I saw a starter set for various charcoal and pastel art supplies and couldn't help but wonder if I could use them for my little plastic spaceships!

I also wanted to take this opportunity to "fix" the MC80 model, which is a design I love but really don't like how the miniature came out because of a combination of bad paint scheme and panel lines that are too deep. So, we start with glossing the thing and then using diluted putty to fill in those panel lines a bit...

Then I just went to town with the charcoal. I used a combination of q-tips, spongy makeup applicators, and my finger to modulate the colors

I wanted to unify everything with a light coat of 10:1 matte:grey as a finishing coat. But as you can see....

CRAP! I don't know exactly what happened. I lost way more contrast than I intended- I think my trigger finger got too heavy since I last used the airbrush. Time to restart. That's what simple green is for! (WIP, just like everything else I post!

Yeah I really liked the charcoal effect. If it had been dry brushed from there I think it would look awesome. I may end up trying this to get that nice worn look you achieved with the charcoal then hit it with a clear matte sealer to tie the charcoal down. Goodluck!

I dunno, the contrast in the final image looks perfect to me.

I have been using a solid graphite pencil for shading and score effects for about a year now. It is also great for gently addressing some panel lining in high light areas of the models.