I started by painting, decaling and sealing my model (using Future floor wax) before progressing with the wash. The start came by shaving some chalk pastels into the flat lid of a super glue container although any kind of container would do. It’s important to use chalk pastels and not an oil based pastel, the difference is the difference between a finished model and a wrecked waste of plastic.

Inside the container I mixed the pastel dust with a small touch of water, making more of a paste than a thin liquid. Don’t worry if you blend the paste too thin wait a while and let some of the water evaporate out of it. If it’s too thick, add a touch of water.

Now that I had the paste mixed use an old brush to apply the pastel sludge over whatever panel lines you’d like to high light. Do as much of your model as you’d like to at this time and don’t worry about being neat or consistent with your brushing. Cover the whole panel line because what ever is excess will be removed later. Once you’ve applied your sludge let the model dry. Because there isn’t a lot of water in your mix it shouldn’t take long to dry.

Use an old rag, paper towel, napkin, ex-wife’s wedding dress, whatever you’re comfortable in ruining to remove the excess pastel sludge. Dip your cloth into some water and remove all the excessive moisture, what you’re looking for is a barely moist cloth. Lightly remove the pastel chalk off the model’s surface by wiping perpendicular to the panel line. You should be left with a tiny amount of pastel left inside the recessed panel lines. If there’s still too much in the panel lines, wipe parallel to the line. Keep switching to a clean area on your rag, or you’ll start spreading the pastel around.

You might have to remoisten your cloth but don’t use too much water unless you want to wash all the pastel away and start fresh. That’s the beauty of this technique. Unlike washes with paints, you can simply wash the model clean and start again.

When I was happy with the panel lines I applied a coat of Polly Scale clear flat acrylic paint to the whole model. I don’t see a reason why any other type of clear coat paint would not work. I then used some more of the same ground up chalks to create dirt and soot smudges on the model, sealed again with another coat of clear flat paint.