Great work, Stuart, I particularly like the woodgrain effect on the fuselage and the camouflage on the wings - any pointers on how you've achieved it, please?
Cheers,
Mark
Mark,
Here's exactly how I did it. All paints are thinned before application. For thinner I use a mix of 50% distilled water, 25% Vallejo Flow Improver (or Liquitex Flow Aid), and 25% Liquitex Slow-Dri. But, straight distilled water works very well for hand brushing. When hand brushing, I automatically start at 1:1 paint to thinner. If the paint is particularly goopy or I am going to use an airbrush, I increase this to 2:3 paint to thinner.
I recommend testing on scrap plastic, paint mule, or plastic spoon to make sure this method works for you.
Here is the sequence.
1. Apply coats of VMC 70.917 Beige until 100% coverage is achieved. Let dry.
2. Dry brush VMC 70.951 white to create an initial graining. The dryer the brush the better. Think small. Have patience, go slow. Let dry.
3. Apply a coat of VMC 70.937 Transparent Yellow. Let dry.
4. Dry brush VMC 70.981 Orange Brown to add another grain color. Application amount is to your taste. Let dry.
This got the fuselage to the point in the first picture. To go darker:
5. Brush on a coat of VMC 70.828 Wood Grain. Let dry. Repeat to your taste.
I think I did three coats to get to the finish in the second picture.
The wing camo was done by using a horrible, old, flat brush that looked more like a miniature home made broom than a paint brush, dry brush stippling thinned VMC Olive Green 70.894 over the base coat of the same VMC 70.917 Beige as used on the fuselage. Several coats were done to slowly build up the coverage.
In hindsight, I would consider giving it more depth by darkening the green just the slightest for the first application, lightening the green just a tad bit for the second application, and straight green for the third.
Stuart
