Here's my first airbrushed model, still in progress.



It's dragon's 1:72 T-34/85, painted with Xtracrylics. How does it look?

I'm pretty happy with the tank itself, but the wheel were more troublesome. The paint didn't seem to cover well, instead I got a finish that lookes like the wheel have had a wash. What could cause this? I painted with the same batch of paint, with the same pressure (about 8 PSI).
Also, I experienced some heavy paint build-up at the needle, but that's probably because I pretty much forgot the "air-off, paint-off" procedure.

What do you think? Any tips, opinions and hints will be welcome.

On the wheel it sounds like the paint was too thin. I've never used that kind of paint, my experience with Pollyscale is that if you get it to thin it dries as if it were washed.
The hull looks nice and uniform - but not quite green enough IMHO. I do know that there were many shades of green depending on when and where the AFV was.

The only question I would have is did you prime it first? I can usually spray Tamiya without priming depending on the color, but I usually have to prime with any other acrylics. It also seems to be the nature of acrylics to dry at the tip. Iusually swab the tip with alcohol every couple of minutes whether it needs it or not.

Eetu, just remember that your going to have some post paint weathering that will help cover any mishaps that the paint job gives you. To me it looks pretty good though.

Keep the pics comming mate...

cheers

kevin

Yes, I did prime my model. I used Vallejo's grey spray primer.

Comparing that "green" to some pictures of the real thing, it's definately too brown. I tried mixing russian tank green and RAF dark green 50/50 and it makes a nice greener color. I was thinking about doing some washing now, and then overspraying with that greener shade. That would break up the monotone color and add some variation. Then I'm planning to apply the decals and weathering. Would that work?

Have you tried Vallejo Model Air acrylics?
They need no thinning and cover extremely well.
Number 017 Russian Green is the one I use.
Simplicity itself.

Yeah, I got a few bottles of Vallejo's Model Air. At the moment I'm experimenting with different paints to see which suit me the best.

Here's some more pics. I applied a wash in the recessed details and corners and sprayed on a greener color mixed from Russian Tank Green and RAF dark green. For a first preshading (kinda) effort, I think it's not that bad. Although I think I should have been a little more aggressive applying the wash, or eased on my trigger finger. But on 1:72, less is more, I suppose.

Well as you will realize in armor, air, and ship modeling that even the real thing is not accurate When you get used to the airbrush you will start shooting it too dark, then respraying it with lighter colors to fade it. A little weathering later will lighten it up just fine. If you look at Vinnie's thread on painting a tiger, you can see how dramatically it can be lightened.

Just search for 'painting the tiger' and it will be the first article