HOW TO: Armor Texture & Flame Cut Marks

are the type of armored modeler who just build stuff out of the box but you would like to improve your models with as little effort as possible or are you all about detailing the head of your builds and you've been wondering like where do I start well then let me introduce you to one of the most basic construction techniques known to armored modelers adding armor texture and flame cut marks [Music] what's up guys how are you doing today these two techniques are one of the easiest out there and you can use them to drastically improve the appearance of your armor models even if you're just building a simple kit straight out of the box your models are gonna look more metal and other modelers will notice that x-ray and if you like to compete it will increase your chance of getting that shiny medal on a model show before we start there are a few things worth mentioning some higher quality kids come with molded armor textures but it might be too faint for your taste or you can actually destroy some of it if you have to send something for example speaking of sanding it's also important to feel and send any unwanted gaps on the main kit part before you start applying the texture and if you plan on making your own weld seams you should rip the armor plays beforehand as well but that's a topic for another video okay so let's see what we'll need some people like to use mr. surfacer 500 to texture their models the results are great but it's easy to dissolve this thing with glue or the Bhandar so I don't use it that often but we'll definitely take a look at it at some point on this channel what I prefer is to me a buddy make sure it's the basic type or simply the gray one and I like to mix it with mr. cement as for mr. hobby to me extra-thin works great as well but this one dries a lot more faster I'm using this metal cap from a pickle jar to mix it a ghetto solution of swords but it gets the job done and you also need a selection of old frailer brushes to apply the texture big ones for large surfaces and small ones for precise application obviously so for starters let's add small amount of putty into the cap and put some cement on top of it then you just have to mix them together until you get this somewhere in between consistency the first layer is there to partially melt the plastic so you can be pretty heavy-handed with it and before we get any further it's very important to decide where you should apply the texture current fashion is to add it to the thickest blades on the tank so mostly the front side and sometimes rear plates top plates were usually very thin and that due to manufacturing processes which I don't quite understand resulted in a smoother finish this creates a nice contrast between the individual panels and makes the model more interesting and detailed the other important thing is to not mistake this effect for cast steel texture the other one has a specific appearance because the manufacturing process is completely different I'll make a tutorial about that as well as soon as I build a model with cast to it or something so back to the topic this layer of stippled body is there to build melt and damage the plastic of the kit which will create some fine racist imperfections and to also add some raised texture that's why we're using diluted body and not just glue I'd also like to point out that you should try to work as clean as possible so don't apply the putty anywhere else of course a few dabs here and there are okay if you can easily remove them but we'll get to that later in this video the intensity of the texture is also completely up to you and it's good to use reference photos if you can if there are no detailed photos or you're building a fictional tank just use your common sense if you wanted a light texture this layer would be enough but let's take it a little bit further now well mix much thicker puddy again I don't know how to describe it so just take a look and you'll get the idea this mixture should be applied only in a few places and it will create heavier spots of race texture it will be drying quite fast on your brush so you will need to mix it with cement over and over again because this set creates quite heavy texture it's again important to decide where you want to apply it or if you need to apply it like at all on this particular model I decided to apply it only on the thickest place so the front glazes sides and the interest now that I said it it will be easier to say right I didn't apply it aka the back plate and if this step looks quite gnarly that's because it is but there are several ways to refine it later like with most techniques some back and forth action is always necessary so for the final layer will mix a very thin mixture almost like a glue with a few drops of body it should be thin enough to run freely like a liquid and this layer is there to unify the previous two you're basically gonna just tie these things up and tie them together which is especially helpful if the texture you created is quite messy which usually is if you're hitting that surface hard enough if you encounter any small details on the surface you have two options you can remove them and scratch build new ones if they are bad or if that's not the case take a small brush and carefully apply the texture around them you must be very careful and take your time because it's hard to remove the body without damaging them and trust me small bolts don't look good with armor texture on top of them that's just a sign of lazy modeling okay now that the texture had a few minutes to dry it's time to sand it down I like to use this micro fine sanding sponge but any kind of fine sandpaper should be okay and by fine I mean like two or three thousand grit it's important to apply very little pressure on the surface you're not trying to remove the texture you're just leveling it aka making it smoother and level just like a real role steel plates if you added too much texture now it's time to actually do the opposite and put more pressure on the sandpaper and remove some of the excess putty a very common mistake I see often is that modelers add too heavy texture which looks like rough Soviet casting or like a block of concrete so take your time here and make sure to smoothen it out sanding will create a lot of dust you can use a no toothbrush to clean the surface or if there's too much it's actually not a bad idea to just put the model in a sink and clean it with some soapy water then it's time to clean the excess body that you happily slapped where it doesn't belong I think scraping it from grooves where weld seams will go is not that important but since it can affect the shape and depth of the groove I like to do it anyway plus the model looks more professional when everything is nice and tidy also the nearby areas such as the should I call it the armor thickness the parts that show you how thick to play this these also get messy and since we'll be creating flame cuts there it's important to clean them too and the same rule about clean and professional looking applies here as well small accidents like this can happen during the cleanup you can easily remove unwanted scrapes with small amount of diluted buddy now that we have the model fully textured and cleaned up we can take a hobby knife and I'd actually recommend against using a new blade because you'll break the tip anyway so use an older blade but it has to be still sharp like this one for example and we can start carving into flame cuts this should be perpendicular perpendicular perpendicular to the edge of the plate and just like with the armor texture their intensity depends on the subject some armor plates have their edges machine so they actually look pretty neat but others can have visible gouges in them excellent example of this are Soviet tanks built during the war the type of plastic has a big impact on the result and this particular kit is made from strange brittle styrene I've never seen before so the result won't be what I'm used to but it's still gonna be interesting you probably notice that I scrape the ridges in then turn the model around and repeat the same thing that's because you should keep the blade slightly angled to give them more natural-looking results and because I want some of them to be deeper and wider I'm repeating the process from the opposite side it's also a good idea to slightly scrape away the excess plastic otherwise the result will be quite brutal and we don't want that except if you're building an is-2 then you should definitely leave them there it's important to be careful during this process first you can easily cut yourself I usually cut myself each time but nothing serious and second it's easy to damage the surrounding part with your blade and although this technique is very easy it takes some time so you have to be patient adding texture and flame cuts to this model took me about 4 evenings which is a time other modelers would need to build into our model but it would look a lot less interesting than this so when you're done it's once again time to grab some liquid cement and brush it over the cut marks this will melt the plastic and softened the effect creating a realistic finish I used to believe the only suitable cement for this was Tamiya extra thin because it melts plastic real good but mr. cement s works just fine and it doesn't take forever to dry it actually evaporates right in front of your eyes so you can work faster how much glue you add or actually how many passes you make over the parts will determine the final result the more you melt the plastic the softer the result so you have multiple ways to adjust the effect and get the result you're after it just takes a tiny bit of practice to get used to it and all of a sudden you get a much more interesting model congratulations you don't have to be a rocket scientist to get this right they're both super easy techniques you can use them in 1/16 135th 148 170 second I even did it once on a 100 scale tank is the most important thing it's fun and it proves your model like so much and once again it doesn't matter if you're building out of the box or your super detailing your favorite tank you can use these techniques on any armor model because if you look close enough no tank is smooth ok maybe except a challenger or abrams but I'm sure even those have some rough spots anyway thank you all for watching and let me know in the comments if you like texturing your models as well and if you have some of your own techniques thanks again mates and I'll see you in the next one it actually it actually evaporates right in front of your eyes hmm it actually evaporates right in front of your eye it actually it actually even it actually evaporates right in front of your eyes it actually it actually evaporates right in front of your eyes front it actually it actually evaporates right in front of your front right in front of your eyes

Channel: Night Shift

Views: 303,330

Rating: 4.9641943 out of 5

Keywords: scale model, tank, plastic model, model kit, tank model, tutorial, how to, model building, martin kovac, night shift, scale model techniques, scale model tips, scale model detail, art, superdetail, tamiya, craft, putty, armor texture, texture, steel plate, modelism, modellismo, miniatura, modellbau

Id: 0-kqLtRGhUQ

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2019