Just grinded artist graphite, applied with a dry cotton cloth. A hard brush works well around gun ports etc., you might also use your bare finger tip. esp. when you have raised panel lines. You only need a little material on the medium, and then wipe gently without much pressure. Takes some practice, but there's no rocket science behind it. I really like the stuff on metallic silver/grey because it adds an additional, truly metallic shine and a cloudy/uneven finish that makes the paint underneath look a little less, well, paint-ish and worn. In this case the combination with the semi-gloss varnish from Italeri worked wonders.

Quote from: Dizzyfugu on March 10, 2022, 07:33:38 AM
Just grinded artist graphite, applied with a dry cotton cloth. A hard brush works well around gun ports etc., you might also use your bare finger tip. esp. when you have raised panel lines. You only need a little material on the medium, and then wipe gently without much pressure. Takes some practice, but there's no rocket science behind it. I really like the stuff on metallic silver/grey because it adds an additional, truly metallic shine and a cloudy/uneven finish that makes the paint underneath look a little less, well, paint-ish and worn. In this case the combination with the semi-gloss varnish from Italeri worked wonders.

Thank you!  It really does make the bare metal finishes pop and give them some weathering.  Thank you, and glad we have members willing to share trade secrets!   

-Dave

Sandiego what Thomas described is prefect for the items he mentioned and i do pretty much the exact same thing but for very fine work i used 6B pencils.
Its a soft graphite lead which you can draw fine lines or wide or use on the edges of things for worn paint..it can be rubbed to simulate polished steel.
I use it alot on armoured vehicles for scratches and polished tank tracks where to road wheels run..can detail guns with it like the ones ive used in my huey build.. your imagination will go nuts figuring out just what you can do with these things.
With Thomas's help and my pencil your damn near covered for metal detailing.

There are even 8B pencils out there - they are SO soft that you can write on glass with them! 

The graphire I use is also pretty soft, it's for artists/sketching and come in a fat, massive hexagonal pen. I scrap a bit off with the back of a knife, and these fine flakes really adapt well to a cloth.