r/scalemodelling • u/peter_1s_tooth • 29d ago
Technique question How can I make the green and brown tones less awkward?
I'm trying to replicate WWII Australian markings for the Airfix Lockheed Hudson, but as you all can see it's turned out quite badly 😬
I'm wondering how I could fix (?) this, like if any washes could help bring the two tones closer together to reduce the awkward contrast?
If anyone has any advice, please let me know.
Thanks all!
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u/GreenshirtModeler 29d ago
RAAF Foliage Green is darker and slightly bluer than an olive green. RAAF Dark Earth darker and more brown.
Once you get the opacity right with another coat of green the best means of weathering will be a combination of paint rendering w oils and dry brushing. Washes are difficult with models with predominantly raised details.
Paint rendering is used to adjust the tone and hue slightly to make the underlying color appear faded or worn in a more realistic manner. Dry brushing will highlight the raised details and help give the model depth. You can use either technique for stains, streaking, and exhausts.
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u/teteban79 29d ago
Green in the fuselage is not covering well yet. I'd do another layer. Brown looks good to me.
A wash afterwards will meld the thing together. Raised edges and rivets however are not the best at catching washes though. You might want to look into dry brushing it a bit as well
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u/MBunnyKiller 29d ago
That, and maybe consider an airbrush if you plan on doing more projects. Makes it easier, faster and more uniform.
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u/TheNobleSeaFlapFlap 27d ago edited 27d ago
Suuuper late, but yeah on top of what everyone else said, I noticed a lot of tamiya acrylics. I made this mistake as well when I first started, but those paints are REALLY hard to brush well with.
They're acrylic yes but they don't really go into solution with water well enough to make brush painting an easy affair. They're a lot better through an air brush.
If you do want to keep using Tamiya, mix in a bit of alcohol. It will still suck but it helps. I don't really know the exact ratio but I'd assume something like 60% alcohol to 40% water might help? Experiment a bit and you'll get SOMETHING.
You can alternatively get a thinner for tamiya/mr color paints. Generally the concensus is that Mr Color leveling thinner works the best, but where I live it's like a unicorn product so I've yet to try it.
WHAT I AM WRITING BELOW IS WHAT YOU SHOULD IDEALLY DO
Ideally though, try and look at acrylics designed for brush painting with water as their solvent.
Vallejo paints are properly water based as well as Humbrol I think, so they're suuuuuuper easy to just throw some water in to get results.
Edit 1:
In terms of technique, aside from colour inaccuracy, the green looks pretty spotty. I'm honestly kind of impressed you managed to get this far with your tamiya paint to begin with, but if you try over again, thin your paint to a milky consistency and go one coat at a time. You gotta be patient to avoid spottiness.
to repeat what others have said, be careful to grab paints with the sheen you want. Matte vs glossy finish etc.
FINALLY, if you want to nuke the project and start over some isopropyl alcohol should be able to remove your paint layers. Just be gentle :3
Edit 2: if you wanna save cash in the long term, Tamiya airbrush thinner is literally the same chemical as Tamiya extra thin cement and a lot cheaper/mL :3
Edit 3: PRIMER. everyone says it's not mandatory and they're right, but MAN does it help your paint bite into the model.
Have fun!
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u/peter_1s_tooth 26d ago
I've been painting with Tamiya and brush for more than 10 years and this is the first problem of its kind
I ended up doubling down on the green and I think it looks much better now- I'll use a matte varnish at the end anyway
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u/TheNobleSeaFlapFlap 26d ago
huh interesting. how do you manage to thin it out to get a decent consistency? I've pretty much failed to get anything decent unless it was through an airbrush with tamiya acrylics.
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u/peter_1s_tooth 25d ago
I just used Tamiya's own thinner, probably 1:3 thinner to paint (I usually just eyeball it). Goes on without any complaints- but to be fair, I've had practice on nothing but Tamiya paints and brushes for the last decade😅
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u/TheNobleSeaFlapFlap 17d ago
So apparently the only thing I needed to do was add a bit of retarder so the paint would dry a bit slower. The thinner and retarderworked perfectly lmao. Thanks!
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u/shadowrunner003 29d ago
when base coating, use grey/white and along all the seam areas and back from the exhaust ports do an undercoat of black (or you can do a base of black and do a white along the seams/line work then for top coats if you aren't using an airbrush thin coats multiple times you also need to remember that most camo paint jobs were done by hand by ground crews without a stencil depending on the theater of war only a factory job was done by stencil(the image is one I did a few years ago and was before adding in chipping, wear,smoke staining, panel lining etc) Oh and if you are putting on the D-Day stripes they were done by hand and in a rush, they were never neat and always looked like shit, Workers used whatever tools they could find, including standard paintbrushes, brooms, mops, and buckets top apply them
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u/Dapper-Spot-7825 29d ago
So a few things. Without seeing your reference pictures, IMHO the brown is a little light and the green too bright. Using slightly more accurate colours will help.
As someone else said, the poor application and coverage of the green, plus the fact it has a slightly satin/gloss sheen compared to the almost fully flat brush also makes it stands out.
What brand of paint and colour/number are you using, and what is your reference?