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A problem I keep having is that with large flat panels on vehicles, I'll get a real nice even, consistent basecoat, and after I've done my edging and blacklining, there's inevitably touch ups to do. I can never seem to get these touch ups to look smooth. The touched up areas often look a slightly different color, and they always reflect the light a little differently than the basecoat when you hold it such that you get that bit of glare off the surface (the two I'm thinking are related?) ,and I can't seem to avoid a witness line around the edge of the touch-up, even if I go really thin, and lay down flow aid before the paint in an even wider area. Anyone have any tips for how to seamlessly incorporate touchups on large surfaces like that?

ok so you are refering to tide lines? like the outer edge is more prominent raised area?
,
also was your original coat a solid color because if a color comes out dif it means 1 of two things

1 - the original color was transparent and not full yet

2 - the paint now isnt shaken up enough and has some issue there or just isnt a perfect match

if there is a sheen to the color where it once had none, something has been added/changed to the paint. paint cannot just become shiny. I'm not entirely sure if pigment separation can cause a sheen but shaking the paint with an agitator would be a start at eliminating potential issues


when i touch areas up If i just use very thin layers. it might take multiple coats but thin layers painted over as much area as possible shouldn't have any issues and since we are talking large flat panels then you have a lot of room to taper it out with

whats a witness line? sounds like a religious scam from a televangelist.

YOUR WITNESS LINES ARE A SHOWIN. THOU MUST PLANT A SEED OF A THOUSAND DOLLARS ALLALUYAH

I try my darndest to not have to do touch ups. I find it far more time consuming to do a touch up than if I'd just been more careful to start with.

But yeah, lots of thin layers, the first layer should be larger than the area you want to touch up, gradually working down to the are where the mistake was actually made. That will both blend the colour and avoid a raised edge.

Sometimes the different appearance in the touched up area is simply a difference in sheen rather than colour (especially if it was airbrushed and then touched up by hand, but you can also get a difference in sheen simply because the paint was a different viscosity when you laid it down or a hot day vs a cold day).

To fix that, you can hit the area with a varnish after you've done the touch up.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I try my darndest to not have to do touch ups. I find it far more time consuming to do a touch up than if I'd just been more careful to start with.

But yeah, lots of thin layers, the first layer should be larger than the area you want to touch up, gradually working down to the are where the mistake was actually made. That will both blend the colour and avoid a raised edge.

Sometimes the different appearance in the touched up area is simply a difference in sheen rather than colour (especially if it was airbrushed and then touched up by hand, but you can also get a difference in sheen simply because the paint was a different viscosity when you laid it down or a hot day vs a cold day).

To fix that, you can hit the area with a varnish after you've done the touch up.

try my hardest for no touch ups, but sometimes, just have to, especially when you're picking out the highlight on a corner that's way shallower than 90 degrees and a little rounded like on the outer doors of Drop Pods.

Difference in sheen is the issue. The basecoat was done with a huge brush, and the touchups are done with a little one, and you can really see all the little brushstrokes in the light. I've tried applying with minimal paint, (as I did with the basecoat), or ample thinned paint, and no luck either way....

I'll give the varnish trick a try!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

eosgreen wrote:
ok so you are refering to tide lines? like the outer edge is more prominent raised area?
,

when i touch areas up If i just use very thin layers. it might take multiple coats but thin layers painted over as much area as possible shouldn't have any issues and since we are talking large flat panels then you have a lot of room to taper it out with

By witness line, I mean a line around the edge of the painted area yeah. I get it whether I go wet or dry. The touched up are doesn't look shinyer, it tends to look significantly duller and you can really see the brush strokes.

I'm going to try some car polish on these ares to see if I can blend them back into a nice sheen like the base. I'll Let everybody know how that turns out.

Tried a little of this:

http://www.meguiars.com/en/professional/products/m0216-fine-cut-cleaner-16-oz/#0I5eeWqCUvTbFyyV.97

,and a little of this:

https://www.novuspolish.com/fine_scratch_remover.html

and they both helped even out the sheen of the different layers of paint. I think the Novus gave a little bit nicer finish, but I believe it's also more expensive (I borrowed a little sample of each from work) I applied it with a q tip. If anyone wants to try this, just be sure to be very sparing and use a very light touch as both products will remove paint!

Cheap air brush from michaels. Cost you like $30

OgreChubbs wrote:
Cheap air brush from michaels. Cost you like $30

I'm not sure how I would touch up the edging and black lining with an airbrush...

Mask area off and airbrush

Wherever it would be possible to mask off and airbrush a tiny area I'm trying to touch up black-lining, and the edging on (in the case of black lining I fail to see how this could really work), after all that amount of trouble, would I not still be left with a witness or tide line around the area I'd masked off to airbrush?

Airbrushes aren't great for touch ups anyway. Even if it's in the middle of a large panel and all you want to do is blend it out it will be more work to do it with an airbrush than it would have been just to do it with a hairy brush then hide it under a layer of varnish.

Does Lahmian medium work just as well for that?

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
hide it under a layer of varnish.

This^. We usually think of a top coat as adding protection (which it does), but it also gives all of the paints a uniform sheen. This makes high lights pop more, as well as making shadows look deeper. If the only problem you're having with your touch ups is a difference in sheen, hit the model with some Dullcote and it should disappear.

ETA: Lahmian Medium is just paint without pigment.

Yes, exactly. And does it work just as well for that? a while back I spent about a fortnight and a hundred bucks going through just about every kind of varnish I could get my hands on and I couldn't find one that didn't subly shift the balance of colors and dull the highlights, unless we're talking gloss, which is absolutely not the look I am going for.

Maybe, I haven't tried using Lahmian Medium to do it but I have heard others who have said it can be applied over paints to change their sheen.

All varnishes are going to subtly shift the appearance of colours unless you find one that perfectly matches the sheen of your paint, and since not all paint has the same sheen out of the bottle anyway then it's basically impossible. Even Lahmium Medium will homogenise the surface to the sheen of LM rather than the original paint.

Personally I like Vallejo Polyurethane Satin Varnish (not the acrylic resin one, make sure you shake it until you can't see the white powdery matte medium on the bottom of the bottle) as I find it closest to the sheen of most of the paints I use, so it has the least affect on colours. It's not shiny enough to make it look glossy but also not so dull as to mute the colours. But YMMV, I've been known to mix my own varnishes when the ones out of the bottle aren't giving me the effect I want. On the last cockpit I was painting my satin varnish was giving too much shine but the matte would have been too dull, so I mixed matte with gloss until I got it right where I wanted it,. but most people aren't going to take the time to do that.

That's why my first statement in this thread was "I try my darndest to not have to do touch ups. I find it far more time consuming to do a touch up than if I'd just been more careful to start with." Depending on the model sometimes it can be easier to just repaint the whole damned panel than trying to fix it. Seriously, I have a Spitfire sitting on my display shelf that took me in the realm of 100 hours to do with a couple of blemishes, I just put a really thin layer of the basecoat over them to dull them out but you can still see them, to fix them properly I'd have to repaint the entire panel, but then my weathering wouldn't match. At some point you just have to say "eh, close enough, where's the next model". I spent easter sunday stripping and repainting a P-51 because I managed to botch the natural metallic finish on it (trying a new technique and failed), if I hadn't already spent ages on the cockpit I probably would have just tossed it in the bin and moved on

Sometimes you can work it in to the scheme (for example, instead of putting 1 streak of paint where the touch up is, put a whole heap of them across the entire surface to give a more weathered look).

Oh, also, if you are washing or glazing the panel, if you do your touch up before the wash or glaze then it'll blend it in the same way a varnish does.

If I can't get a spot to look like everything else, I make it something different.

Decals, battle damage, rust spots, a new bit glued on etc.

I didn't know about the Valejo poly laquer. I think their acrylic is the best I've tried so far, Although I think the reaper looks better on metallics.

Working it in to some weathering or something is an interesting idea. My main army which I'm getting mech'd up ATM is Ultramarines, and I kinda feel like ready for inspection 24/7 is how they roll.

Do you have a picture of the issue? Honestly I think it would be solved with a clear coat to seal the model and match the sheen