Trying Weathering Chalks

[tompm]

After getting back into modeling I found that I had forgotten how I did some of my weathering. The last few months I have been experimenting with different methods. I have given up on airbrushing as a method. I was growing dissatisfied with it back in the old days.

In the past and now I have used a combination of washes and dry brushing for weathering. I have used craft paints exclusively. I have had in my opinion varying degrees of success with these methods. For washes I used blue windshield washer fluid with great success. However, recently I have not been happy with it. They must have changed the formulation and I believe lowered the alcohol content. I can’t prove this, but I had an old bottle and things were better than the bottle I bought earlier this year.

I was also a big fan of Folk Art paint but their color selection has been reduced in the stores around here. Gone are many of my favorites. I have tried other brands but they are usually too watery for my purposes.

I have searched YouTube and found several videos which at first seemed helpful. After trying the methods, I was left frustrated with my level of success. The videos always seem to be missing some important pre-starting step or just became boring ramblings.

I purchased a couple of books. I tend to like printed instructions. For me, the videos can be great to show something, but it is hard to repeat the instructions or in some cases find the particular technique I am looking for in a 30-minute video.

One thing that caught my eye was weathering chalks. I have tried them in the past with no luck. The car would look great until I sealed it. All the work I did would disappear. I would do multiple applications but, in the end, it looked like I did nothing.

I started to read and see examples using the newer weathering chalks. The more I researched the more I liked what I found. A couple of months ago I purchased some Pan Pastel chalks. My first attempts were to add the chalks to cars that had been previously weathered using washes.