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Could someone explain "Reversed Weathering" to me?

K

Kreighshoer

Active member
for some time now i repeatedly have a look at the mastercon6 booklet and every time an eastern front winter diorama by greg cihlar catches my eyes!

this superb diorama features a heavily weathered tiger 1 and the caption mentions that greg used "reversed weathering" with this model!

what exactly is "reversed weathering"?

do i see it correct that at first you paint the dirty areas of the vehicle and work your way to the "clean" parts?

those who have this booklet should check out page 30 to see this top notch dio and top notch tiger! (top gold medal winner in it's category!)
 
never heard that. I only came across a method called reverse washing :) I read about that some time ago on ARC. The guy washed away paint layers so that the beneath layers could show through and called that reverse washing - so don't know if it has anything in common with reversed weathering, but could be ??
 
Well cleaning the part would give an effect of depth. I mean short of striping a part you never can get it completely clean. Surely with all the connected folks we have here, someone knows Greg Cihlar and perhaps invite him here to explain the technique.
 
Hi Laura,

I'm not sure if this is what's meant by "reversed weathering" in this instance, but "accepted convention" tells us we should pre-shade to darken the recesses, panel lines etc. Apply dark washes to show dirt accumulation in the aforementioned recesses, panel lines etc. and then drybrush with lightened tones of the base colour to highlight raised detail.

But what happens in real life? There is a school of thought that suggests that dust accumulates in the recesses and is protected (for want of a better description) by protuberances and other nearby objects and thus can appear lighter than surrounding areas where the dust and grime is worn away by activity. Likewise, exposed edges, which we highlight by drybrushing in lighter tones, actually get worn back to fresh, darker paint.

Again, I'm not sure if this is the sort of effect you're referring to, but perhaps it's a "maybe"?
 
Re:Could someone explain "Reversed Weathering" to

I do a reverse dry brush on heavily weathered subjects to show the grit and grime worn away. I do this by basically dry brushing only hi traffic areas with my base paint color.

HTH

This technique was applied below the open turret door here:
LF409.jpg


Around the hatches on this StuG
frontdetail.jpg

RF.jpg
 
I don't know exactly what reverse weathering is and without having the book and being able to see the picture I cannot even begin to guess.

I will say though, that I haven't used a lighter color to drybrush in ages. I remember when I was a kid at the LHS and the magazines at the time had all those awe inspiring dioramas in them, the lighter color drybrush was what everybody did. I still have most of my seventies era Tamiya models I built as a kid and they all have a lighter shade of the base coat drybrushed on the raised details.

Now, when I look in magazines and even more so online, I don't see that technique being used to the same extent on the builds that leave me in awe today. Now, when I drybrush I will always use a dark color, sometimes even straight black. I'm not trying to that one is better than the other or anything of that nature, just that my way of thinking and technique has changed.


Both of these models below were drybrushed with a very dark color, perhaps even straight black (I don't really recall). I always use oil paint that has sat on a piece of cardboard a while in order to soak up the a lot of the oil.



flak1-1.jpg


M3A1.jpg
 
hmmmmmmm ... thanks for your explanations guys but it seems that i will have to wait for bob being back online - all in all the mastercons are his babies!

the caption was written by joe porter but bob should know exactly!

don't get me wrong, i really appreciate your explanations but an exact explanation seems to wait until bob reads this! dark drybrushing seems to go in the right direction!

funny enough that i started to fade with plain black with my dicker max and like the result!

i'm still very curious about the precise explanation and when bob is back online i can ask for permission to publish the photos without copyright violation!
 
Laura,
I just emailed Joe Porter and will see if he can answer this. If not I will probably see Greg in Chicago at MMSI as he usually goes and displays. I do not have Greg's email.
Cheers,
John
 
See, what did I tell ya? It's great to have friends. Looking forward to what you find out John.
 
Re:Could someone explain

johnbowery wrote:
I just emailed Joe Porter and will see if he can answer this. If not I will probably see Greg in Chicago at MMSI as he usually goes and displays. I do not have Greg's email.
Click to expand...

SPLENDID! :laugh:

thanks in advance john!
 
Laura,
Below is Joe Porters reply:

Hey John,

I believe she is correct. On winter camo, it's (in short) painting the vehicle white, then gradually working out to the areas where the whitewash has worn off. Also highly effective on desert camo where a vehicle has been repainted in the field.

Cheers,
Joe

Hope that this helps. If Greg is at AMPS this year I will ask him also maybe even get him to post?
Cheers
John
 
Re:Could someone explain

thanks for your efforts john! :cheer:

johnbowery wrote:
I believe she is correct. On winter camo, it's (in short) painting the vehicle white, then gradually working out to the areas where the whitewash has worn off. Also highly effective on desert camo where a vehicle has been repainted in the field.
Click to expand...

and i wrote:

Kreighshoer wrote:
do i see it correct that at first you paint the dirty areas of the vehicle and work your way to the "clean" parts?
Click to expand...

now i'm confused! more confused than usual! :blink

johnbowery wrote:
Hope that this helps. If Greg is at AMPS this year I will ask him also maybe even get him to post?
Click to expand...

that would be awesome! :cheer:
 
Re:Could someone explain

I think it is replicating what actually happens in the field, where a vehicle is whitewashed for winter camo and in a short time that whitewash fades chips and wears thin especially in traffic areas such as fenders, hatches and foot paths and grab handles. I guess it would be like partially stripping the paint to reveal the base coats.
 
Re:Could someone explain

Well let us all say that Greg is very welcome to post here , I can see another Master class too ;)

Jenny :kiss:
 
I found the REVERSE WASHING article on ARC again - well don't whether its allowed to post articles of other web forum here - I just do it - delete this answer if its agianst the rules.

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/101-200/tnt142_Me-262_Ben-Shahar/tnt142.htm
 
We welcome anything from other forums, except drama... :mpup

Thanks Martin, but I wonder if "Reverse Washing" is the same as "Reverse Weathering"?
 
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