[OT] Airbrushing Guide Needed for Camo
Khaine
found hundreds of guides but they all seem aimed at the general hobbyist
or people who understand all the nuisances of airbrushing. I fit into
neither category. I need a good guide from the ground up for the
beginner. Anyone have/know of a guide like this?
donovan...@yahoo.com
I tried to find the same type of stuff when I first got my airbrush*.
However, nothing beats screwing around with it to figure it out. I'd
get some foamcore board and primer it with whatver you're using and
play. However, if you do find something super useful let us know. I
only used mine to do a 1/72 SM-79 about 6-8 months ago and it's been
collecting dust since then as I haven't done any vehicles so I'm open
to new stuff.
Aztek something or nother, with compressor under the Testors brand.
Great control.
Desert Lurker
I bought a cheap ($50 @ walmart) single action Airbrush for my Tau
Vehicles. Haven't opened it up yet. One good tip that I read a while ago
is to make spray masks for camo by cutting a hole in a 3x5 card and
spraying through that.
Fine Scale Modeler has a couple of books for the beginner. They are more
focused on Planes and tanks. But the camo pattern you lay on a Korean
War T-55 will still look spiffy on you Land Raider Crusader. Or that US
Navy blue corsair with the gull gray belly would look amazing on a Tau
Piranha! If I ever do an imperial guard force I'm using WWII US Markings
on everything.
In the far future there is the planet Normandy II...
Joe
Khaine
airbrush from the local Harbor Freight for 5.95. Yes that's 5 dollars
and 95 cents US. It's probably the SINGLE biggest money and time saver
I have purchsed. I bought it to airbrush some small "i.e. not big
enough to break out a real paint gun for" nicks on my van, and it made
it's money back about 10 seconds into a scratch. Now I figure I'll
break it out for the old minis. I found some really nice etched bronze
leaf pattern and saw a camo pattern using that so I think I may end up
just taking the brass and using it as a null space template and spray
around it.
donovan...@yahoo.com
Khaine wrote:
> Desert Lurker wrote:
> If I ever do an imperial guard force I'm using WWII US Markings
> > on everything.
> >
> > In the far future there is the planet Normandy II...
*ahem* Just sos you knows, a company recently put out a 28mm "Oddball"
from Kelly's Heroes if that motivates you.
http://www.artizandesigns.com/details.asp?code=PLP018
> Cool good to know. I actually bought a "Inexpensive but not Cheap"
> airbrush from the local Harbor Freight for 5.95. Yes that's 5 dollars
> and 95 cents US.
Duuuuuuuuuuuude...Harbor Freight rocks. They have one for $3.99
(Goddamned harborless landlocked Tennessee...wait there's one in
Knoxville)
Spack
news:YRzXg.236842$1i1.139058@attbi_s72...
> donovan...@yahoo.com wrote:
> One good tip that I read a while ago is to make spray masks for camo by
> cutting a hole in a 3x5 card and spraying through that.
As a lazy painter, that's what I did.
http://www.ageofstrife.com/gallery/Spack67
I'm happy with the basic result, one day I might get around to detailing,
highlighting, shading, etc. on them too. However, I didn't use an airbrush -
I cheated and used two cans of Tamiya Acrylic spray paint.
--
Dan
http://www.ageofstrife.com
Brad Hann
acquire an appropriate compressor?
Brad
donovan...@yahoo.com
You can get a can(s) of propellant real cheap, a can of spray paint
without the paint, and use those.
A compressor itself is a bit pricey compared to the propellant, unless
you wind up using more than 10+ cans (not hard). The cheapest one I
could find on it's own was a touch less than $100US although I'm sure
there's cheaper I think the quality drops off fast.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/airbrush/testors-airbrush-compressors.htm
I've worked on many a compressor/pump, and unless you feel like
maintaining a cheap one (good luck), a little bit of research and
investment can pay off big. Paasche makes a couple in the low $100+
range, and they're a company with quite a bit of support (again, I'm
sure there's others).
Something I've yet to look into is getting an accumulator, so I can run
any compressor to charge it, and not have the noise (even a quiet one
is like running a noisy dishwasher).
Jim M
donovan...@yahoo.com says...
might sneak in though, I'll just tell my wife that I'm going to "Academy
Sports" for some fishing stuff, She will be so relieved to see that I
don't actually come back with any new fishing stuff, that she might not
ask too many questions...
--
Jim M
In the grim darkness of the present, there is only September...
Jim M
donovan...@yahoo.com says...
forget to get an inline water separator!
Myrmidon
Actually it isn't high art. You first need to decide on your
colors / color scheme. I'll use a simple example - lets say you're
doing a simple 3 tone brown 'desert' color scheme on a WW II tank.
Step 1 is to decide if you want your overall color to be your darkest
value, or your lightest value. We'll go with the lightest value as
your overall color.
Step 2 is to decide if you want 'fuzzy' edges on your cammo pattern or
if you want crisp hard edges. (I'll describe both methods as we go)
Step 3 - mask off any areas with tape or masking fluid that you don't
want spray painted. (Wheels, tracks, clear plastic cockpit canopys,
etc.)
Step 4 - if going with the 'hard edge' cammo pattern, spray the vehicle
with your darkest color.
Step 5 - (hard edge) create stensils of the shapes where you want to
preserve the dark brown and attach them to your model. Painter's
masking tape (the blue stuff) cut into the shapes you want works well.
Or, if you want more irregular shapes and patches with crisp edges, try
'Masking Fluid' - a thin paintable rubber cement like compound used by
fine artists to mask off areas of water color paintings. (I use masking
fluid all the time on my minis when spray primering - works fantasically
well.)
Step 6 - spray on your medium brown color
Step 7 - repeat the stensil process in step 5 creating stensils where
you want to preserve the medium brown color. Having some of the medium
brown stensils overlap the previous layer of stensils will give nice
hard edges where the two colors butt up next to each other.
Step 8 - spray the vehicle down with your lightest and final coat, and
allow the paint to dry completely.
Step 9 - carefully remove the stensil masking. The vehicle should have
a nice light overall tone with medium and dark cammo pattern shapes. If
desired you can soften the edges a bit by hand painting black outlines
around the edges of your shapes, etc. (If you want sharp outlined edges
- use a technical pen to draw the black lines.)
Step 4 - if going with a soft 'fuzzy' cammo pattern, spray the vehicle
with your overall color (in this case your lightest brown)
Step 5 - create your cut out stensil shapes to spray around (or through
if making small shapes) - use some good heavy card so the spray paint
wont soak through and make a mess or destroy your stensil.
Step 6 - spray your medium color through your stensils. (The closer
your hold your stensils to the model, the more clear the shapes will be,
so if you want very fuzzy, hold the stensil a bit farther from the
surface of the model.)
Step 7 - using the same or different stensils, spray as above with your
darkest color pattern.
If you're particularly comfortable with controlling the spray from your
new air brush (with a bit of practice), you may not even need to make
stensils at all if you're going with a strip pattern or if the brush can
be dialed down to a fine spray for small patches and blotches.
After that, with either method, it's a matter of going back over the
model with your brushes to pick out the highlights and details.
Hope that helps, and good luck with the air brush (I keep thinking
I should get one of these too.)
Myr
--
"I'm already impoverished from buying wargames minis,
and I'm too knackered for riotous living..."
-- Moramarth
RGMW FAQ: http://www.rgmw.org
Or...
Desert Lurker
Very Nice! What colors?
Desert Lurker
You can also use a cheap pancake compressor for under $100 too. Holds a
gallon of air and then you can roof your house in between Armies. Those
usually hold about a gallon or two of air and only come on when your air
is running low. They also have adjustable air pressure.
Khaine
camo pattern.
Khaine
almost EVERYTHING hardware related I can from harbor freight because
it's quality at a very low price." and it's done everything from helping
me lay sub flooring with a nail gun, to kicking down the pressure and
using it as an airbrush or for a pneumatic sander. If you watch the
site you can get a very nice compressor for 50-60 bucks, or a supremely
nice compressor for just over 100.
Khaine
etc. I don't know if a straight 1:1 mix will be good to use or if I
should skew it more towards paint.
Myrmidon
Well, I'm going to point you towards rec.models.scale for your best bet
at getting a ton of good advice when it comes to air brushing and camo
patterns. (Of course we expect you to come back here and teach us all
your aquired wisdom...)
Desert Lurker
Why not just paint the tracks after the cammo. no Masking needed.
Myrmidon
ironav...@spamersdie.ridgenet.net says...
don't have to worry about painting them black before doing a metallic
paint or mud over the black. (One less step to worry about ending up
with paint where you don't want it.) It's generally faster to mask
than to repaint, and if it saves me painting time and touch up time, I'm
all for it.
Spack
"Myrmidon" <Im...@home.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1f99c5cbe...@news-server.woh.rr.com...
> In article <GPSXg.238610$1i1.154320@attbi_s72>,
> ironav...@spamersdie.ridgenet.net says...
>> Khaine wrote:
>> > Spack wrote:
>> >
>> >> "Desert Lurker" <ironav...@spamersdie.ridgenet.net> wrote in
>> >> message news:YRzXg.236842$1i1.139058@attbi_s72...
>> >>
>> >>> donovan...@yahoo.com wrote:
>> >>> One good tip that I read a while ago is to make spray masks for camo
>> >>> by cutting a hole in a 3x5 card and spraying through that.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> As a lazy painter, that's what I did.
>> >>
>> >> http://www.ageofstrife.com/gallery/Spack67
>> >>
>> >> I'm happy with the basic result, one day I might get around to
>> >> detailing, highlighting, shading, etc. on them too. However, I didn't
>> >> use an airbrush - I cheated and used two cans of Tamiya Acrylic spray
>> >> paint.
>> >>
>> > Very nice, although I think I'd mask the tracks off before I did the
>> > camo pattern.
>>
>> Why not just paint the tracks after the cammo. no Masking needed.
>>
> Most of the tracks come in black, so if you mask them off, you
> don't have to worry about painting them black before doing a metallic
> paint or mud over the black. (One less step to worry about ending up
> with paint where you don't want it.) It's generally faster to mask
> than to repaint, and if it saves me painting time and touch up time, I'm
> all for it.
Masking was too much effort. I'm painting them after. All my tracks were
bare plastic - so grey, rather than black.
--
Dan
http://www.ageofstrife.com
Spack
AS-3 Gray Green (Luftwaffe)
AS-28 Medium Gray
The "gray green" actually looks like a darkish grey, with no hint of green
to it. However, the pots of the same colour do have a hint of green, so
they're not that great for touching up areas.
--
Dan
http://www.ageofstrife.com