Painting inside grooves

[Hendarion]

Hi.

Is there any trick how to easier fill grooves with a black line? I mean nearly exactly such grooves like on an Eldar Falcon, just maybe 2/3 of that size, so maybe 0.7mm thin.
So far I've used a simple slim brush, but who knows, maybe someone has a neat trick?

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Depending on how deep the groove is (the deeper the better) getting the groove wet first, not soaked, just damp then simply touching a bit of diluted color to the groove. Capillary action will (should) draw the color down the line.

 

[funnymouth]

the recently discussed "scumbling" technique works decently with mechanical type groves, but ive never tried it on something as large as a Falcon.

 

[mattrock]

You can use the GW washes, Badab Black in this case, and then just touch and lightly tease the bead of wash down the groove taking advantage of the capillary action like Shawn suggested. Use the wash straight out of the pot and it should dry more than opaque enough to do a handy job of dark lining.

 

[DrEvilmonki]

wonder if an art pen would do the job ok?

 

[Hendarion]

An art pen is not feasible, I not only have to paint the bottom of the groove, but also the "side-walls". The idea using capillary effects had been to my mind too, but I'm not sure if that will cover all areas good enough (I'm not gonna buy a thinned down black from GW for 3€ as long as I can do that myself btw). The thing is also that the grooves are long. From 2 to 15cm long, it's a super heavy Eldar Scorpion grav tank after all. I doubt the capillary effect will work nicely over such a long distance without that I might need to flood a specific point which is impossible since the surrounding surfaces are already properly painted.
I'll give it a try tomorrow though.

Edit:
Did anybody use a medical syringe with a super thin needle? I guess the syringe has to be glass in order to have enough control over how much colour is input into the groove, ah? Plastics always tend to stick and can't be pressed fluidly enough to output only a small portion of a drop. Maybe using some oil first to make the plunger flow better?

 

[Shellshock]

Mask the panels off with a low tac masking tape, brush into the grooves and you should be able to get the bottom and sides and the tape prevent touching the other paintwork.

 

[Hendarion]

No way to mask such a small thing correctly enough.

 

[airhead]

No way to mask such a small thing correctly enough.

silly putty.

***
That said, a thin dark wash (dark brown, dark red, etc. depending on your paint) should be fine. If you go out, of the lines, a wet tissue should get the mess up. If it leaves a dark residue, just a bit of a highlight layer should take it off.

This is why you wash shadows before you layer hightlights....

 

[Hendarion]

Actually I never wash shadows And I don't always do them before the highlights either. Anyway, I tried using a wash with capillary effects... I got the colour floating about 1cm along the line, then it stopped. I guess it doesn't work really great for long grooves like these.

Can you explain what you meant by "silly putty"?

 

[DrEvilmonki]

he means you can mask the area off with silly putty.

 

[DarkStar]

With acrylics the old modelers trick is to add retarder and flow aid to your paint before lining panels and the like. Work quickly, apply the paint into the panel lines and have a dampened cotton swab on hand to wipe away any errors that went outside of the lines. That's what the retarder is for, to allow a little bit of time to clean up any paint that went awry.

I just use oils for panel lining vehicles though, easiest method I know. Dilute with turpenoid, apply. Take a soft rag or sponge dipped in turpenoid and wipe away any errors at your leisure. The oil flows like a dream.

Interesting to read about the GW washes being used for this, I swear I've got to pick some of those up one day to try them for useful things like this.

 

[Hendarion]

DarkStar, that sounds interesting. But I gotta say that I fear turpentine to take off the thin coat of white colour that is right next to the line. No, wrong said. I am actually sure it will take it off within 1 second. Retarder might work to partly fix errors I could do during the process. Even if not everything can be removed without leaving a tiny trace on the white surface, it's surely better than without retarder.

 

[DarkStar]

Hendarion, just to be clear, I'm not speaking of turpentine. Turpenoid is an odorless thinner for oil paints. It doesn't remove dried acrylic paint unless of course you really wanted to, then you could, with alot of elbow grease and some stiff scouring pad remove the paint (it's safe in other words). Oil painting panel lines is done every day all over the world by military vehicle modellers heh, very traditional and "tried and true" method. Turpenoid is just one of many safe thinners you could use to dilute the oil to the proper consistency for flowing into panel lines.

White Spirits, mineral spirits (same thing), artist's thinners such as Mona Lisa (practically the same), Turpenoid, all do the trick while keeping your acrylic basecoat in tact. The thinner is there just to ensure the oil paint flows off the brush and into the lines. The dampened rag or sponge is just there to clean off mistakes, we're talking about miniscule amounts of paint and thinner here, nothing that would harm a model.

As for the acrylic technique I mentioned, if you're wary of oil paints, you can get just as good results with practice of course. Best of luck let us know what you settle on.

Oh last thing, you can always spray a topcoat over your paintwork before lining. Some modelers will spray a gloss coat first before lining, I've never bothered. Here's a video on youtube about the topic, but it's really low quality, although the content is proper. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iAQVObu9YI

 

[Shawn R. L.]

If you use an oil based paint and thin it with turpentine, it will flow into VERY thin lines.

 

[Hendarion]

Aha, thanks a lot for clarification, DarkStar!

 

[Malchiar]

I've always thought that this is a pretty good method:
http://thepaintingcorps.blogspot.com/2009/02/friday-quick-tip-using-gouache-to-line.html

 

[Hendarion]

No, gouache isn't useful for my purpose, since it goes off at next contact with water or fluid. But it might be useful for some purposes, yea.

 

[Jarrett]

I tend to use the pigma micron pens - they seem to fill up the groove just fine, and it's very fast. I've used them on tau and eldar in my gallery and currently on my dark eldar wip.

 

[Malchiar]

No, gouache isn't useful for my purpose, since it goes off at next contact with water or fluid. But it might be useful for some purposes, yea.

if you did it as the last step before covering with a non water based varnish it should be fine