Salt technique

I was asked by a Japanese friend to walk him thru the salt technique and instead of just bombarding him with links I came up with this, thought I might as well dump it here for you guys as well.

This is all post-primer, any texturing or dremeling needs to be done prior to this, if theres enough interest i can do another tut on that as well. I digress:


After priming the piece, add your base coat, in this instance Ive used tamiya flat aluminium on a unused hakosuka bonnet:



Then comes the salt, you can use the iodized table salt but it does not vary in size and looks somewhat unnatural, so i go with sea salt thru a grinder:



Various sized granules:



You can use a spray bottle to apply a thin mist of water to the piece:






While its moist apply the salt to the region in which you want the basecoat to shine thru, you can do this sporadically say if its a rust or you can do it methodically, try to vary it up and make it look far from mechanical:



Let that dry before adding the next coat:



With the top coat, if you want more depth you can try pre-post shading or colour modulation to give your model more character, i can do another tut on this too in the future if theres enough interest:



Next step, is to watch for the piece to dry, i couldnt be bothered waiting so I took to it with my fiances hair dryer [ask permission first, you know what 'they're like]:



Take a fairly stiff brush and remove the residual salt:




Voila:



At this point it may help to seal the paint job before further weathering! Hope this helps, any q's?

 Thanks, I have been meaning to try this out

Like your work there mate. I'm happy to see more tuts on this. I could also use a tut on how you managed to get the hair dryer and get your model part with wet paint  on it into her bathroom. I must be doing something wrong 

blatdriver wrote: Thanks, I have been meaning to try this out

Your welcome, the two colours i used dont really harmonize that well. Its should usually be a darker bottom coat.

Deaf as wrote:Like your work there mate. I'm happy to see more tuts on this. I could also use a tut on how you managed to get the hair dryer and get your model part with wet paint  on it into her bathroom. I must be doing something wrong 

Thanks, its a technique called on the sly while shes at the shops   

Heh heh heh.  Too true.

Don't put the paint on too heavily or it can make it very hard to get the salt off.

I like that green.  What do Vallejo call that shade?

Pretty sure thats their olive drab but ill check tonight mate.

Thanks.  I've got Olive Drab and it looks darker than that.  Maybe your camera and my laptop are conspiring against us?

zenrat wrote:Thanks.  I've got Olive Drab and it looks darker than that.  Maybe your camera and my laptop are conspiring against us?

My appy-polly-logies Zen its actually golden olive!

Thanks mate. Might have to pick some up next time i'm in time.