hi there
i`m one of those poor dudes without an airbrush
i`ve bought me trumpeters marder1(sd.kfz131)
as far i know this vehicles only saw combat in normandy
so the right camo pattern would be the three tone camo
with dark yellow as base
how can i add the green and the reddish brown without an airbrush
i allready painted the entire hull with dark yellow
i need you guys tips

cheers from germany
bazooka

Hi bazooka!
Not too hard to do 3 tone camo without AB.Just takes a little longer to set up. You need your red-brown and green paints in spray can format to do this though.
For 'soft' edge scheme you need to take an old white t-shirt and cut it up into random pieces no bigger than 4" square and not really any smaller than your thumb.Place your Marder on a pedestal about chest high(while standing) so you can walk around and shoot paint.Or,you can use a turntable if you don't have space for pedestal method.
Place/arrange strips of cloth on Marder to your liking with exposed areas to be painted with your first color.(doesn't matter which is first).Start with only a few open spots as you only want to paint about 1/3 of the surface if you are doing 3 tone. Shoot the paint from about 1 foot away and use light,quick shots.Hit each area from differant angles.When done,let dry about 20-30 minutes and then carefully remove cloth strips so that paint is not disturbed. you can re-use strips after paint is completely dry.Repeat this for next color.
For 'hard' edge cammo,use Silly Putty or Blu-Tack for masking instead of cloth and shoot as above.
Notes:
Practice,practice,practice on old hulks untill you are confident.
Any cloth is OK as long as it is lint free.Terry cloth towel is a no-no.Should be light weight material with a tight weave to block paint where you don't want it.
HTH,sorry it's so long.
cheers!

Another technique is to do what I used to do and that is to basically drybrush your camo on. Take a brush, a crappy one, cut off the bristles so they are quite short. Dip it in your camo color, wipe most off, then kind of jab it straight down to where you want paint, following the pattern in your head just as if you had an airbrush. Just be careful not to break anything on your kit (it's why I'd leave off most smaller fittings when doing this until after the camo was done). Getting into some crevices may be tough, but if you take your time you can do it. I have a Wirbelwind I painted like this and people actually refuse to believe I did not airbrush. One plus of doing it this way is that you'll get the fuzzy edges on the pattern just as if you airbrushed.

The key is getting the right amount of paint on the brush, so experiment on an old kit, scrap plastic, etc, first.

Also, do NOT use Tamiya paint for this, as each time you jab you'll end up pulling up paint from the last jab. Polly S, Model master, etc, work best. I'd actually recommend enamels over acrylics.

HTH.

Rob

..I've used both of these techniques - sometimes I just can't be bothered to get my airbrush dirty..

once the paint is on (enamel) you can accentuate the feathered edge by (very) gently adding a touch of thinners to the demarcation with the tip of a fine brush to get the two colours 'merging' ....

thanks for the tips guys
i think i will try both of them on an old model
bazooka