Over this last Tau comission, I was working on a phyrexian themed from MTG to incorporate onto Tau models. While talking about ichor, the client and I decided to do crackle effects on the lower portion of the plate to create an image that the ichor is slowly corrupting the tau from the base upwards. Here I went through 3 different methods to try and get the best crackle effect with randomization without loosing details from the panels themselves. I will go through the 3 different ways I tried, the pros-cons, and which one lead with the best crackle effect.
Trial 1: PVA glue. The first trial was with normal PVA glue ontop of the lower armor. This is the first option due to its accessability and affordable nature. Upon application there was a few problems. A. The glue was extremely thick and would cover detail after drying. B. Even with trying to dilute with thinner and not water, the glue did not thin to the desired consitency to place over the models. Even when drying for a hour to apply the crackle color of black, the effect just did not work as expected. I believe using PVA glue is a great crackle effect option for display boards since you can put it on thick and then use the acrylic color of your choice ontop. The majority of the cracks that did occur on the plates were not small enough and not as radomized as I would have liked.
Trial 2: Maskol. This is an amazing tool that can be used for various options. It is liquid rubber that is purple that allows you to paint where you don't want certain colors at. Then once the Maskol is dry, you can lift that section up with little mess. However, there is a few issues to using this. A. Even with the smallest detail brush I had, I couldn't create the crackle effect I wanted. Since the rubber is thick and can be hard to natvigate around, it was a bit disappointing of the larger, more obvious "crackle", effect it had. B. It needs to cure for a while and it does smell a bit. This isn't the biggest issue since I can always hop on another model to paint while it dries for 30-45 minutes; however, the smell for me was a bit of a draw back. Otherwise, this liquid rubber has a lot of potential for later projects.
Trial 3: Hobby crackle medium from FolkArt. This one was the winner of the 3 trials that I had. This is an acrylic medium that when applied and dried, can lead to randomized crackle effects and changes based upon the thickness you do. With this, it worked wonders with diluting it with thinner and did not effect the dry time nor the effectivness of the product. There are three main issues while using this product you will need to watch out for. A. The time to dry. It does take a full hour for this product to cure before you can paint ontop of it. Otherwise the crackle effect will not work as well or you will notice brush strokes very obviously no matter how careful you are painting the second layer on top of it. B. Even though you can thin it down 1:1, I would still apply a thin layer. However, you need to make sure you will add enough product for the effect to work but not enough that it will cover up details. C. This layer catches a lot of brush strokes and the last layer you will need to dab it. Yes, dab the paint not brush it on. Other than these 3 things with the crackle paint, it offered the best, smallest, and most randomized cracks on the armor.
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