"Enhancing the etching lines to take a ink wash" Topic

I have had several people ask how I put on an ink wash. Now that I have a blog, I have a proper place to describe how I do it. When I first started painting 1/300 scale miniatures I used a very fine lined calligraphy pen to highlight the etching lines and it looked fine, but I did feel that it was a , for lack of a better word. harsh. I then bought some HR miniatures and the etching lines were so faint, that it was as if they had none. I find the same is true for Raiden miniatures. Raiden has phenomenal detail, but a lot of it is lost when one applies paint. I tried airbrushing and spray paints on Raiden miniatures, but the detail just disappeared. So the following is a step by step process of how I enhance the etching lines of miniatures.

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Mike

Thanks for sharing.

I've done similar, but tend to use the sharp edge of the blade at first in order to make a shallow cut, then shifting to the flat edge, if the scribing needs to be deepened further, or widened.

I use a fine graphite mechanical pencil for markings, e.g. with a .5mm diameter lead.

I concur that it adds a lot to the looks of the minis, so is worth taking the time to do it, when and where needed.

Thanks for setting up another cool blog about air minis! It's so nice to read about fellow players' tachniques and to see inspiring pics of their models.

Rolando

Hi Mike. I have a question for you:

Did you leave the Shoki in the natural white metal and just paint then the Home Defense white bands and markings over, without a primer? The metal shine looks PER-FECT. I'd like to do the same for my planes.

If so, have you had issues with the paint chipping off more easily?

Rolando

Testors mettalic silver and Testors flat white paint over the silver.

Mike

Thanks!