taste in the end results change over time. So don't feel like you have to follow one rigid method to get where you want to go. Figure out a way that works for the skill level that you have today and refine it from there.

The technique above was one I developed over time because I couldn't make pre-shading work. I always either went too far or not far enough and I had problems with getting consistent colour and working with Camo, but then I didn't (and still don't) have the skills to just shade over the top of a paint job and get it right first time, so I found I was always going back and forth, adjusting the results until I was where I wanted to be.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Matt

[Frankhenrylee]

I've been experimenting with both trying to get that random faded and bleached out effect. There are a lot of good ideas here. What I've noticed is that most colors appear too dark out of the bottle, making lightening in between panel lines neccesary. But, you also need the darker accents too. Its tricky to keep it from becoming too dark though. Highly thinned paint seems to be a must. I do think that I prefer post-shading to pre-shading. It seems like I cover up alot of the pre- shading if I don't get the paint thinned just right. Maybe the combo of preshade for the darker areas and postshade for the lighter ones could work better?

[cksh]

I have really gotten hooked on post shading. My last couple of kits I did layer my colors; black primer, primary color, then lightened primary color (randomly), ignoring the panel lines. For my last kit I really wanted a washed out gray look, so I used the previous method, but used some really thinned out light gray and sprayed it randomly over the already faded primary color, again ignoring the panel lines as barriers. I did go a little heavy on the gray, but for the most part I was happy. I try to focus more on top surfaces and less on the sides of the fuselage. I was trying to fade my decals anyways so I figured I would just do the rest.

Then I go back with an extremely thinned dark color (preferably black) and go over the panel lines to my liking. Sometimes 6 or more passes to build it up. Just enough to where I can start to see it.