Jump to content

Black Basing - am I doing it right?


Recommended Posts

Making my first attempt at black basing, could use a little input. Also, this was done with a brand new Iwata HP-CS, so I'm learning that airbrush as well (holy cow, what an upgrade from an old Badger 360 I had)... 

 

IMG-20201209-212533.jpg

 

I think the "marbling" looks decent, but I'm wondering if I should work it over with another layer of fine lines before moving on to the actual colors. 

Edited by Raceaddict
Link to post
Share on other sites

I think your plane looks great!  When you paint your final color layer over this layer, you want to have a pretty thin paint, and make sure you do a translucent coat, so the marbling just barely shows through...actually, it's more like a 'feel' of the differences between the marbled areas and the black background.  You can always build up more paint layers, but if you hit it with too heavy of a coat to start with, you can't go back.

 

What Richard wrote is also true; you may want to be a bit more random in your pattern.  Perhaps some larger areas of white next to smaller areas, so the randomness is observed under the final color coats.

 

Depending upon what you are looking for, you might want to consider adding some different colors to your marbling.  I have found (and I'm a newbie to this, also) that adding contrasting colors adds a nice, subtle difference to the final paint layer.  For instance, I used a medium blue and a khaki color interspersed with my white marbling, under a light blue color coat, and you can see just a slight variation in the final color coat over those areas marbled with these different colors underneath.  Experimentation is key, but looks good to me!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I get what you're both saying. Thanks. 

 

I looked at the model when I woke up this morning and definitely saw where I could improve the marbling. Sleeping on it before moving to the next layer was the right choice. I'll probably do the same with each coat... I'd hate to go one step too far and have wasted all the time I spent trying to get it right. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/13/2020 at 7:14 PM, goondman said:

You dont necessarily need to use white either. I've used the base color over black and have had good results. Unfortunately i'm still a total noob when it comes to posting pics so i cant share. .. Doog has some good examples on his website

 

It's actually grey... I think the contrast from the LED desk lap lightened it up a bit.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think white will work best as it provides the starkest contrast to the black base, but other colours can work as well. I'm sure I've seen someone use dark brown to great effect replicating massive hydraulic fluid staining on an F-4's underside somewhere.

 

Here's my lazy (or rather: impatient) man's approach using Artool "Texture FX" stencils on 1/72 MiG-21s.

 

49448309877_7daf4747df_b.jpg

Edited by ChernayaAkula
Link to post
Share on other sites
18 hours ago, ChernayaAkula said:

I think white will work best as it provides the starkest contrast to the black base, but other colours can work as well. I'm sure I've seen someone use dark brown to great effect replicating massive hydraulic fluid staining on an F-4's underside somewhere.

 

Here's my lazy (or rather: impatient) man's approach using Artool "Texture FX" stencils on 1/72 MiG-21s.

 

49448309877_7daf4747df_b.jpg

I've been looking and looking for a template such as that. Absolutely no luck tho 😞

Link to post
Share on other sites

I had only been thinking about commenting on the OP’s freehand work, which is, frankly, excellent, particularly for a noob. However, if you’re open to stencils, Spraygunner.com has many fantastic stencils. Navigate there, and search for Blair stencils, Artool stencils, or Craftobian stencils, and you will find a large variety of stencils with different shapes and sizes.  I have most of the Artool stencils personally, and while I’ve not yet used them, they are PERFECT for blackbasing.   I’m going to stress, again, that the most important aspect of this process is complete randomness of shapes sizes, and colors, if you go that route.  

 

If you look at the surfaces of the aircraft you are trying to emulate, you’ll see that unless there is an oil/dirt/dust pattern left by some specific process, the randomness of light and dark in the finish is what you’re trying to achieve...sorry, not trying to be overly obvious and pedantic to those of you besides the OP who may be reading this.  

Edited by Curt B
Added thoughts
Link to post
Share on other sites
12 hours ago, Curt B said:

I had only been thinking about commenting on the OP’s freehand work, which is, frankly, excellent, particularly for a noob. However, if you’re open to stencils, Spraygunner.com has many fantastic stencils. Navigate there, and search for Blair stencils, Artool stencils, or Craftobian stencils, and you will find a large variety of stencils with different shapes and sizes.  I have most of the Artool stencils personally, and while I’ve not yet used them, they are PERFECT for blackbasing.   I’m going to stress, again, that the most important aspect of this process is complete randomness of shapes sizes, and colors, if you go that route.  

 

If you look at the surfaces of the aircraft you are trying to emulate, you’ll see that unless there is an oil/dirt/dust pattern left by some specific process, the randomness of light and dark in the finish is what you’re trying to achieve...sorry, not trying to be overly obvious and pedantic to those of you besides the OP who may be reading this.  

good grief, they do have alot. Thanks for the info Curt!!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/17/2020 at 12:55 AM, goondman said:

I've been looking and looking for a template such as that. Absolutely no luck tho 😞

 

The name's a right handful: Artool Texture FX Mini Series Template by Gerald Mendez - FHTFX1MS

It's THIS SET.

Maybe this will help looking. I think the mini set should be good enough for scale modelling. The full-sized are probably too big for even large scale models.

 

 

On 12/16/2020 at 5:32 PM, Craig Baldwin said:

Please provide some after shots too to help show the effect.

 

Gotcha! :thumbsup: Here's the effect on a 1/72 MiG-25. The grey colour shows it a bit better than the camouflaged Fishbeds. Fairly solid on some parts, more marbling showing through in other areas. The anti-glare-panel-to-be and the area between the fins show how much can show through with even lighter coats.

This is just a coat of grey paint. No other colours. I think you could also use the templates with darkened/lightened or otherwise tinted shades of the grey paint after the basecoat grey has been applied to get in even more variety.

One thing I'll do one future builds is to be a bit more "specific" in "panelization" (if that makes any sense). Using one area of the stencils for the flaps and another for the adjacent panel.

 

49149698547_3373db5c05_o.jpg

 

49144002858_9296586d3f_o.jpg

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/17/2020 at 5:52 AM, Curt B said:

I had only been thinking about commenting on the OP’s freehand work, which is, frankly, excellent, particularly for a noob. 

 

Thanks for the kind words. I actually did a second layer of marbling after posting that shot... I felt the earlier comments were right, about seeing too many lines. 

 

The end result is below. I think I could have gone a tad lighter on the Dark Ghost Grey topcoat, but I was leary of how it would darken with the clear. 

 

IMG-20201219-135452.jpg

Edited by Raceaddict
Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, RichardL said:

It now looks pretty good to me 👍

 

I concur...that's the way you want it to look, sir!  But you can see, I'm sure, even better in person, how differing shapes and sizes of marbling, and even different colors, would affect the final look.  It's supposed to look like inconsistent wear, dirt and fading across the entire airplane. You did great for your first shot!  It's my opinion that everyone gets better at this the more they do it.

Edited by Curt B
Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/19/2020 at 5:34 PM, Raceaddict said:

 

Thanks for the kind words. I actually did a second layer of marbling after posting that shot... I felt the earlier comments were right, about seeing too many lines. 

 

The end result is below. I think I could have gone a tad lighter on the Dark Ghost Grey topcoat, but I was leary of how it would darken with the clear. 

 

IMG-20201219-135452.jpg

I think you hit the proverbial nail on the head!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/13/2020 at 7:14 PM, goondman said:

You dont necessarily need to use white either. I've used the base color over black and have had good results. Unfortunately i'm still a total noob when it comes to posting pics so i cant share. .. Doog has some good examples on his website

You don't even necessarily need to use black. For a white spaceship, for example, you could use a lighter gray so you don't need 900 coats of white paint to make it read as white. Or you could do a rusty undercoat under your paint coats. This could be handy for chipping the paint afterward.
I love the look of black-basing, but it makes touching up nearly impossible, since you'll have to mix your touch-up paint to match the blended black/color look.

Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, RedHeadKevin said:

You don't even necessarily need to use black. For a white spaceship, for example, you could use a lighter gray so you don't need 900 coats of white paint to make it read as white. Or you could do a rusty undercoat under your paint coats. This could be handy for chipping the paint afterward.
I love the look of black-basing, but it makes touching up nearly impossible, since you'll have to mix your touch-up paint to match the blended black/color look.

 

You are, of course, correct.  One of the 'advantages' of using black is the 'analogue' to the other very popular model painting technique of pre-shading.  As most all of you know, pre-shading has been an extremely popular method to try to give a bit of highlighting (or, rather, 'lowlighting') of the gaps between panels on airplanes.  One of the downsides, if you will, of pre-shading, is that failing to do an appropriate 'color coat' over the pre shading, leaves what is typically a gray shade, which is the color of primer that has usually been used.  The concept of black basing prevents that gray shading from appearing, and in the event that a color coat 'misses' a certain spot during that phase of the painting, the black 'undercoat' just looks like more shadows.  I believe that this was the basis for black basing being a preferred method to pre-shading.  That, and the fact that pre shading does not, unlike black basing, create any kind of variation in the middle of an aircraft panel, whereas, blackbasing, by definition, does precisely that.  So, if one choses to a color other than black, have at it, jut be aware of what effect that will have when you lay down the color coat layers.  

 

I'm no expert in any of this, either in practice or in theory, but thought I might be able to explain in my own words something that might turn on someone else's 'light bulb'.  Hope it helps someone. 

Edited by Curt B
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...