Citadel testing part / benchmark piece / WAAAGHammer paint benchy

A small testing part originally made by CITADEL.

Very usefull for testing for testing paints, washes and new techniques.

RECREATED by me, code name PERMATEUM.

I definitely suggest printing it at high resolution, but if you want to save time you can print medium resolution, then use “TAMIYA PUTTY BASIC TYPE” (orange lid) to smooth it out by brush.

TIPS AND TRICKS:

#01

Lower detail requires more putty I suggest printing convex surfaces with at least 0.10 Layer height or 0.15 Layer height:

The putty can be thinned with paint cleaner from Revell for example.
You can also clean your brush with it.

Tamiya putty dries very very fast - about half a minute it is already dry to touch and after 1-2 minutes it is ready to be sanded.

Thinner putty is useful in case of preserving details - I haven't thinned the putty and I lost a lot of resolution at the 4 bolts:

(0.10 Layer height + 150% height scale)

Of course it can be easily sanded or carved back to detail with hobby knife - that is up to you.

Other comparisons:

(0.10 Layer height, very sloppy and quick brush work, took about few minutes - you can see big loss of detail and other lumps of dried putty.)

(0.25 Layer Height, applied 2-3 coats of putty, still has visible layer lines after sanding.)

(0.10 Layer Height, 2 coats of tamiya putty carefully brushed on model, sanded after.)

Only 2 coats of putty really worked, altough I should have sanded it with some thin sanding block - it left small bumps that are visible after layering paint or dry-brushing.

Here is the full comparison:

RED - 0.10 Layer height, upper piece is not modified. Lower part has a sloppy putty brush work but still looks pretty nice with a little work. Looks OK with minimum work.

GREEN - 0.10 Layer height, 150% scale to height, 2 coats of putty, sanded, painted. Best looking results compared time to work ratio.

BLUE - 0.25 Layer height, upper piece not modified. Lower part has 2-3 coats of putty, sanded. Modified BLUE looks very close to unmodified RED.
But you can have “less work for more money” in case of RED part.

FINAL TOUGHTS

This model was primarily made for technical purpose, not esthetical purpose.
The quality of pieces will not change you painting skills.
It was created to let you see how certain colors look, or just to test your techniques on various surfaces.

You can see how the colors look good already on basic 0.25 LH blue piece - no lumps of color, no sloppy oil washes, no hue difference.

I hope you learned something useful.

#02

I will do another test, where I melt the top with plastic cement or even UV resin.

If it does look better, I will post it here.

Be creative :)