I have finally given up the battle with my airbrushes and I’m shipping the whole lot to my son. I prefer brushes, and know how to use them, except for one detail. So, how do you who paint with brushes (I know there are a few of you out there) manage the feather edge on some camouflage patterns? Or do you ignore those schemes which call for such, and restrict yourself to hard edge camouflage?
TIA!
With best regards,
Steve Mack
Hey Steve,
I am more into AB’s but I do a lot w/ brushes when it comes to weathering and dry brushing… Just curious, I wonder if you tried the method of “Dry Brushing” for the edges, would that be a good representation of the “Soft edge” look? I know when I do the dry brushing, I can basically get a nice feathered look… It does t ake time but the outcome is really nice!!
Get the inards done then work outwards w/ the Dry Brushing method… This can be one of many ways to get the results that you are asking about…
Good luck…
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
Steve,
I brush paint acrylics and I’ve done several fuzzy edged camo patterns on 1/48 & 1/72 scale A/C. The technique I use isn’t rocket science. You just need a fine brush and some patience - which you probably have enuf of if you build models anyway.
I use acrylics that are thinned down just a little with water. First I paint the lighter color (overall usually), then the darker camo color so that theres a hard edge. Then I mix a batch of the two colors in about a 50/50 mix. If theres a real strong contrast like dk sea blue/white then the ratio will favor the lighter color a little. I paint a really fine line (1/16" or less) of the mixed color right over top the hard edge.
After that has dried, I get out the original colors again. I get only a little bit of paint on a very fine brush and kinda just mush it around near the edge lightly. If the edge between the two colors gets too much paint, it might begin to show brush strokes. If this happens, I just sand the area with the finest grit I can find. It usually requires some touch up after sanding.
If you use enamels with paint thinner, and you work quickly, you might even be able to use this technique while the paints are still a little wet. I think that would probably give an even better result - but I haven’t tried it yet. I’ve pretty much given up on enamels in most cases because of the fumes.
Here’s an example of the results on the Acc Min SBD-5.
Give it a try on a piece of scrap styrene or an old unused part. Good luck.
Chris
I’ve done the “wet” technique described above. I brushed the darker paint over the semi-dry lighter shade and wet sanded ever-so-lightly once everything dried. It came out dang great. I’ll try to get a pic in the near future. I did a 1/72 scale Spitfire that way.
Here’s my little Spitfire with the soft edge camouflage done with a brush:
This model was completely crunched and repaired a few years ago… never did a follow-up over coat…