Slow your role Dude….visually (sheen and saturation) I mean. In the November 15th blog I discussed the importance of understanding how atmosphere and distance de-saturate subjects and also remove any gloss.
Vehicles are an important element of our scenes. However, out of the box they over the top in terms of gloss and saturation. We need to dial things back visually.
The Brekina line of vehicles is very high quality. Not cheap though. (side note. You’re far better off with a few thirty dollar vehicles than a boat load of ten dollar pieces of crap that look like they came from a cereal box). I picked up one of the Brekina pick up trucks for use on the Alco Line project. Nice detail but, the gloss and chrome was over the top. I needed to dial things back, slow the roll, but do so subtly. Here’s what I did.
-Mask off the windshields.
-Over a span of fifteen minutes lightly fog on three successive coats of Dullcote.
-Paint the mirrors and bumpers with Tamiya “Sky Grey” XF-19. (I strongly suggest adding the Tamiya Color line to your palette, especially their grays).
-Paint the rear license plate flat white
-Using a ratty brush, gently grind Bragdon Weathered Brown chalk into the hubcaps and wheels to knock the color down to reality.
-Again, using the Bragdon Weathered Brown, light grind some of it into the truck bed.
That’s it. Nothing major. We’re just taking a high-quality product and dialing the color and gloss back few notches.