When you paint a WWII German camo scheme, do you airbrush free-hand? Or, do you use some kind of template? I’ll attempt a German camo scheme for the 1st time and I’m worried that camo patterns will be all over the place.
I free hand the soft schemes,if I did one of those hard edge camo schemes,I would probably try silly putty or the like.
Freehand with refs nearby. Especially if there’s multiple colors which would make masking a pain. Plus, late war German stuff was painted freehand in real life anyway. Sometimes early war (41-'43) stuff had softer edges so I use a mask with raised edges like this fw 190-
Then free hand like these 109s-
Early war splinter patters I use tamiya tape as masks.
funny…I just replied to the favorite camo post with the same…
I free hand AB…use very low pressure and over thin the paint. Work slowly and very tight to the surface, build up the color. I tried a template once…too “rigid”…free hand gives more variety of spots as you fill in the areas
good luck…
Fantastic Hunchback GRL !!!
thanks…it was a cool little kit…
Well, I chose a wrong model for my 1st shot at Ab’ing camo schemes. It’s a 1/35 Hetzer, which requires a hard edge camo scheme.
hard edge…easier to mask with tape or sticky film…or use silly putty or blue tack…make sure you have some goo be gone for cleanup afterwards…
personally I still prefer a softer edge…
Chris, for the hard edged armour scheme you are trying to replicate, i would suggest something like silly putty, assuming you are in the USA. These hard edged schemes usually don’t have the straight lines as seen in hard edged aircrfat schemes.
I’ll check if Hobby Lobby or Michael’s has silly putty.
If you are not comfortable with free hand, you can use templates. Blow up the painting scheme you want to 100%, print it out with bond paper and cut out the patterns. Then you can use “handi-tac”, or the like, and raise the pattern about 1/16 inch off the surface. Use low presure (so the pattern doesn’t “ghost” under the template.)
For Silly Putty try a toy store,like Toys R Us, or Kay B,as it is basically a kids toy