Tips and Tricks

• Tips and Tricks
• Tools and Materials
• Assembly
• Painting and Decaling
• Detailing and Weathering

Detailing and Weathering

Model Detailing and Weathering

Drilling a hole into the end of gun barrels makes an obvious improvement.

If you hold the end of a length of stretched sprue close to a head source, the end will curl back to form a dome. This can be snipped off with a short length of sprue. It is then easy to insert into a hole to make buttons, rivet heads, knobs, etc.

Create rags and patches on figures using cigarette papers.

Always consider the effects of gravity: tyres bulge, tank tracks sag and most things will sink slightly into grass, mud, sand, snow, etc.

Rubber is only ever black for a short period of time when it's brand new so add a few drops of white and to make a charcoal grey for painting tyres, etc.

On older train tracks the rails, sleepers and ballast end up covered in flakes of rust, brake block dust, oil and grime. To simulate this, start with some brown paint and then throw in a bit of every colour you can find to murk it up. Dilute this with thinners and slap it along the tracks with an old brush. Before the paint dries, wipe it off the top of the rails with a clean rag and when dry, burnish the rail head.

Mix talcum powder with an appropriate colour of paint to make clods of mud to apply to wheel arches, etc.