Hi to all,

I’m happy about the good job I did airbrushing the base color of a 1/35 scale tank with the Tamiya XF-26 deep-green.

I will be adding a bit of Tamiya White to the green, to simulate wearing on some places of the kit.

To keep doing a good job, I'm not confident at all on how to airbrush the wear color on small areas such as hatches, etc.

I understand that to have more control, I will need to airbrush closer to these areas. At the same time, I want to avoid paint droplets being blown together with the paint.

I believe this has more to do with the air pressure, than with the dilution of the paint. Maybe I'm wrong on this.

What I'm looking for is the advice of the experts helping me on how to keep doing a good.

My airbrush is a Tamiya Spray Work HG.

I appreciate any help given to me.

Cheers,

Flores

Well, air pressure is certainly important, but so is viscosity. The lower pressures demand thinner paint for detailing. I recommend experimenting on a 3x5 notecard, and you can make annotations about dilutions and pressures right on the card, or alternatively, you can use a section of sheet styrene, since paint on paper will sometimes behave differently than on styrene. Generally, I detail paint at 8-12 PSI, with extremely thin paint at a 70:30 ratio or higher thinner to paint, depending on the effect I want. I also use “Post It Notes”, thin tape and Silly Putty to mark sections I don’t want paint on, depending on what I’m trying to paint and the effect I want. For faded paint, I usually mix the base color with white, then spray at a distance for larger areas. For “darkened” effects, I mix the paint with raw umber or burnt sienna depending on the effect, although very dark grays also work. You can just use the raw umber thinned to about 80:20 as well to darken a surface. Hope this helps. I recommend experimenting with various shades and colors to find what works best for you.
VR, Russ

Hi Kevlar,
Thanks for your help. Yes, you are quite right when you mention that it is better to experiment different dilutions and pressures, to find the ideal choice. I will mix white to the green base color, to spray where I want the faded surfaces. This, after trying different spraying distances to a styrene sheet. Don't want to ruin the base green, and having to start painting the kit all over again.
Cheers,
Flores