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How do you make believable oil stains?


Gazzas

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HI friends,

    I find myself unable to copy a simple oil stain.  I'm talking about the kind of stain that sinks into the paint and leaves a permanent mark like the examples in the photo below:

lEcX2A.jpg

I've tried with various washes and various colors of wash.  But I never get the desired effect.

 

Does anyone know how to do this?

 

The problem with googling words like "oil" and "Stain", you can get hit with a ton of information that doesn't seem to apply unless you're looking for oil stains on the ground, or staining wood furniture.

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

Gaz

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26 minutes ago, dodgem37 said:

'I've tried with various washes and various colors of wash.'

What have you used and what have you done?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

I've tried straight oils and oil washes.  Browns, blues, greens, and blacks...  nothing really satisfies.

 

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14 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

I've tried straight oils and oil washes.  Browns, blues, greens, and blacks...  nothing really satisfies.

 

 

What is the surface you are painting on to? Gloss or matt

 

Richard

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4 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

Gloss...  polished.  Acrylic.

 

 

I have never tried to replicate oil marks, I have noticed that washes can be easily cleaned off gloss surfaces but always stain matt ones. 

 

Much like the plane they seem to be scavenging parts from

 

Richard

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2 minutes ago, RLWP said:

 

I have never tried to replicate oil marks, I have noticed that washes can be easily cleaned off gloss surfaces but always stain matt ones. 

 

Much like the plane they seem to be scavenging parts from

 

Richard

 

Thanks for the food for thought.  Except for my Tamiya paints, most of my acrylics are a bit glossy.  I'll have to try to figure something out to remedy that.

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In order to represent any kind of stained appearance, you really need to do it over a matt surface. This actually replicates the real world mechanics of the staining process, by allowing the wash to literally stain your matt/flat coat. Just be warned, though: it's an unforgiving exercise, and if you don't like the result, you'll probably have to paint over it!

 

Here's an example from my Corsair build:

 

AM1vPR.jpg

 

nLfCC9.jpg

 

Kev

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You can use gouache paint.  It is water based.  Thin it with water, dip a tooth brush or flat paint brush in it, damp it off, and use your finger or thumb to flick the brush over your model.  The residue will spot the surface.  I did it here:

 

DSCN5704.jpg

Depending upon how much water you use to thin the gouache will determine its' color.  Not so much water and the color will be opaque, the top layer.  More water and the result will be more watery and  transparent, bottom layer.  If you don't like it you can wash it off since it's water based.  For oil streaking: Thinned oil paint as a base, thicker oil paint as upper level streaks.

 

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

Edited by dodgem37
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Another technique that is rarely used is the one relying on the darkened base color. If you look at pictures, you will see that stains and dirt sometimes color the surface but very often simply darken its color. Accordingly, you can make quite accurate stains with spots of hand painted diluted paint based on the base color darkened with a very little bit of black. This is what I recommend for the initial dirt coat. And then, if relevant, you can add other stains, splashes, drops and so on with a more or less transparent color that may be brown, orange, black, blue or any other valid color reproducing the fluid according to the type, purity and considered era. This is quite easily done with heavily diluted oil paints but enamels can also be used. There are also some specialized acrylics such as Lifecolor Tensochroms but their storage life is quite short whereas oil paint tubes can be stored for decades. Finally, as already written, this is far more efficient on a flat or at least a satin base (any other aircraft modeller who is also an AFV modeller will confirm it). On a gloss one, an efficient technique asks for the use of the airbrush and masks but I do not recommend that except for planes such as shiny warbirds or airliners. And in that case, this should be very subtle to simulate some discoloration or darkening of the paint rather than actual dirt.

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14 hours ago, dodgem37 said:

You can use gouache paint.  It is water based.  Thin it with water, dip a tooth brush or flat paint brush in it, damp it off, and use your finger or thumb to flick the brush over your model.  The residue will spot the surface.  I did it here:

 

DSCN5704.jpg

Depending upon how much water you use to thin the gouache will determine it's color.  Not so much water and the color will be opaque, the top layer.  More water and the result will be more watery and  transparent, bottom layer.  If you don't like it you can wash it off since it's water based.  For oil streaking: Thinned oil paint as a base, thicker oil paint as upper level streaks.

 

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

Don't tell me - two wing walkers got diarrhoea.  :whistle: 

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Hi Guys,

   Thank you for the great informative answers and pics!  I also got some other advice from some people at a Facebook site called "Weathered Models".  If you're on FB and haven't checked it out yet, you will see some stuff that will blow your minds.  Not just military stuff, either.

 

Here are some helpful words I read there:

 

"You need to add the multiple layers where in the reference photo some of it have already stained in a more splotchy circular pattern due to it spreading over a flat surface. Having multiple patterns that kind of overlap is important to sell the effect"

 

and...

 

"The real key to getting those stains to look correct isn't found in any product, it's going to be found in the ability to manipulate those or any other products.

To get the appearance of depth you must bury the stain into the paint, or more accurately
, trick the brain into thinking that's what it sees.

Using very thinned paint apply your stain lightly, keep it very translucent. Once it's completely dry, apply a filter of the base color over everything, again, very thin, very translucent. This filter will slightly tint your stain towards the base color you applied it over. Apply another thin, translucent stain a little smaller than the first. Once completely dry you'll notice the first stain tinted by the filter will appear to be deeper in the finish while the second stain sits on top.

Repeat this step a few times, each base color filter burying the previous oil stains deeper into the finish, the thinner your paint is, the more layers you can apply without overdoing it. And by thin, I mean it looks like dirty thinner, not paint, it has barely any color in it thus allowing you to apply many layers without losing anything underneath.

Once you get a handle on the technique the name on the bottle will be irrelevant."

 

With all of this information I can get started tonight by spraying some donor parts with common colors I use by both Tamiya and MRP.

 

Thanks again!

 

Gaz

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