Report of Demonstration of Weathering with Ink Wash & Drybrushing by Andrew Vaughan on 6th October 2021

This followed the delayed 2021 AGM.

Andrew was demonstrating on a Slaters 16mm to the foot scale WDLR skip wagon.  He had already primed it with white primer and brush painted two coats of matt grey, not very evenly, as a base colour.

He was using Citadel Paints dark brown ink diluted about 1:10 ink to water.  Games Workshop do something similar called Shading paints but you could go to an art shop.  He flooded the ink into all the nooks and crannies where it clung to the raised details.  Any excess ink can be lifted using a dried brush; just do it twice if it doesn’t come out dark enough.   It then needs to be left for a couple of hours.  (Andrew had another kit he had inked a few days earlier)

To dry brush, he uses old, worn out brushes as it is a very harsh process.  Andrew uses Games Workshop acrylic paints.  The paint is put onto the brush then mostly removed by brushing onto scrap paper.  It can then be used to deposit tiny specks of paint onto the model.

The first colour is Black.  This forms shadows and is worked into the bottom of shapes, channel etc. Next is dark grey.  This is brushed over the surfaces paying attention to raised details. Rust follows.  This can be quite bright and if necessary, tempered later with darker shades. A lighter grey picks out the high spots.

Tiny amounts of silver finish the process and help the light to catch edges and the tops of details.  It is also used where paint is worn down to the base metal.

The model can be gone over again if necessary.

Andrew then showed us some of his own Severn Models buildings where inks had been run into the mortar courses followed by dry brushing of the bricks.  Wooden sheds have light browns dry brushed to highlight the edges of planks.

It was a very enjoyable demonstration watched by an enthusiastic audience, wowed by Andrew’s artistic and technical talents.