Painting models to make them more realistic

[randomboy]

Hi everyone, 

I was wondering if anyone has attempted to paint or has considered painting models to make them look more realistic? I still have a love hate relationship with how shiny and perfect all my buildings and cars look so I was entertaining the idea of painting my models to give them a more realistic feel. I got the idea from my boyfriend who models trains and weathers all of his buildings and cars by spraying them with dull coat and then painting them with pastels. I took a quick pass at a MOC plane built from the batman polybags I got throughout last year to give you an idea of what I am thinking of:

Painted Plane (1) by randomboy, on Flickr

Painted Plane (2) by randomboy, on Flickr

Let me know your thoughts and experiences with doing this! 

Best, 

randomboy

 

[ElectroDiva]

Nooooooo - that's sacrilege - you can't sully new lego bricks with model paint !!!

 

only kidding - do what you like with your bricks - but I doubt you will find many people on here who have tried doing that (or even thought of doing it).

 

A more common approach for a weathered look is just to use old bricks (which also have the advantage of being very cheap)

[Henchmen4Hire]

It's hard to make something "realistic" when it's made of blocks, but I guess it's like trying to make really good pixel art lol

I wouldn't mind seeing a stop-motion film with weathered LEGO parts.

[randomboy]

18 hours ago, ElectroDiva said:

A more common approach for a weathered look is just to use old bricks (which also have the advantage of being very cheap)

Great idea! I haven't really thought about doing this for buildings and cars, I am doing it for my tiled road. I may try to see if I can alter some of my buildings with older bricks. 

23 minutes ago, Henchmen4Hire said:

It's hard to make something "realistic" when it's made of blocks, but I guess it's like trying to make really good pixel art lol

I wouldn't mind seeing a stop-motion film with weathered LEGO parts.

That's true, I guess to make Lego look really realistic you would have to build life size houses (aka more pixels). I like your idea of a stop-motion film, that would be pretty cool. 

 

I think for now I am going to focus on using Lego to older looks, but I may build a small diorama to weather and display! Maybe a tiny MOC house and car. Then I won't care if it turns out terrible either.

[Johnny1360]

I have resisted the urge to paint my Lego so far. However back when I was heavily into scale modeling I would often use special paints such as weathered, dirt, mud and even sun fade. It was all about using the right brush strokes or other application process, like dabbing it on with cotton balls, to get the right effect. Have thinner handy to remove undesired effects is important also. 

Check out your local hobbie/model shop for special paints, you may find just what your looking for. 

[Space Police XVIII]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephann001/36639681453/in/photostream/

Here's a link to pretty neat weathering effects done with black chalk, completely removable.

[randomboy]

8 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

I have resisted the urge to paint my Lego so far. However back when I was heavily into scale modeling I would often use special paints such as weathered, dirt, mud and even sun fade. It was all about using the right brush strokes or other application process, like dabbing it on with cotton balls, to get the right effect. Have thinner handy to remove undesired effects is important also. 

Check out your local hobbie/model shop for special paints, you may find just what your looking for. 

Thanks for the tips! If I have time this weekend I may experiment with some weathering techniques on a car. 

4 hours ago, Space Police XVIII said:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephann001/36639681453/in/photostream/

Here's a link to pretty neat weathering effects done with black chalk, completely removable.

Thanks for sharing! That’s really cool, I like that it is completely removable. I’d like to build some small dioramas for to photograph and be able to clean the bricks afterwards to reuse them. 

[dr_spock]

I've tried using acrylics the other day.  It seemed to work filling in lettering on the black brick.  I could also scrape off dried bits with my fingernail under a paper towel.

[Giantorange]

I wouldn't do it personally. 

I also model in 1:72 scale, where I scratchbuild a lot. For sure drybrushing and other weathering techniques would give  a more realistic looking finish in some cases, but why build with LEGO if you want to do that?

IMO LEGO isn't the right medium for superdetailed models and I'm purist enough not to customise or paint the bricks.

[anothergol]

While I have seen some weathered MOCs that looked pretty good, IMHO you're a bit missing the point of this "form of art" if you paint your MOCs.

That is: if it's the end result, and not the way of getting there nor the rules that matter for you, then you should invest time in 3D modeling and a 3D printer, because that's what will give you the best results, by far.
If you paint (or glue, or cut, or abuse in other ways) your Lego's, then I'll be judging your MOCs differently, they will have to be much much better than "normal" MOCs to impress me.

I'm ok with this one, for ex, because it does deliver. It had to be much better than a normal MOC because it bends the rules. And it is, so it's all good. I also remember a couple of painted mechs from the same guy, but I can't find them back.

[dr_spock]

9 hours ago, anothergol said:

That is: if it's the end result, and not the way of getting there nor the rules that matter for you, then you should invest time in 3D modeling and a 3D printer, because that's what will give you the best results, by far.

 

3D printing might be more economical too.  You can get a kilogram spool of ABS plastic for about the same price as a 375 piece LEGO set.

[randomboy]

 

On 1/7/2018 at 2:09 PM, anothergol said:

While I have seen some weathered MOCs that looked pretty good, IMHO you're a bit missing the point of this "form of art" if you paint your MOCs.

That is: if it's the end result, and not the way of getting there nor the rules that matter for you, then you should invest time in 3D modeling and a 3D printer, because that's what will give you the best results, by far.
If you paint (or glue, or cut, or abuse in other ways) your Lego's, then I'll be judging your MOCs differently, they will have to be much much better than "normal" MOCs to impress me.

I'm ok with this one, for ex, because it does deliver. It had to be much better than a normal MOC because it bends the rules. And it is, so it's all good. I also remember a couple of painted mechs from the same guy, but I can't find them back.

 

Thanks for sharing that picture. That is some pretty cool, but extreme, painting. I agree that it isn't really the point of Lego art, I just feel like a little shading/dirt/ etc. could make already amazing Lego models even more awesome. 

I am purist enough to not want to modify bricks (glue, cut, add 3D printed parts).