preshading

[amin]

i have never pre shaded up to now and I note that some modellers do.Does it really make any difference if you are going to weather the panels later anyway.

[Bushpounder]

My question is how does it work with darker colors? Is it that noticable on let's say olive drab?

Don

[RichardL]

I don't usually preshade if the aircraft will be wearing a multi-color camouflage.

[galileo1]

I personally like to pre-shade as I like the look of the finish piece (as long as some of the pre-shading work still remains, that is). This being said, like most modeling tasks, it's entirely up to the modeler. You don't have to pre-shade if you think it's unrealistic or the such. I've seen some really beautiful work from people who never do this.

Personal taste.

Rob

[galileo1]

I don't usually preshade if the aircraft will be wearing a multi-color camouflage.

I used not bother when camo was needed but I now learned to do it in layers. Essentially, I pre-shade for the lighter color first and, after applying the lighter base color, I then pre-shade for the darker color only where this darker color would go. Takes more time but I usually like the painting stage so I take my time.

Rob

[matrixone]

I like doing preshading on the panel lines as well as adding some highlights to the panels themselves, below are some in-progress pics of 1/32 and 1/72 scale models and you can see the before and after results. As you can see I prefer to have the preshading and highlights to be just barely visable after the rest of the camo paints have been added but it looks more realistic to my eye, if you look at a model and the preshading is one of the first things you notice about it than the preshading is too heavy.

The good thing about preshading is its a low risk way of adding some subtle weathering to a model...if you don't like how it looks simply just paint over it and try again.:)/>/>

Matrixone

[amin]

so it sounds like its pretty much useless under dark colors and should you require a further coat it disappears all together.I did a heavy job on a FW 190 using oils and turpentine to correct and clean post shading and i regret it now.I am about to prime an avenger and this time i will go for heavily diluted acrylics and correct or even wipe out if i dont like it with water without leaving any traces and damage.

[Jonathan]

I cant be bothered with pre-shading. I dont even think it looks good when it looks good.

[Mike C]

I used to pre-shade but discovered very quickly that it was rather pointless. These days, I don't preshade anymore. Instead, I use mostly post-shading random panels to break up the monotone, while for panel line highlights I use oil wash.

[a4s4eva]

I'd rather postshade as I find it easier to get the effect I'm after. I don't like the look where the panel lines are darker and the centres are lighter, I just don't see that as representative of most aircraft. it also depends on the aircraft and how weathered it is.

[Edgar]

1/. Do aircraft ooze dirt through their paint? No, they don't.

2/. How do you preshade under decals? Nobody has, ever, given me a satisfactory answer to this one.

Edgar

[amin]

skip preshading and go to white color priming on grey surface ,does it matter wether the whole surface is evenly primed ie 100% white before airbrushing surface color?and should one apply 2 coats of color at atleast 2hrs interval? does it make any difference to the evenness of the color shade? in this case gunze aqueous dark sea grey on white primer.

Edited January 26, 2013 by amin

[Mike C]

skip preshading and go to white color priming on grey surface ,does it matter wether the whole surface is evenly primed ie 100% white before airbrushing surface color?and should one apply 2 coats of color at atleast 2hrs interval? does it make any difference to the evenness of the color shade? in this case gunze aqueous dark sea grey on white primer.

Nope. Gunze Aqueous covers very well. In fact, if the plastic surface is completely even and unblemished, you can spray the Gunze Aqueous directly without primer. I've done this many times.

[matrixone]

No, preshading is not necessary for every type of model but it does help military aircraft models avoid looking like toys, no matter how expertly a scale model is built and finished if it is totally clean without any weathering at all it can't help but look like one of the mass produced collecter models like you see sometimes in mail order catalogs.

Preshading like any weathering technique has its place but also can be very easily overdone, I have had some success with preshading by using it only on random panel lines usually around engine cowls or on places on the airframe where dirt or oil would tend to collect but I keep it very subtle and use photographs of the full size machines as a guide to judge how heavy the preshading should be. Also I plan ahead how much weathering a model will get and make sure the amount of preshading done will match the other weathering effects and blend in.

I have seen some finished builds in the past few years where the entire model was preshaded and so heavily applied they looked almost like a quilt instead of a model of a weathered aircraft...in such cases I got the impression the builders were trying to copy another modelers weathering technique instead of looking at photographs of the full size aircraft, with preshading a little will go a long way.

Some don't like preshading because the decals will cover it up and not look right but thats easy to fix though. Use a little post shading with the airbrush and some tinted thinner and in most cases it will give the results you want.

Matrixone