Well, I finished my paint test. Paint application problems aside - which resulted in this patchy finish - I did manage to learn what I needed in order to undertake a 'live' project.
While I found that the BluTack method of masking easier to apply the hard-edged finish produced by the masking tape method was preferable. It produced a camo pattern closer to the original Finnish scheme, it's just a bit fiddlier and time consuming to apply.
Properly priming the model before beginning is essential. The basic colour layer needs to be a firm foundation onto which you can apply the subsequent layers of your camo scheme. There again my choice of cheap plastic toy as a canvas probably didn't do me any favours.
One final 'trick' I learned was how to mix Vallejo's Model Colour paint correctly for airbrushing (rather than relying on their Model Air paints straight out the bottle). I bought a bottle of Vallejo's special Airbrush Thinner [71.161] and mixed this with my paint 1:1. It went through my airbrush very nicely and I found that my air brush didn't clog as easily as it did with 'straight' Model Air (so I will start adding some thinners to that too in future).
(There is another product on the market described as a 'flow aid' which retards the paints drying so it is less likely to clog. That may be worth a try if I continue to have problems with Vallejo paints becoming too gloopy in my airbrush.)
My green was - as I mentioned in my last post - Humbrol's No. 86 Light Olive, while the grey was Vallego's Model Air Pale Blue Grey and my chocolate brown was a mix of two Vallejo Model Color paints. I mixed 2/3rds German Camo Black Brown [822] with 1/3rd Burnt Umber [941], this gave me a satisfactory dull, flat dark brown.
...So there you have it. This post is probably more interesting to me - as an experiment - than it is to you as a reader. I'm sure this exercise was all a pretty obvious really, but it was useful practise before I undertake the real thing!
No comments:
Post a Comment