Marker Pens for Finishing

[Dazzled]

To create a disruptive camouflage pattern on my Airfix Chinook, I thought that using marker pen would be a good idea to replicate the roughly applied black streaks on the fuselage. I had used markers before in a limited way and with good results. They are a preferred method of edging around tyres, before painting in the rest of the tyre, in order to provide a neat edge. I particularly like to use it on the solid rubber roadwheel tyres on armour models. In this case, obviously, colour bleed isn't an issue as I'm overpainting in the same colour as the marker and there's no undercoating save for, perhaps, a coat of primer.

However, heeding the advice of others on the forum, I became uncertain of whether the pens would be completely suitable for the Chinook just in case they reacted with the paint or the overcoat of varnish. So I carried out a little experiment.

I tried three different types of marker pen.



On 9 prepared painted patches. The paint is Humbrol 250 (Matt Desert Sand) enamel. This is the result.



Patches 1 to 3 are bare paint, pen, then Klear.

Patches 4 to 6 are Paint, Klear, pen, then Klear.

Patches 7 to 9 are Paint, Klear, pen, then Humbrol Matt Varnish.

And there are clearly significant results.

The Staedtler Lumoclour (2, 5 and 8) smudged to some extent under all circumstances.

The Sharpie marker (1, 4 and 7) varied in performance being better on the varnished surface and smudging a little on bare paint. This bears out Splash's theory of the pen ink reacting with the paint although, in this case, the paint is enamel.

And, in the Pentel permanent marker (3, 6 and 9), I have a winner. It didn't smudge significantly under any of the test conditions, and not at all when applied over Klear. It also kept excellent colour density and matted down properly under the Humbrol varnish. It's only real issue is that it has the largest tip size but I'm sure that a delicate touch will compensate for this.

So marker pens can work. It's just a matter of finding a suitable one for the paint or finish you plan to use.

[Clashcityrocker]

Nice experiment, and interesting results. Have you tried looking for a Pentel marker with a finer point?
Who knows, if it works well and catches on modellers the world over will be describing their excellent lined camo finishes as "Yeah, it's the Dazzled method man. The guy is a genius"

Nigel

[fredk]

A chisel point on the Pentel will give you finer lines.
Good test. Thanks for sharing.