Best type of paint brush for creating streaking effects

[chutton01]

Thanks for the suggestions so far - I will try Randy's (and lupo's) suggestion of a cheap nylon blunt bru***rimmed a bit, as the models I have in mind for this already have their finish coats applied and so the 'base-coat/finish coat/scratching' process is not an option (although for future models it would make sense...).

[Anonymous]

Fergie and Randy both offer the technique I would use. But (and there always is one) if you look closely at the forklift you will see where the bare metal is showing and the drivers shoe has worn through and polished the metal to a silver right above the step where the side rolls over to the floorboard. It's obvious the sides have been scraped so that the gray "primer" paint shows through the yellow. You can also see in some of the primer gray areas where the scratches go deep enough to get down to bare metal which has rusted, below the step, between the tires and the back corners of the body.

If it were me painting this project I would paint 3-4 coats of dark rust red for a base coat. Paint a small portion of the rounded edge above the step with a couple coats of silver. Then paint the sides with medium gray and cover it all with yellow. I would use steelwool to rub through the yellow and expose the gray in various places and also the silver. On the corners I would take it down to the rust red. Then lightly drag, one pass at a time, a thin strip (finger width) of course sandpaper #100 or #80 down the sides to get the streaking effect taking off only a bit of the yellow where it blends into the grays. The exposed gray (from the steelwool process) would then have a few scratches that go through to the rust red.

Practice by painting the 3 colors, use the steelwool and drag the sandpaper across untill you find the right amount of pressure to apply to the steelwool and sandpaper to get the effect you are looking for.

Remember, scratches and paint chips are rough edged so don't try to make the final surace smooth like you would when painting locos and cars.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with Fergie, and likely everyone else who has gotten just the effect you want, but not when and where we wanted it.

I suggest you select the appropriate width brush for the job at hand...say from 1/8 to 1 inch in width...of the cheapest flat blunt nylon brush you can find and cut it down to an appropriate stiffness and thin to limit the amount of paint it will hold. Should give the effect you want.

Alternately you can paint a base coat in the desired color and over coat it with the finish color and use a "scratch brush" on the over coat.

Good Luck

Randy

[Fergmiester]

Actually I wonder what would happen if you painted the model silver or aluminum and let it set for a week. Then painted it with a finishing coat of the desired colour. Before the second/final coat hardened take some steel wool and rub it across the area you wanted "scraped". I've done this in the past and gotten similiar results.

Unfortunately it wasn't the desired results I wanted[sigh][banghead]

[lupo]

I had that kind of effect once and not intended when i used a cheap brush wich was made of some kind of nylon wich was water repellent, the brush would not hold paint,

heave you tried sandpaper to get this effect?

[chutton01]

OK, I think the subject says it all. I searched various weathering threads, and saw lots of (good) information about making rust streaks with a fine brush (or using pastels etc.). These have been saved since they will do for many types of rust/damage effects, but what I want to do (and the worst part I could do it 15 years ago - but I since forgot [:I] ) is to make many thin, parallel streaks more or less at once by dry-brushing with rust/brown paint (i.e. not one streak at a time)... The few practice attempts I've done so far indicate that my motley brush collection is not up to this task in HO (or I'm not up to it...). Suggestions from those who have done this type of weathering as to what type of brush is best (and if you say stiff, what type of brush material?)

Hopefully this picture illustrates what I mean - notice the parallel streaks of bare metal (scratches, I believe) showing through the yellow paint on the bottom of the forklift's side. I've also seen this with rust damage.
http://www.geocities.com/wildmanweb/forklift.html