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Hi all,

I was looking for a cheap, second hand rhino in ebay, and what I found was really bad 15 GBP/USD painted rhinos. I was wondering are there any steps how to strip the paint and repaint it a new?

Also I would like to ask you If it's possible to create your own drybrush from an old hairbrush or no one bother with such stuff and people buy specially designed drybrushes. I tried to make a drybrush on my own but somehow failed, making really bad job on drybrishg the mini, the hair of the brush was too soft.

And in addition. It is possible to paint a decent vehicle without using airbrush?

Edit on the first question:
It seems that when shipping is included buying badly painted second hand model is stupid mistake and I rather buy it new.

Yes, you can paint vehicles successfully without an airbrush. Duncan Rhodes has many videos of various 40k vehicles painted with just regular paintbrushes. He does a great job.

Rhino - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKhIQ1TL2FM
Stormfang - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFjendSRjus
Hydra with Camo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74p9eGwRAog
Taurox - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPpb2X-JNU

More here
https://www.youtube.com/user/GamesWorkshopWNT/videos

Just search the forum for instructions on stripping it. By the way, I'm not sure why shipping being included is a bad thing And yes, I would rather buy most of my models new too. The reason to buy models used is solely price or discontinued items, IMO.

 DalinCriid wrote:
Also I would like to ask you If it's possible to create your own drybrush from an old hairbrush or no one bother with such stuff and people buy specially designed drybrushes. I tried to make a drybrush on my own but somehow failed, making really bad job on drybrishg the mini, the hair of the brush was too soft.

It's interesting you say it was too soft, I usually want my brushes to be soft for drybrushing so that they don't leave streaks as easily. I typically like a soft brush with a lot of bristles and short hairs. Maybe you could try trimming your brush? Perhaps that's why you feel it's too soft, maybe the bristles are too long for the number of bristles?

Make-up brushes that are typically used by female types make for good drybrushes IMO.

And in addition. It is possible to paint a decent vehicle without using airbrush?

Yeah of course. The hardest part is getting a nice smooth coat (though tanks are often painted thickly and hurriedly anyway so you could make an argument for leaving brush strokes in a tank anyway, lol).

I suggest using a spray if you can find the correct colour for your basecoat. If you can't and need to do it all by brush, use a LARGE brush with reasonably soft bristles, thin your paint down and use multiple coats. Softer brushes, thin paints and multiple coats are the least likely to leave brush strokes. Likewise using a large brush means you use less strokes and are thus less likely to leave brush strokes on the model.

 Talys wrote:
Yes, you can paint vehicles successfully without an airbrush. Duncan Rhodes has many videos of various 40k vehicles painted with just regular paintbrushes. He does a great job.

Rhino - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKhIQ1TL2FM
Stormfang - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFjendSRjus
Hydra with Camo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74p9eGwRAog
Taurox - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjPpb2X-JNU

More here
https://www.youtube.com/user/GamesWorkshopWNT/videos

Just search the forum for instructions on stripping it. By the way, I'm not sure why shipping being included is a bad thing And yes, I would rather buy most of my models new too. The reason to buy models used is solely price or discontinued items, IMO.

The links, especially the first, opened my eyes and even guided with very nice techniques. Thank you very much for providing those. So I guess all I need for now is one large drybruysh and just apply multiple coats.
I'm not generally saying that including shipping is a bad Idea, but from all the calculations I made it will be way better to buy new Rhino kit from, firestorm games for example - the store is in UK, instead of paying almost the same amount of money for something.,.. well ugly. I don't wanna and shame users in ebay and that's why I'm not gonna post pics.

t's interesting you say it was too soft, I usually want my brushes to be soft for drybrushing so that they don't leave streaks as easily. I typically like a soft brush with a lot of bristles and short hairs. Maybe you could try trimming your brush? Perhaps that's why you feel it's too soft, maybe the bristles are too long for the number of bristles?

One of the many, many tutorials I watched online suggests that you have to use hard drybrush with hard hair and some reason was given as argument. I have old, soft hair hairbrush that is almost destroyed and I can "upgrade" it to a drybrush. But spraying seems like a nice idea too, but the results it's just looking somehow, unnatural to me. Thank you for the guides too! Once I grab a Rhino I will make sure to thin

DalinCriid -

There are actually better brushes from GW for doing tanks now. Get the XL and L basecoat brushes

Spraying is a FANTASTIC idea. I mean, you asked if it was possible to use a brush, so the answer is "yes", but Army Painter makes a colored primer that makes your life a lot easier. But if you're doing one rhino, it's pretty expensive.

That is the silliest thing I have ever heard (using hard, stiff bristles on a dry-brush).

The size of bristles on a brush (and their stiffness) is an aspect of how much paint they can hold, and what sort of stroke they create when laying down color.

Think of the bristles as the size of the pixels you are using.

When you have larger pixels, you get a lower-resolution image.

This is what using hard, stiff bristles will do, since they are almost ALWAYS larger to get stiffer bristles.

Whoever claimed this apparently never had any formal art instruction, because they taught us in our introductory design, media, and practical classes that in pretty much ANY art that uses paint brushes, you want to use as fine a brush as possible for almost everything.

There are a small handful of cases where stiff bristles are applicable, but in every one of them they are used because you WANT to leave brush-strokes, or a grainy texture to the paint.

The length of the bristles for dry-brushing can vary (I have used anything from a regular paint brush to a very short cat's tongue brush).

It would depend upon the effect you wish to produce.

Longer haired brushes are better for blending the dry-brush into a damper base-color, while shorter bristles are better for doing things like edge highlighting.

But the only reason you would want to use a stiff-bristled brush to do a dry-brush is if you wanted to achieve a grainier texture.

The same goes with paint.

I have seen some people insanely claim that you want the paint to be thicker with a dry-brush. This is true if you want a grainy dry-brush. Drier paint does not blend as well, and it clumps up faster.

For everything we were taught at school, you dilute the paint for a dry-brush the same way (and sometimes more-so) that you would for regular painting. Diluting it more than usual will produce a finer blend, but care needs to be taken, because a more dilute paint is harder to get the right amount left in the brush (and it can cause streaking).

One last point:

Even though any brush shape can be used for dry-brushing, typically it is flat brushes that are actually MADE for dry-brushing.

These would be the typical "Flat," the Filbert, and the Cat's Tongue. I find that the Filbert is the best out of the three (it is a cross between a normal flat, and a cat's tongue - which itself is a very pointed flat brush).

The filbert's taper tends to hold more paint and it applies paint more accurately than a regular flat, which tends to flair as it has been used (sometimes creating difficulties in keeping the paint exactly where you want it to go). And the flat sides allow for the application to edges very easily, without causing any "spillover" (getting paint on an adjacent surface).

MB

If the brush is too soft to give a nice stiff drybrush, you can sometimes cut the bristle shorter so they will have less flex.

For Drybrushing I almost always use cheapo flat brushes either form the craft store or those intended for kid's painting.

IKEA actually has a brush set that is cheap and has some brushes that are great for drybrushing or terrain stippling.

Thanks for the guides!
For soldiers, for now I guess Im gonna stick to highlighting than drybrushing, cause my second attempt with drybrush made a really bad job...

 DalinCriid wrote:
Thanks for the guides!
For soldiers, for now I guess Im gonna stick to highlighting than drybrushing, cause my second attempt with drybrush made a really bad job...

So you're obviously starting out, but you seem to be all over the place, and frankly asking questions you could answer with a simple google search, or search of the forums here.

Drybrushing is simple. Simplesimplesimple. You MUST master it as a technique, as it is easy, effective and you will use it on literally every model you paint. My guess is that you didn't get enough paint off the brush before you started. As the name implies, you want the brush to feel almost dry, with most of the paint wiped off before you start.

I'll just buy a drybrush and try practise more. The one I use now is an old brush that I cutted. I dont know what I'm doing wrong but a lot of paint, on a completely drybrush, covers stuff that is not meant to be painted on the model.
Thank you anyway. I will try not to spam the forums with stuff I can find in Google.

Good luck! I apologise, I was quite harsh, maybe if you post some pictures of the brushes that would help answer some questions.

 DalinCriid wrote:
Hi all,

I was looking for a cheap, second hand rhino in ebay, and what I found was really bad 15 GBP/USD painted rhinos. I was wondering are there any steps how to strip the paint and repaint it a new?

Also I would like to ask you If it's possible to create your own drybrush from an old hairbrush or no one bother with such stuff and people buy specially designed drybrushes. I tried to make a drybrush on my own but somehow failed, making really bad job on drybrishg the mini, the hair of the brush was too soft.

And in addition. It is possible to paint a decent vehicle without using airbrush?

Edit on the first question:
It seems that when shipping is included buying badly painted second hand model is stupid mistake and I rather buy it new.

Gota be careful of shipping

Stipping is fine but it depends on what chemicals you have access too.

Personal preference is purple power but it seems most degrease er seem to do the job. double check first

People having been painting Golden demon quality tanks and stuff by hand forever so its absolutely doable without an airbrush

Key tricks i remember from the past is to paint in thin coats with a large brush. and to always paint on the wet edge. when you paint on dry edges you get layering issues and the blends are noticeable.

 DalinCriid wrote:
I'll just buy a drybrush and try practise more. The one I use now is an old brush that I cutted. I dont know what I'm doing wrong but a lot of paint, on a completely drybrush, covers stuff that is not meant to be painted on the model.
Thank you anyway. I will try not to spam the forums with stuff I can find in Google.

A "Drybrush" is the name of a technique and NOT the name of a kind of paintbrush.

Do NOT cut the top off a brush to dry brush with.

Use any regular brush, which has just had most of the paint wiped out of it.

It should be pointed out that if you are not using a form of wet-palette, your drybrushing will tend to be very grainy (assuming you get enough of the paint out of the brush). A wet-palette will keep the paint at the right consistency so that it does not become grainy.

To repeat: The best brushes to use for drybrushing are either regular flat brushes, or what is called a "Filbert" (it is a slightly tapered flat brush). These will hold more paint, while still allowing enough of it to be pulled out of the brush to be able to DO a "Drybrush."

The reason I pointed out the Filbert and Cat's Tongue brushes previously in doing a drybrush is to point out that they allow you to more accurately control WHERE you put the paint while doing one so that it does not wind up in places on the model you did not intend it to be.

MB

 goblinzz wrote:

 DalinCriid wrote:
Thanks for the guides!
For soldiers, for now I guess Im gonna stick to highlighting than drybrushing, cause my second attempt with drybrush made a really bad job...

So you're obviously starting out, but you seem to be all over the place, and frankly asking questions you could answer with a simple google search, or search of the forums here.

Drybrushing is simple. Simplesimplesimple. You MUST master it as a technique, as it is easy, effective and you will use it on literally every model you paint. My guess is that you didn't get enough paint off the brush before you started. As the name implies, you want the brush to feel almost dry, with most of the paint wiped off before you start.

Drybrushing is actually deceptively not that easy. It's taught to new players as an easy way to get a model highlighted but almost all the time it just ends up messy.

Drybrushing can actually create anything from scratchy looking edges on a tank to smooth blends that look like they were blended,

Funnily enough when I talk to finescale modellers (opposed to wargamers), most of them don't like drybrushing specifically because they find it a very difficult technique to master.