Faded paint effect

[datahiker]

How do you achieve a faded paint look? I'm struggling because the color I need to fade is red and I don't want it to turn out looking pink.

And yes, I've searched the forums. I would think yellow would make it to orangish. I haven't tried adding tan, which I will do, but would someone tell me if that's the best solution for red?

Edited February 9, 2010 by datahiker

[loftycomfort]

How do you achieve a faded paint look? I'm struggling because the color I need to fade is red and I don't want it to turn out looking pink.

And yes, I've searched the forums. I would think yellow would make it to orangish. I haven't tried adding tan, which I will do, but would someone tell me if that's the best solution for red?

I've tried this approach with black and blue, but not red. You can give it a try on scrap model to see how it works out for you.

1) Spray straight red on your surface

2) Mist highly diluted white over the red surface. All you need is one pass or two to slightly whiten the red. DO NOT cover the red totally.

3) Spray clear red over the whitened surface.

Since you never mixed paint, there will be no orange or pink. It's still true red, but with less intensity. The clear red ties it all together to give you that faded look.

Cheers,

Terry

[edit: here's an example of this technique when used on blue]

Edited February 9, 2010 by loftycomfort

[jordan03]

Data hiker

What I do is this:

Paint the model in all the base colors

Coat in future

Oil wash

Then re-spray the inner panels with the base colors (no need to lighten because the future and wash has darkened the original colors)

I found that this gives a great faded effect without trying to custom mix shades. Try it out I think you will be surprised at how easy it is.

Brian

[pigsty]

And here's what I do. Paint the chosen colour, then lighten faded areas with a light application of chalk pastels. Light grey for darker colours, white for lighter colours (it's like dry-brushing - doesn't actually come out white). Then seal it in with a light spray coat of varnish or hairspray.

[datahiker]

Durn - three good, completely different replies. Looks like I'll be pulling out a test model.

Thanks to all (and any more that show up with something to try)!

[thegoodsgt]

I've been painting figures for a number of years, and we face the same challenge when trying to highlight red clothing. The widely accepted practice is to use a flesh tone, which is fairly effective. For aircraft, I might also try a light tan to see what would happen.

So in your experiments, try that and let us know how it turns out.

[spejic]

2) Mist highly diluted white over the red surface. All you need is one pass or two to slightly whiten the red. DO NOT cover the red totally.

Do you mean diluted with the paint thinner or diluted within a clear paint base? If you mean the first, how do you prevent it from collecting in crevices and corners?

[dodgem37]

Datahiker,

I fade all of my exterior colors. I add 1 part white to 5 parts color. This results in an 80% tint of the hue (the color directly out of the bottle).

If you want to illustrate a tinted (faded) area within a hue area there are other approaches, which I use.

1-spray area the hue color and over spray with the tint.

2-spray the area the tint and overspray with the hue.

3-spray tint only without hue.

4-place a dot, or dots, of the hue/tint or any hue/tint (I use the end of a paint brush dipped into the cap) on the tint/hue and after wetting a paint brush with a thinning agent (thinner, water, alcohol) brush the color in the direction you want. You can locate the dot anywhere on the panel and control the amount of tint/hue in the area.

Know the add mixture of your colors and stay within the family that makes the color. You don't want (although one could, I suppose) to add, say, a red dot to RAF Dark Green, or Dark Sea Grey. The add mixture (the colors added together to make the resultant color) of either does not contain any red. But blue would be OK.

In reverse, to create a shade of a hue add a % of black.

Red when bleached out by infrared rays will tint thru all of the red-white variations until pure white.

If you tint red until almost pink, or, add almost pink tints to a red hue base, IMO, the tint added to the other colors should be the same or similar amount.

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Mark

[dodgem37]

Datahiker,

Another method I've seen is after one sprays a basecoat, spray certain areas (panels) white (or whatever color influence you want to impart).

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Mark