Hello all, first post here. I've almost completed my first armor kit, a Tamiya Sherman, Frontline Breakthrough... it's been a tough but fun learning experience. I do have a question pertaining to an early part of the painting process:

When I sprayed the base coat of Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab, the color was a nice medium green OD. However, when the time came to apply Future for decals, the medium green turned into a really dark forest green; it seemed the gloss of the Future darkened the base coat dramatically. I should also mention that after laying down the decals, I did apply another coat of Future for a wash and filter - The color remained the same, and didn't get any darker from then on.

I've heard spraying Vallejo Matt Varnish would brighten the color up from a gloss coat again, but it didn't do much in my case. Is there any way to preserve the brightness of Olive Drab (or similar colors) when using a gloss coat/Future? I was thinking lightening the color of the base coat would help some, but that's just a guess. Any help would be appreciated, thanks much

Lon,

Generally it's recommended to lighten Tamya's OD with Buff or Dark Yellow at something like a 60/40 rate. This always depends on what you will be doing with regard to dark washes.

As for Future darkening; in my experience it's a gerneral observation for any shiny laquer, not just Future. In any case, my experience is that it will get lighter again as soon as you put on the flat coat.

Cheers!
Stefan

I agree. A flat coat will restore the green.

Yellow or Buff, huh... I'll definitely keep that in mind for my next Tamiya OD build. Thanks very much guys, much appreciated.

A gloss coat of any sort will always darken a color. A flat coat, which is actually a 'rough' surface disperses enough light that it causes the color to lighten.

Think about it like a chalkboard. If you wet it down, it gets darker. You're not actually darkening the material, just smoothing it out, and it will appear darker.

When you put a final flat coat on it, it will brighten back up.