2010143:34
pm
Dabbling with an airbrush
I figured I'd get some paint onto this thing soon, so while I was messing around with the airbrush this morning I set about putting some color onto it. I primed black, and then used some Vallejo Model Air German Grey and US Grey to brighten the thing up substantially in the hopes that after a black wash or two, I'll be able to tone the greys down to a nice, richer-looking black armor.
There's a couple places where I could have done better with the spray, but I figure the washes'll help blend it all together decently enough. Before I do those washes, though, I'm going to set about base-coating the colors on this thing properly, which means picking out the bones, scrollwork, and any other details.
2010143:30
pm
Toothpaste, round two!
So I figured I'd keep experimenting a bit on the tank. Into the Warp it went, to stew in Simple Green for the better part of a week while I occupied myself at school. When I fished it out and scrubbed it down, I actually managed to get most of the paint off right down to the underlying styrene:
Then I set about hitting it with my ol' Krylon Rust Primer again, and airbrushed some brighter orange colors overtop just to try and make the rust brighter. After that, I started applying the toothpaste again, in the hopes that I might be a bit more conservative with it this time.
Then came an airbrushed coat of grey overtop - again, a lighter color than the final coal black I picture the tank being at the end, largely because I hope to use some black washes on the entirety of the thing to make the armor plates stand out more.
Then came the pivotal moment - about half an hour after the last spray, I stuck the tank under the sink again. You don't want to work too slowly when you're using toothpaste, because if you leave it on there long enough it'll turn rock-hard and won't rinse off. This time, I had a much stranger experience with rinsing the mask off - in some places, the water actually managed to get underneath the grey paint after I'd rinsed the toothpaste off, and it lifted larger patches of the paint off than I actually masked. However, it did so in a very organic manner, leaving me with an irregular looking, patchy paint and rust job that I actually sort've like.
I think this looks a lot less like camo than my first go around at this method, and I think it'll be workable in the long run. I'm going to probably stipple the rust areas with a very bright color like blazing orange to give them some irregular coloring, and then I'll set about adding the actual colors onto the plates of the tank that will be getting 'em. After that, a black wash should help make the whole thing a bit more Goffy.
June 9th, 2010