KitmodellerNZ

I liked the effect of Gauzy, but found masks tore it off. I've used Future over the years with varying levels of success and also the Alclad Aqua Gloss, but I'm turning to polishing from now on.

What a beaut! Amazing work.

Wow! She's a beauty

The Scotch Brite idea came about as a cost saving technique for me. I'd be paying around NZ$50 to get a set of the Artool FX Mini templates sent to me here in Auckland, NZ from an airbrush store in Australia.

Beautiful! I'm up to black basing and applying the upper side camo on mine at the moment.

I didn't do anything except give mine a good shake and a high pressure blast with the airbrush.

Colin, I just spray through the pad with the pressure set to around 20psi. You could give it a go though. I guess the main factor is how much you have pulled at the Scotch Brite.

Looking forward to seeing this one come together

Beautiful work! Do you have a build log for this one by any chance?

Hi Shawn, I spray through both the pad and the edges.

Thanks for sharing your observation. I've only tried it over black so far. I'm looking forward to trying it over topcoats instead of using salt.

I just hold the Scotch Brite lightly against the model's surface. No issues with it moving whilst spraying. I lift it and reposition the Scotch Brite as I go, so no issues with scratching

You do use more paint than you would if you were to use the squiggle method, but I wouldn't say that you're using a colossal amount. I'd estimate that I've used around 1/3rd of a 10ml jar of Tamiya XF-54 to complete the undersides.

The great thing is that it can be used for other techniques such as adding texture layers etc, without using methods such as salt masks.

IMO, airbrushing a squiggle pattern randomly over a kit still looks too uniform, regardless of how ‘random’ you try to make it. … And it takes too bloody long on a large kit such as a 1/32 Ju-88! Enter the Scotch Brite masking technique which came about after I had been looking at pro airbrushing stencils online and thinking there must be a cheaper way. Firstly some prep is required before using your Scotch Brite. Because these types of pads are dense, you must prepare them by tearing, pulling and reducing the thickness by tearing them in half carefully along their horizontal axis. Here is an example of the Scotch Brite in action on Revell’s 1/32 Ju-88. Airbrushing Tamiya XF-54 Neutral Grey through a Scotch Brite; I completed the entire underside in approximately 40 minutes. The result; Close up; I applied further mistings of neutral grey to reduce the contrast; Where possible, I mix my own colours with Tamiya Acrylics mixed with 50% Tamiya Lacquer Thinner. For RLM 65 I mixed up equal parts of XF-23 and XF-2 thinned as per above. In the airbrush cup I added this mix and then added the same amount of thinner to make it highly diluted. This allows the topcoat to be built up gradually. This makes it hard to overdo it and destroy the effect if you get heavy handed with the trigger. The result so far;