Hello, I'm definitely a novice modeller, I've been modelling al my life, sometimes with pauzes of many years, but I never weathered my armour or used advance techniques. Now I'm taking a new start, I've learned a lot of this site, and others, I managed to create an add washes, pin washes, etc. Drybrushing is the next step.

But now I started painting a Tiger I and a Marder III M, but I'm having lot's of problems with the camo, whatever I do, it never seems to work out...

My first try:

The Tiger:






The Marder:



My second try, I've added some more dark green, but I'm afraid I will have to start over...

The Tiger





The Marder



So, what do you think, what should be my next step? Can I save the paintjob and make it better, or should I start all over? And how should I do the paintjob?

Thanks in advance!

dude leave it as is it looks realy good!!! By the wa
y what paints do u use?

Hi Dave,

I am not going to argue about the correct scheme since I don't know much about German camouflage.

I have 2 comments on your techniques:

1) It is too obvious that you used an airbrush, it does not look like a german soldier applied the paint to the tank. What I mean is that you can see the effect of he spraying. Areas that were not "in the line of fire"of your airbrush did not get the camouflage colour. Check the hatch on the front right side of the first pic you posted of the second attempt of your Tiger. The green line stops just before the hatch and start again on the top of the hatch, the side has no green colour.

2) Detail has been lost because of your painting (that is normal) It is up to you how much detail you want to bring back. Use some overal washes with a brown colour and the details pop ups again. After that you can go crazy with pin washes, filters, chips, drybrush,
pigments and whatever more.

But I must say that the general pattern looks like it has been applied in the field by the crew and not by a modeler, but hey what do I know about that anyway

Veel plezier met bouwen!

Matthijs

Mathijs,

Thanks for the feedback! I know there are still some errors, like what you've said, that you can see that there are some area's that have no paint. But that was something that I was gonna correct after I was satisfied with the base scheme.

This is my first ever camo, and I did it freehand with the airbrush. I'm not trying to replicate some tank or a specific camo, I just wanted a camo that looks good, and that looks like some Tiger or Marder in Western Europe, 1944.

Off course you're also right about the detail that have been lost, but like I said, I've only done a first attempt at spraying a camo scheme. Washes, drybrushing, and everything I can imagine, and I have the skills to do, I'll do later on.

I was thinking of adding a filter, to blend the colours some more. I was thinking of filter of burnt sienna. Would that be a good idea?

If you have any more comments, please let them know, as I still have to learn a lot, and feedback is the best way to learn and improve my skills.

Thanks!

Thanks, I'm still not convinced, but I'm glad at least someone likes the scheme.

I used Tamiya acrylics, base coat in dark yellow. Then red brown and dark green. Because the colours didn't came out to much, and it all blended a bit to much, like you can see in the first photo's, I sprayed another few lines in dark green, so it would more accentuated.

I think the answer to what you want to know comes down to airbrush technique.

you have a lot of over-spray and (as was said before) things not in the line of your air brushing direction don't get hit.

invest some time just airbrushing camo on a piece of paper. play with the variables (how much air pressure there is, how wide you have the nozzle open, how far away you have the airbrush from where the paint gets laid down, etc). Once you start to get something that looks like what you want on paper, remember that combination and then do it on your model.

once you start to work on something 3 dimensional, take your time, go slowly, and look at the work from many angles so you can fill in the areas that got missed from other angles. Don't be in a hurry to just get paint on the model - better to apply too little slowly and have to build up than to blast your model with paint.

you might think about using masks as well. again, practice with these on paper before going 3-D.

quite good results can be achieved even with cheap airbrushes if you are careful and attack it correctly. you just need to put a little more forethought into what you are doing before you start, and being able to do that takes practice so you can know what your options are and how to achieve the look you want.

I'd guess you are using too much pressure and spraying from too far away. you can get very close with your airbrush to make very fine lines if you use lower pressure. Also experiment with how much you thin your paint. Thin paint sprayed at a moderately low pressure built up in layers in smaller strokes is far easier to control than one quick blast done in a big swipe.

but I don't think these models looks as bad as you think. I am quite sure they look better than my first attempts with an airbrush.

Airbrushing has a LOT of variables. take some time to figure out how those variables interact with each other on a canvas that is not as precious as a built model. I've been airbrushing for way longer than I want to admit (mainly because I really should be better at it than I am by now), and I still almost always practice on scrap paper or a chunk of something or other i find in the garage whenever I have some paint left after spraying a color.

Vance, thanks for the advice.

in my first attempt I mixed as follows, 50% paint, 50% thinner, in my second attempt, I used 66% paint, 33% thinner. Air pressure was at about 18 psi in both attempts.

In my first attempt I probably sprayed from to far, in my second attempt I sprayed from very close, i guess that's why in my second attempt the green lines are "harder".

You're right I have a lot of overspray, and the dark yellow is hardly visible anymore.

In the past I only airbrushed single colour armour, and did the details by brush. So i guess I still have a lot to learn, and keep on practicing my airbrush.

Not sure what I will do with the models now, start over, or try to make them look a little better... I did found a picture of a Tiger in Normandy which looked a bit like my scheme, dark, soft lines, and a lot of overspray, I guess the painter was a bad as i am.

Its all about practice, just experiment and find what works best for you. I find that its better to have the paint a little too thin rather than too thick. If the colour goes on a little too light, take a second pass after it dries a little, and take your time.

Hi Dave, Vance has given some good advice, but I'd say to use plastic as a practice board (paper responds much differently then plastic). You can clean both those models and try again, spray some oven cleaner on them or "Super Clean" if you have that in Germany. Spray entire model and leave in a plastic bag for a few hours, then rinse off with warm water.

Relax, take your time and have fun.

-Bruce

I've redone the camo on the Tiger and the Marder, and while I was busy, I also repainted the camo of an old Panther, and painted a Stug IV. But photo's say more than a thousand words, so here they are. Let me know what you think of my new camo's.

Overview:



The Tiger:















The Panther:







The Marder:







The Stug IV:







Looking forward to all feedback!

Thanks!