Paint Chips

mbuk77 · Post by **mbuk77** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:19 am

I am currently building a Fine Molds Snowspeeder if and wanted to know of an effective paint chipping technique.

I'm a bit of a noob, so want something relatively foolproof!

I was considering hand painting the chips but not sure if they will look obviously painted.

Any advice please.

seam-filler · Post by **seam-filler** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:47 am

One way is to apply silver Rub'n'Buf (available at art stores or Hobbycraft) on the primed model. Then spray your top coats. Before the paint hardens (when it is touch-dry), get some sellotape and lightly dab it on the area. Enamel & acrylic paints do not stick well to Rub'n'Buf (a metallic pigment paste that comes in a tube or jar) so some of the paint comes away in chips.

Another way... Prime the model. Spray on the silver/aluminium colour. While this is still wet, sprinkle on a light dusting of Christmas Sparkle. Apply your top coats and when dry, rub a tooth brush over the are to lift off the sparkle. The sparkle will act as a mask and wil; show the metallic finish underneath.

Above all, experiment first.

Post by **TER-OR** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:42 am

Salt weathering is the most effective I've used - it does get tricky when you have to mask for lots of colors, though.

Squall67584 · Post by **Squall67584** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:07 pm

I've seen a few use rubber cement applied with a sponge, then after letting the paint dry, just rub it off. Obviously put silver or something underneath the primary coat.

Sluis Van Shipyards · Post by **Sluis Van Shipyards** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:54 pm

TER-OR wrote:Salt weathering is the most effective I've used - it does get tricky when you have to mask for lots of colors, though.

Yes that works very good. Just remember to use the appropriate sized grains of salt for the scale. Pretzel salt weathering would look odd on a 1/72 scale model.

I've seen people do awesome chipping with a silver pen/pencil too.