[Milsurplus] "Dry Brushing" Re: Black Wrinkle Touchup...

[David Stinson]

"Dry Brushing" Re: Black Wrinkle Touchup...

Several have asked me about this, so here goes:
When one paints normally, he dips his brush into 
un-thinned paint and wipes off enough to prevent drips,
then applies the paint, brushing to cover the entire surface
to the designed thickness of coat. 
This is normal, "wet brush" painting.

"Dry Brushing" (which is "more art than science")
involves dipping the brush into usually (not always)
thinned paint and wiping-away most of the paint 
from the bristles, leaving a "moist," 
rather than "wet" brush.
The technique is frequently used in model painting 
to apply highlights to miniatures, where a very dry 
brush indeed is used.
(note: the "drybrush" entry in Wikipedia involving
oil paints is not the same as this one).
The idea is to control the thickness and density of 
the paint applied to the surface, from a coat thickness
some fraction of that for which the paint was designed
down to just applying a molecules-thick touch of paint 
to only the "high-spots" of a rough surface like wrinkle paint.
The thickness of the application is a result of just
how "dry" you make your brush and how thinly 
you spread the paint.   Be sure to have brush cleaner
ready as "dry" brushes can set on you quickly.

On a wrinkle surface, I use a brush that's "middling" dry
and brush that small amount of paint over a 
fairly large surface with a gentle "scrubbing" motion.
This spreads the paint quit thin and allows 
the bristles to reach down to the bottom of the 
wrinkles, coating the old oxidized paint and
the irremoveable micro-dust 
without filling-in the wrinkles, as a "wet" brush 
would certainly do.  

The best way to learn this is to practice with old panels
or even rough lumber.   I learned it when, in another life,
I was a miniatures wargamer and painted a
WRG Ancients (6th Ed.) Norman army and 
American Civil War rebs'n yanks. 
Now *that* was some work ;-).

Hope this helps.

73 Dave AB5S