"Painting streaks using acrylics" Topic

Is it possible to paint oil/mud streaks on tanks using acrylics?

Yes, but don't try to paint the 'streak' itself. Use two brushes. Place a small dot of the color you chose at the point where you want the streak to begin. Then take the second brush, moist with thinner and starting at the dot drag it in the direction desired. Keep the color mixtures fairly thin.

Additionally, if using acrylics for weathering its always a good idea to gloss coat first so the paint will have good slide over the areas where it will be applied.

Watered down is a good way to go.

I've seen people presumably use gravity to aid them, touching the brush to where you want the streak(s) to start, and then letting the watered down liquid run down/off the model(s).

The trick is ensuring all the streaks are parallel to one another.

Works really well on naval vessels, armored vehicles, etc..

Want to give it a try myself for exhaust smudges from engines on heavy bombers.

possible? yes

I do not recommend it. it takes much more skill to perfect than oils and is not forgiving.

you can also use an acrylic retarder to lengthen the drying time slughtly

Im with Mako, watering down the acrylic and then placing it where you want it to start, but then I will take a hairdryer to create my streaks. Makes it look very natural. Then if the streak is too far, just have a wet brush nearby to quickly wet the end of the streak and wipe it off with a paper towel!

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but this is a good discussion. A few ideas in here I have to try, and a couple to add:

I make streaks with acrylic paints and acrylic inks all the time, and my techniques with each are different.

With paints, I basically just dry-brush the streak on. Starting with a brush full of wet paint is too much. When using a tiny brush with a tiny amount of dry-brushable paint (e.g. for gunpowder streaks on small aircraft wings), I have to start with a paint that stays wet longer (Vallejo, Pactra, Model Master – not cheap craft store acrylics), and do it in several passes. Paints are my choice where there are a lot of indentations that might pool a wash.

With inks, the surface has to be un-glossed first (dull/matt coated or just naturally matt acrylic paint) – acrylic inks are basically a wash to begin with, so tend to pool on glossy surfaces, ruining the effect. These work well on raised or even surfaces, not so well on surfaces with indentations where the ink can pool.

When I can't get an ink in the right color, I sometimes use an acrylic paint watered down into a wash. This is a bit tricky to mix to the right consistency, but works about the same as an ink.

- Ix