Pasha shows us how to paint the desert Zigzag camouflage and a few other techniques!
To Begin
To start off the model I prefer to always undercoat with black.
I then start with USA Olive drab as my main colour, following with highlights of a lighter shade by using matt white mixed in to lighten the colour.
Modulation can give you some of your best results and is done by an airbrush and patience, but if you are using a brush you can still do it with lighter edges, i.e. your basic highlights.
The Camouflage
I personally used an airbrush for the camouflage, I used a tan colour for the actual zigzags. The hard part is to get your pattern right, to help I used Tamiya masking tape.
I proceeded to cut out small pieces of tape and drew the zigzag pattern on them.
Then I cut the pattern out from the tape and applied to the tank.
If you are not using an airbrush and don’t have any masking tape then you can use a very light pencil to draw the pattern on the tank; then just patiently paint the colour in. It’s usually for the best to put some form of guidelines onto the tank whenever you are doing any form of camouflage. The pencil then can be lightly erased by using a regular eraser.
Scratches and weathering
The first step after that you are happy with your paint job is the scratches on the tank. I used a mix of painting on with brush and sponge dabbing.
One thing is important to always remember less is more.
Now to the hard part using oils to bring up the lighting of the models and all the weather effects.
Using oils on acrylics can be very tricky for a novice painter, it can be very easy to ruin the model completely, so practice is vital!
The key is to seal the model with varnish/matt and use the oils on top of the seal.
I use simple oil paints from art store to shade the camouflage to any light I desire.
The hard part is that it is always difficult to get the right shade as it will differ between models.
With that said one can use a lot of products on the market from Valejo to Mig/Ak with pre-set shades, and there are a million different tutorials available on YouTube with detail on how to use of those products.
Check out my other camouflaged units!
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Uncle Sam has sent reinforcements!
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon