I like experiments. I planned early on that the model would be in three-color French camouflage since such tanks were on the equipment of the 1st tank regiment of the Haller army, which my model represents. Since I already have an undercoat in the perfect color for chipping, it was a shame not to use it. Here, however, I was faced with the choice of masking method. The transitions have to be sharply cut off, and the model has many small details and intricate nooks and crannies. I purchased a Vallejo liquid mask for this at first. Still, as I prepared to paint, I realized that, after all, hey, it’s a liquid and probably on a sizable water base. So, in theory, it activates Chipping Medium, and at best, when pulling it off, it will go away along with the paint flakes. So, I tested on the side and came to a few conclusions.
- The liquid mask actually activates Chipping Medium immediately.
- … however, if you do not scrape anything, the paint remains intact.
- It is necessary to apply the mask with a brush quickly and not wipe the flooded areas again.
- To be sure, dry quickly with a hair dryer.
- Do not tear off the masking until I am sure that everything is dried 100%.
- Who doesn’t risk will never see a prison, and you only live once.
So I applied our Easy Chipping Medium with an airbrush in three semi-moist coats and put it for a quarter of an hour under a constructed TURBO DRYER 3000 from a USB fan and a moisture absorber.
Then I painted the first color, of course, the lightest one. Here, I decided to do two experiments as far as I could. First, a gentle modulation… somewhat modulation, and some zenithal highlights, which I haven’t done before on 3-color camouflage. The snag is that you must repeat it on each of the 3 colors. Otherwise, it will be weird. We’ll see if it works.
Secondly, I highlighted the hues of all three camouflage colors, mainly white, avoiding much yellow. White as a primary is not recommended for color modulation and highlighting because it flattens colors and makes them fade. For light reflections, yellow is usually used with greens and browns or beiges in the style of “buff,” egg, etc. I chose white, however, with the idea that my model is a base for weathering, which here will mainly showcase dusting and perhaps…. frost. This idea only germinated in my head yesterday when I got to the figures. They are wearing thick leather coats, so, naturally, all the scenery should represent a rather cold weather atmosphere. We’ll see at the weathering stage what comes of it. It would also be a good opportunity to show our new product in action: Solution for snow, which is a liquid for making any density of snow from ordinary baking soda. Any thickness, so frosting, too. Let me know in the comments if it’s a cool idea. No dense snow, just a fine frost here and there.
By the way, I found that the last lightest color, a sand shade that is almost white now, will be an excellent base for the sandbags added to the diorama. I painted them, keeping the shadows from the primer, and I’ll treat the whole thing later with some glaze or filters. The bags themselves are probably the weakest point of the model, as the detail is extremely bland. However, the project is supposed to be “out of the box,” and the bags themselves, with the rest, will be covered quite heavily with mud.
And below is a photo spread of the paints used to paint the camouflage.
This is how the model looked before removing the camouflage. Since the colors in this camo do not overlap, I was able to paint them one by one.
Well, and the effect after removing the mask. Unfortunately, it is a very tedious process, I must be honest. On the one hand, I have a fairly precise and fast masking. On the other hand, taking off the latex rubber took me many hours. On top of that, you have to sand the edges. However, I have no idea how to make such sharp transitions with Patafix. There, too, I would have to use the liquid mask to cut off the edges themselves already. But I could more easily take off just the edges with liquid latex. Maybe it would be better to cut the masking from masking tape. Still, there is always the risk, in the case of complicated surface areas, that the paint from the airbrush will come up somewhere and make a horrible cloud of color in the paint edge run. Anyway, here it is. It wasn’t without a few mistakes, which will be covered in the video. Now, I’m getting down to chipping and painting the figures.