what is a good method of painting camo patterns without an airbrush? I dont have and airbrush but would still like to paint some camo designs, in particular urban camo (greys) on my aircraft. would a sponging technique work well?
come on guys, someone must be able to explain how to achieve camo without an airbrush? I would be very grateful if someone could give some tips…
What type of camo and what aircraft? without knowing it’s hard to comment. But I’ll offer this, you can do allot with brush painting, dry brushing, or sponging then dry brushing around the edges, short bristle brush dabbing (simular to dry brushing) etc. Experiment on an old model and develope you own style. Thicker enamel paints dry brush or bristle brush better than thin paints. Arcrylics are impossible if you ask me. Clear coat your work when satisfied using Testors Dull coat or gloss coat spray cans (Gloss/dull depending on your subject). This will help blend the texture of your work and give it a uniform appearance.
With that said, save up for a good airbrush and compressor, it’s worth the investment.
thanks for your suggestions. I am going to do a F22 Raptor, looking at pics I think it is a fairly simple camo design
Try brush painting the whole model with all colors first then bristle brushing with a fairly dry brush around the edges using the darker color. Try a fine round no 3 to 6 or so brush cut off with about 1/8 inch of bristle, dip in the darker paint and dry most of the paint off with a paper towel. Then dab around the edge and blend the darker to lighter colors. It will not be the same as airbrushing but with a little practice and a coat of dull coat it will be close.
Ron
You could also try dry brushing with blends of the 2 colors to further blur the edges & remove the hard delineation between the colors? Just a thought [;)]
For an F-22 with greys you can mix some grey oil paint with an enamel grey,and blend one color to other.
I have done this on 1/72 before… with an AB but no reason it should not work with a rattle can. Try cutting a template out of low tack tape. After appling to the surface, lift the egdes of the tape a tiny bit and fold back to raise the edge. Spray light coats perpendicular to the surface careful the coat is not too wet. The spray floats under the tape a bit and gives a softer edge.
fobius05
like said before Acrylics are a water based paint (like house paint), there ways to paint with the type of paint, I use Polly Scale & Model Masters Acryl (I also use MM Enamals too but I’m going the use my Acrylic style for your info) paints but I can’t use PS’s thinner with MM and vise versa, for thinning PS paint for my airbrush I do a 50/50 paint to distilled water, and I use a 50/50 with MM and their brand of thinner, if you do not have an airbrush here’s another way to paint with acrylics,
step 1.) paint subject with 100% paint and let dry
step 2.)repaint subject with 5 drops paint to 1 drop thinner (water or type thinner) and let dry
step 3.) repaint subject with 3 drops paint to 1 drop thinner and let dry for at least a day or 2
step 4.)apply Future coat with a wide brush 100% from bottle and let dry
step 5.)apply Future coat mixed 5 drops Future to 1 drop of water and let dry
step 6.)apply Future coat mixed 3 drops Future to 1 drop of water and let dry for a day or 2
then apply decals and let dry for a day or 2
follow steps 4 to 6
then apply weathering (if prefered)
then apply dull coat (if prefered)
the proceedure I written was given to me by a modeler who swore by Acrylics back in the 70’s and he use Polly S paints only, and I still use this proceedure that he came up with oh so long ago and it still works very well if your doing hand brushing, now for Airbrushing I mix then as I mentioned before and when I clean the AB I use Distilled Alcolhol for Acrylics and Acetone for Enamals Acetone does work well for Acrylics but it’s very smelly and you need a well ventalated area to use it and Alcolhol is not so harsh
try all the ways mentioned above and see which one work for yourself and go with it
(please note I’ve ran this in an earlier thread)
and when doing Camo jobs when Feathering (a hazing in between the two colors) apply the feathering on last coat 3:1 paint to water application this will give you an effect of spraying like the air brush will do
You’re wrong on that one…
Painting a F-22 model is very difficult, it’s painted in Light and Dark ghost grey, but those colours seem very metallic on a Raptor.
You should have a look on the ARC forums, in the tools en tips section, there’s a topic about painting a 1/48 F-22 right now…
Cheers,
Jürgen
For Brush painting, I personally have had very good results with Humbrol Enamels. They cover much better with a single coat when mixed/stirred thoroughly. Acrylics have not turned out very well in my expereince hand brushing since Polly S was reformulated to Polly Scale. The techniques listed above will give a good approximation of the feathered edges of the camo colors.
that sounds like a good method actually, I think I will try this one. I dont really want to use an airbrush and this sounds like the next best thing, thanks. [;)]