Hello everyone,

I am loooking for a good way to mark the camo pattern on my models before actually using the airbrush.

I used to draw a fine line with a pencil but it sometimes scratches the paint surface and this is visible on the finished model.

In a topic sometime ago I remember soneone mentioning the use of chalk.

What method do you apply?

P.A.

Alex;

Basically, my suggestion is... don't mark the kit.

Outside of trying to "exactly" copy a specific vehicle, marking seems to entail more time and risk to the underlying kit and prior paint coats than worth it, so I don't go there.

After trying marking, I have switched to doing most camo free-hand and occasionally masking small portions of the kit to get specific locations and "fit" for parts of the camo scheme.

What has worked well for me with a fair number of German WWII 2- and 3- colour schemes and a couple of French WWII schemes is to 1) study the available color and / or diag pictures of my subject camo pattern fairly intensively to get a good mental picture of what I seek to paint, 2) hang or place or tape the pattern pic or diag right in my spray booth above the kit while I work, 3) "limber up" my spraying hand with a few trial passes with the AB on blank paper or cardboard using my first camo colour to get the scale and feel of what I want to do, and 4) give the job a first draft on the kit! After I paint that first draft pattern, I compare the pattern to my diag, and go back and touch up blobs and patches as needed to get to where I want to be.

Maybe one more "tip": I always "under-size" the blotches and blobs during my first draft run... this allows me to tweak by widening and adding a little on to the pattern elements, as versus trying to back up and re-spray the base colour to shrink over-sized places.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

Bob