Maschinen Krieger Weathering Gunk Wash for the Scale Model Lunadiver Stingray.

Hi guys, here’s my Ma.K Lunadiver Stingray kit all painted and weathered up. It’s an armored strike fighter used to spearhead the assault on the Strahl’s Luna Bases, taking out the defenses with it’s powerful rail gun to allow the follow up forces to to land and take control.

My finish is trying to replicate how it might look towards the end of the re-entry burn back to earth and I’m thinking of calling it, “Bumpy Ride!”. What do you think?

In this video, I will share with you how I ruined and then un-ruined it and tested out a bunch of new steps. It was a little scary but loads of fun too!

I’d also like to give a grateful shout out to 2 stores in the USA who are carrying my new book locally there for you,

Burbank House of Hobbies and Michigan Toy Soldier.

They also both have Ma.K Kits, paints and accessories too. I checked on their websites. No, not a sneaky promo at all, just a free shout out for good stores selling cool stuff as a heads up for you awesome folks watching this.

My Sci-Fi FAQ book at Burbank House of Hobbies

My Sci-Fi FAQ book at Michigan Toy Soldier

I’d especially like to thank my supporters on Patreon for paying me to film myself UN-ruining this Plastic Space Stingray. If you’d like to support the channel and get access to bonus videos then visit; https://www.patreon.com/paintonplastic

Thanks for watching, Linc Music by the one and only Robert T (yes one of my supporters!) and the track is "Alkali" https://robertt.bandcamp.com/album/alkali

If you’d prefer to read the script in your own voice or you just like reading stuff quickly like I do, here’s the script for you;

Lunadiver Weathering Video Script

Hi guys, here’s my Ma.K Lunadiver Stingray kit all painted and weathered up. It’s an armored strike fighter used to spearhead the assault on the Strahl’s Luna Bases, taking out the defenses with it’s powerful rail gun to allow the follow up forces to to land and take control. My finish is trying to replicate how it might look towards the end of the re-entry burn back to earth and I’m thinking of calling it, “That was Bumpy!”. What do you think?

In this video, I will share with you how I ruined and then un-ruined it and tested out a bunch of new steps.

It was a little scary but loads of fun too!

Just before we start, I’d like to give a grateful shout out to 2 stores in the USA who are carrying my new book locally there for you, Burbank House of Hobbies and Michigan Toy Soldier. They also both have Ma.K Kits, paints and accessories too. I checked on their websites. No, not a sneaky promo at all, just a free shout out for good stores selling cool stuff as a heads up for you awesome folks watching this.

The Build & Paint

If you are wondering about the Build and Paint steps, please check them out in this video and it’s one the most popular of my recent videos, hope you like it.

Pre-Ruin Detailing

Just before we get into ruining it, I’ve decided to pre-detail the finish just a little more and I thought this may interest you because we can use these steps for other projects as well. I’ve re-done the pencil line to help reinforce that demarcation line on the red bands. Why? Because I like the look of it, how it separates yet connects the red and white and think it looks cool. Yep, that is totally a legit way to paint things I hereby bestow this super power upon you too, we really can paint stuff how we like. Revel in your time, doesn’t it feel great.

Once they looked good to me I reached for the Mr Color off-white again and loaded up a nice, dry flat brush with it and wiped the excess paint off in my “Space White” dish. Yep, that’s the same dish from the Seapig for those folks that who know my works. This will slightly reactivite the yellow white and make the paint on the brush, exactly what we will use. Wait, I mean, exactly what we want it to be!

I’m then overbrushing it back against the imagined direction of travel on the red sections. Why? Well 2 things happen, first it will layer on some off-white to help with the illusion of it having worn away. Then if I go too far and yep, you know that’s our thing, it will also reactivate some of the red brown. Removing some and picking up a little. So why is this cool? Well then it will be applied back onto the re-brown, mixed with the off white and it gives us variation and highlights. Yes, we can control this too, just closely observe what’s happening as you go through this and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It looks great too!

Gunk Wash Recipe

Linc’s Tare Recipe. No secrets here on my channel, I’m more than happy to share!

“Tare” is a joke that I will come back to later in the video, and it’s a food sauce like this and we want our mix to look something like this. Really!

First let’s go with Tamiya Enamel Paint, Flat Black and Flat Brown along with a generous amount of Enamel Paint thinner to a wash consistency.

Then the oil paint. I used the appropriately named and popular “Starship Filth” and later added some “Black” from the Abteilung range to modify it a little. Starship Filth is a mix of brown and black and a good all rounder for Sci-Fi modelling so a handy one to have in your collection.

This addition of the Tamiya Enamels completely changes everything and in my view makes it actually work MUCH better!! The oil paints for the intensity of color whilst the enamel paints help the mix to touch dry much faster and also appear to prevent curing, at least for the 3 or 4 days I worked on it. As a side note, this is my experience with Tamiya Enamels, they don’t ever appear to fully cure so that allows as much re-working time as we need. Would this work with Humbrols or another brand? You will need to test please but a heads up on my beloved Humbrols, they start to cure in just 12 hours and can be nigh impossible to remove after 24. Other brands, please let me know your results!

Ruining or Application

RUIN HIM! Slop. It. On. Haha, get coverage and revel in the feeling that you are somewhat safely absolutely ruining your expensive plastic model kit.

Really right, but of course I am taking care to apply it slightly heavier on details and stretch it out over the panel surfaces. I was asked in a WIP shot on Instagram why I didn’t airbrush this on, because “faster”? Sure, I think you could do that too. Why not? I do think that with brush application we can take advantage of more pooling effects and wonderful inconsistencies but sure, try it out and share with me, happy to see it! Also have to admit I wouldn’t have fun cleaning this gunk out of my airbrush but that’s me. Paint brushes are a swirl and a wipe and I’m good.

Trying to be mindful about applying this horizontally across the model if you are interested in my thinking but in practise I don’t there is much in it. This is the easy part.

The Gunk Wash Backstory

Purely for the unnecessary suspense before the clean, let me share a little backstory.

Many of you will have heard of “Gunk Wash” and might be familiar with it’s most popular formulae. Liberally douse your completed model with oil paint, perhaps thinned a little and then start wiping it off and hope that some staining and effects are produced. Cool.

Now this concept absolutely horrifies many of us as we are familiar with the performance of oil paints so why on earth, or low luna orbit as is in this case, would you DO this Linc?

Ok, confession time! I am guilty of experimenting with oil and enamel “wash” variations in the past and that entailed different mixes to alter the variables, in particular, drying times and sheen. The most successful version for me was to use it as more of a filter and was much more highly thinned to the point where I didn’t need to remove it at all, just continue over the top. This old Raptor is an example, it was overall “filtered” with a mix of brown oils, enamel paints and plenty of thinner.

If there was ever a model I am excited to paint that seems appropriate for this all over methodology of the Gunk Wash, it’s the Luna Diver Stingray and you can see examples in Max Watanabe Sensei’s Ma.K in SFD Volume 1 here.

I remember asking Max at the time what he used for his Gunk Mix, “What, the tare?”. He asked with such a serious face! I broke into laughter because “tare” is the word for “dipping sauce”, no kidding and you can see the resemblance.

“A mix of paints” was all I could get. Either he was playing coy or really didn’t remember so I let it go and promised myself I’d experiment.

Well, this is that experiment and by way of confession, this is my first swing at going “Full Tare” and I’m happy to share it with you. Should we follow that other Lincoln, “Lincoln Osiris” from the movie Tropic Thunder and avoid going “Full Tare”? Well, that's what testing is for!

Un Ruining or Removal

Ok, so here is where we attempt to un-ruin the finish…

The drying time doesn’t seem to be an issue with my mix as shown. Whether I started cleaning up right away or 4 days later, it seems about the same.

What will likely influence this step more is the sheen of your base color paints. At the glossy end, there won’t be much staining. The flatter your base paints and the more staining you can enjoy. That’s just something that I will ask you to experiment with, my example for you here is on full gloss paint. In a way, we could call this the “safest” way to “Gunk Wash” as we should be able to remove as much or as little as we want.

Q-tips or cotton buds as we say in Straya were my preferred tool here. Yes, you will need more than you think because their performance deteriorates very quickly. We can use them dry, or we can use them wet. Yes, I am trying to sound like Din Djari because This is The Way. Wet with an enamel thinner. Nothing fancy, I primarily used the same enamel thinner that I made the wash with but also tested Lighter Fluid. Same same. Go for cheap.

They pick up excess paint quickly and can be used like a photoshop erase tool at first, they quickly then become a blur tool and just move our paint around on the surface.

Yep, this is just how it works and I found I would then have a couple on the go, using them to clean more when new, blending in the middle of their usefulness and then to reapply effects and paint once they become saturated. It all worked and over the course of one model you will be able to figure it out too.

Start with your open areas where you want less stain and work up to your details. I wanted these streaking effects into the finish with the Lunadiver so had their size, shape and direction visually locked in and worked to bring that into reality. 90% or more of my movements were in the direction of tip to tail, following the contours and curves of the model.

As I imagine this might enter the atmosphere belly first, some of those streaks would wrap up the sides and both along and up the tail if that makes sense?

Start a new area with a new q-tip, rework some of the effects as it collects more paint and then finalise your effects as it reaches the end of its life. Working from section to section should see you cover the model reasonably quickly but no rush at all, we are doing so many different effects here at once so even if it feels slow, you are actually moving along nice and fast!

Once I had this to my liking, I set it aside for almost no time at all because I knew I’d fingerprint it or something, and gave it a light dust of Mr Super Clear Semi Gloss from the can. Your choice of varnish here is really open but as mentioned before, the Tamiya Enamels really do need a protective coat to stay put. Your sheen is your choice, more gloss for less staining, flatter for more grip. Please experiment with which you prefer, I went with semi-gloss for the happy medium.

So are we there yet?

That’s the heavy lifting done, maybe 80 to 90% of our finish and if you are pressed for time or just don’t want to do more, then kaboom, you are done and congratulations. Nice finish, I’m proud of you, show me in the socials! Yes, Uncle Linc is a great teacher!

Now if you want to improve it just a little more, how about try out these next easy steps with me? As a bonus, these steps are not specific to this process, please feel free to add them to any finishing routines you already have.

The Best Drybrush Paint in History

The Classic Black Drybrush with Boomer Paint. Yep, with the pain in the butt lid, try this one out with me. Humbrol Matt 33. It’s THE one, I promise!

“It’s unrealistic”. Sure, I don't disagree at all. We are making pretend stuff anyway so let's fake it up a little more! It’s difficult to open. Yes it is, that’s a feature! You get at least 250XP on your lid opening wizardry score and are more menly. Or something. I have a little laugh every time I come back and use this little tin of paint. And, it’s totally worth it.

It seems to have the most balanced properties of paint consistency, drying time and color to be dry brushed and no, I don’t use it for anything else.

There were just a bunch of places that I felt the Gunk Wash didn’t edge the model properly. I mean of course right, it’s so random so expecting to just be able to dip and flick it is kinda kerazy isn’t it. So that’s what I did, I eyeballed a bunch of places that I felt should become more sooty and streaky as it fell back to earth and made it happen. I did it all in one sitting and then carefully put aside to dry out and harden up overnight. Next morning it was solid Humbrol goodness so I zoomed into the step, dry brushing with oils.

Detailing with Oils & Enamels

I don’t really have a clever way of explaining this other than to say the finish needed a little more oomph, or resolution of detail to my eye along with color depth and variation in the burn marks. So a mix of oil paints and what I suspect are oil and enamel mixes because that’s how they perform.

Smoke for transparent black/dark grey and shades of umber, burnt and regular. Oil paints for broader strokes and the wet enamels for painting into details. The application and expression is largely the same, using the large brush to work them into the finish and leave some depth inside details, some streaks for the appearance of movement and color variance with the black, greys and dark browns.

Working to contrasts, one side more smoke and even some sneaky dark umber green shade, Industrial Earth is a nice paint for this and then more brown on the other, with the warmer umber shades and the “Wash Brown” oil paint.

This is full of arty expressions and bags of fun. Deffo try brushing oils onto your model neat, it’s one of the best ways to get a handle on how oils behave. Just be really careful, they do take time to try so handling the model is tricky. Choosing a handle, like in this case the tail, can really help and do it in sections and then clear coat when done. Makes it safer and less nerve wracking. I admit to doing it all in one go but you know I like doing stupid things like this and accept the risks and do my best to be mindful. It’s part of my art I guess.

If there is one thing I can suggest at this stage is to try and keep your directional vectors all coherent and contributing to the overall impression of the craft plummeting down from the atmosphere.

Except for here, the tail end, where the rocket nozzles are.

Rocket Nozzles

This was one place on the model that had me stumped, I seriously had no clue how to finish this section. So like always, I just take a full speed run at it and see what happens. We can find a way!

And, I did! It occurred to me how circular most of the details are back here so…. How about continuing on with the genius of Kow Yokoyama Sensei’s design and stipple in circle burn and soot marks around where the nozzles will sit. Then extend them along the tail boom.

Is it realistic? Well, I’m not sure but do enjoy the visual imagery it produces for me so let’s do it. A primary stipple of reasonably dry Smoke or transparent black oil paint followed up by an inner ring of dark brown, a burnt umber or Wash Brown if you need a product name to point at.

Whilst doing this, it instinctively felt right and I really enjoyed the effect. Was it the right call? Well, it happened and it’s done so I’m ok with answering “yes” and pushing this over the finished line.

In fact, I liked it so much it inspired me to finish the rocket bells in the same way. I knew I wanted something very simple, sure there are no limits on how much time we can spend on our hobby but I recently saw a friend do what felt like waaay too many steps to just add some soot to a jet airplanes engine area.

So I tried just that but the opposite. Back when I had the airbrush out in the paint stage, I also base coated the rocket bells with Mr Color Gloss Black. Then I carefully sprayed on some Pale Burnt Metal from this range leaving plenty of black showing for the more burnt areas. Not product specific, I feel any nice high quality metallic would work here.

Set them aside until this moment and then boom, brought them back into play and gave them the same oil treatment.

Black Transparent “smoke” on the more brunt ring elements and then brown “highlight” burn for the brighter elements, inside and out.

It was deceptively fast and I like it. I mean, yes I am the worst enabler and can talk myself into anything but I actually think they look ok. They match up with the rest of the finish, particularly the back here and have that wonderfully, harsh and visceral 1970’s and 80’s Sci-Fi vibe.

Aaaand that means I am done!

That’s good enough for me.

Linc

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