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Quoted TextWhat are you looking to do with your panther camo? Stuck on it? It took me about a war to muster the courage to tackle the Terminator splinter camo. It’s the most complex one I’ve done to date.
Hi Krupp,
I am not plannin .....snipped for ease of reading.... debate, but that is easier to address than masking, at least in my opinion).
Guess I'm just a scaredy cat. Anyway, that's my issue
Maybe you just need to get that airbrush, some paint, masking materials and some scrap plastic and start practicing.
Masking for airbrush is not the same as masking for hairbrush.
Hairbrush: You either get that masking tape down tight on the surface, maybe even have to seal it with the masked colour, or you might as well not bother with masking at all.
Airbrush: Masking material tight against surface: hard edges
Masking material slightly off the surface: slightly feathered edges.
Masking material not on the model at all: feathered edges.
If you have a thin roll of "putty" loosely placed on the model and spray carefully along the edge you can get an almost hard edge. The straightness of the edge depends on the even thickness of the roll of putty.
Holding down a piece of paper against the surface will give you harder edges as long as you spray at an angle from the paper towards the surface i.e. avoid "aiming" the airbrush in under the edge of the paper.
The "hardness" of the edge depends on how smooth (non fuzzy) the masking material is as well as the distance between the edge and the painted surface. Greater distance allows more space for the spray to swirl around.
With a hairbrush you need masking that will stop fluid, with an airbrush the masking is more like creating a shadow, think of the spray from the airbrush as a beam of light (not 100% the same but a lot closer to beam of light than fluid from a hairbrush).
With an airbrush you can use masking tape, wet paper, rolls of "putty", wet string or thread, dry paper held in position with tape or sticky putty, dry strings or thread, cling film, tissue paper, basically anything that will stop the spray from hitting the surface underneath.
Come to think of it, gauze (as in bandages) or even fish-net stockings could produce interesting "camo" patterns.
The air pressure and amount of paint you let into the spray will affect the results so start experimenting with different masking materials and how you spray.
If all else fails there is always the possibility to correct small faults in hidden corners with the trusty old hairbrush.
If it is diffivult to reach with masking material it is probably also not in plain sight.
/ Robin
Edit: Papier mache but without the glue i.e. mash up newspaper paper or tissue paper with water to create something in between porridge and putty and stick it on the surface. Rinse with water afterwards.
Plain old clay from the great outdoors, use like putty, rinse off with water afterwards.
