So, I’m working on this old Testors F-5A kit, and looking at the nigh unreadable painting instructions regarding the Vietnam 3 color camoflage pattern. I’ve never done three colors together before. Do you put the darkest color down first, then mask it off and do the next lightest, and so on? Or would you start with the lightest color, in this case Dark Tan? I’m thinking of trying to mask with Silly Putty. Maybe I should go do a GIS for some F-5’s. Who’s got good advice for me?
Chris
I usually go with the lightest first then mask and shoot the next darkest, and so on until they are all done. Silly putty works well and so does blue tack, play doh works too if you can do it quick as it will stick or shrink if left on too long.
Haven’t done it myself but from what I have seen and read you start with light and work towards dark.
Dark paint would require to many coats of lighter paint to get good coverage and the extra paint would fill in any details.
I agree with Hercmech. Light colors first. For a flexible mask I use a kneaded eraser. It performs similarly to blue tack but is not as sticky.
I do the tan first and then either one of the greens. They are so close to the same color, that sequence doesn’t make any difference. I use post-it-notes held off the surface with play do or blue tac for masking. Sometimes I just free hand the air brushing, especially on 1/48 or 1/32 scale.
Darwin, O.F. [aln]
On SEA camo, I do the underside gray first. Then I paint the whole topside tan. Next I add the medium green, and finally the dark green. Then I touch up in reverse order finishing with the light gray lowers. Since SEA camo was a soft edge I do no masking in 1/48 aside from the canopy. Worked good on my A-7 SLUF.
Hey Stikpusher, nice looking A-7 (not to mention Harrier and 105). Do you pre-shade or post shade for this scheme?
Thank you oddman. That was one of my few attempts at post shading. I used Gunze “smoke” along all panel lines. I have only tried preshading on single color schemes and have not been happy with the results…[:@] I am most satisfied with pin washes for panel lines.
Yeah, I’ve been pretty inconsistent with pre-shading as well. I got it to look nice on an A-4 but couldn’t replicate it on a Stuka. So I think I’ll stick to post-shading. I would do pin washes too but most of the kits I seem to purchase lately have raised panel lines and I’m not one to rescribe them either.
Wow, that A-7 looks awesome. Heck, maybe I’ll ditch the masking and just freehand it. Thanks for the advice, guys. We’ll see what happens.