Show us yer stuff!

PostHumanRepublican · Post by **PostHumanRepublican** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:41 am

Ok this is really the last time I will post this thing unless it is a picture of it on a table bombing the hell out of some poor old Russian tank.

I took the neon green and whitened it to very close to the pastel green used on the actual aircraft.

I took the tan and used Vallejo Buff which is nice and light but nowhere near as yellow as whatever color I used before.

I took the brown and used Vallejo Flat Earth from their panzer color line which is a lighter brown than before but more importantly has a red tint to it. This change right here is what really tied the whole aircraft's paint scheme together. And here I was worrying about the green the whole time.

I changed the canopy colors to what looks like a more realistic scheme to me. I took dark blue and gently wet/drybrushed blue onto the raised areas and then glossed it. I also changed the color of the canopy lines from black to dark grey so they didn't blend in as well.

Finally, I painted over the IAF roundels and put new larger decals on which really makes the model pop.

This is F-16I Sufa version 11teen.1octember.toomuchpaintonthisthing.326 FINAL.

Everyones favorite head on shot complete with lamp in the shot

And the usual profile

No more pics of this thing I swear. I'm finally moving on to other projects. If I ever replace my custom amraam 120s with any that GHQ might make, they will be posted on my blog. Sorry if I annoyed anyone I've just invested a hell of a lot of time and research into this thing and want it to be seen. There are no other Sufas at this scale in the world that I know of.

PostHumanRepublican · Post by **PostHumanRepublican** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 9:20 am

I need some help guys. This is my first Merkava and was just a test to see how everything will turn out. I painted it brown, gave it a brown wash, drybrushed it brown, and picked out some details in black.

But it looks so completely plain? What is this tank missing? What am I missing? I have tamiya weathering master sets A and B but I just got them and have never used such a product before. I've just looked back through this thread and seen all the super wonderful things people have painted and here I have one of the best tanks on the planet and it just looks like a turd (a turd cast in super high quality by GHQ).

So are there any opinions on how I can make this thing look better?

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:20 pm

Not sure if you're using enamel paint, but after trying different colors I've settled on a light dry brush of Model Master "US Army / Marines Sand" 2136. It has just enough yellow to give a look like sunshine reflecting, and if used very lightly looks like a coating of dust. That might give the depth you could be looking for.

The VERY old catalogs from Squadron Shop (talking 1970s) used to have tutorials on painting everything from tanks to figures. They suggested lightening the base color with light yellow (as white gave a bleached appearance) and using purple to darken (so not to look sooty).

I really like your paint job. The only thing I might try would be a wash of black on the bogies and between them to give a little more depth and trying a fine brush with black wash along the long recesses (I paint in enamel, but use acrylic washes). Then the Sand dry brush, especially upwards along the sand shields.

There are so many great painters here and I hope they will post their suggestions (always willing to learn from the masters!)

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:22 pm

Computer hiccup

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:23 pm

And again

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:27 pm

Again

PostHumanRepublican · Post by **PostHumanRepublican** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:10 pm

Using vallejo acrylics. I used a brown wash instead of a black wash (I have both made from floor polish) because I thought the black would be too black and wouldnt look right. But looking at the model now, black might be exactly what it needs to really make the panels stand out. What do you mean by bogies though?

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:20 pm

The small wheels that the tank uses to move on the tracks.

I have never heard of this, probably since I have only used enamels, but how do you make a wash with floor polish? It sounds like something I would like to try.

I used to make a wash with 10 parts thinner and 1 part paint with enamels. The wash tended to blur the sharp edges I wanted to keep so I went to acrylic washes (Citadel). Blurring did have its advantage when I needed softer edges, but if I rushed the paint job it looked terrible (I don't own an airbrush).

PostHumanRepublican · Post by **PostHumanRepublican** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:54 pm

Get a bottle of Pledge Floor Care multi-surface FINISH. It's about $7 at Walmart. It has some sort of acrylic agent in it that reduces surface tension and makes things shiney and protected and it smells nice too.

Mix 1 part water to 4 parts Pledge product I outlined above (the bottle you want has blue rubber boots on it) and then just add the desired amount of pigment you want. For pigment you can use powders, inks, or acrylic paint. Voila you have just made a wash and you have more Pledge than you can use in a lifetime of painting.

Really nice thing about this is that I don't have to buy washes anymore and I can make any color of wash I could ever possibly want. Just get some empty paint pots from Hobby Lobby or Walmart and you're set.

If you live overseas then the product you need will be called something else most likely. It used to be called Pledge Future Shine.

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:41 pm

Thanks.

Any suggestions on slowing down the drying time of the acrylic paints in general? I may eventually have to convert, the local selection seems to be drying up.

PostHumanRepublican · Post by **PostHumanRepublican** » Sun Oct 27, 2013 3:11 am

Acrylic thickness and dry time is all about moisture control. Over a decade of using a acrylics I've learned many little tricks and nuances about the medium. Here's a few.

Thinning - In general I mix 1 drop water to 1 drop of paint but this isn't always the case. Acrylics are thick and as you can see on my F-16 there is quite a bit of paint buildup on it. Generally you want to go thin and paint several coats but understanding what top coat goes on what bottom coat can help (more on that later). I save the plastic from GHQ packaging which makes PERFECT palettes. As the paint dries, just add more water. Each paint color acts differently. Medium blues may go on beautifully in one coat but some dark blues such as Dark Prussian Blue are thin and stringy and will need several coats or one brutally thick coat to look right.

Moisture Control - Wet Palette. I did a blog post about them a year go here http://omnijackalsden.blogspot.com/2012 ... lette.html and loved it so much that I'm surprised I didn't find them sooner. To put this product into perspective, my last post of 2012 was in July and I stopped painting for a while after I sold off my Flames of War stuff. A year later I got that wet palette out and the paint that was in it was STILL tacky and probably usable had I added some water.

Over Under Coats - Not sure how enamels are, but you can save yourself some time by learning what colors look best going over other colors. Take green for example. Painting it over white or black will affect how it looks brightness wise. This is why I will generally prime things in grey or tan. Light tans are usually very thin even before thinning them. If you paint them over yellow they can go on very smoothly in one coat without the need to thin them much. Figuring out the best combos here will help you learn which paints will actually need thinned to what extent which in the long run will save you paints.

Brand - I prefer Vallejo for their bottles. It comes out a drop at a time which helps you to not waste paint. I used Citadel paints years ago and I am not fond at all of the open topped pot. I will say that Citadel paints on better without thinning but that may be because they are already thinned. Vallejo is a nice thick acrylic with rich colors.

TLDR, get a wet palette and make sure you have TWO water cups. One for rinsing brushes and the other for thinning paints. You can use an eye dropper to get water to your palette but I save money simply by dipping my brush handle into the cup and letting the water droplet fall onto the palette.

piersyf · Post by **piersyf** » Sun Oct 27, 2013 3:47 am

Further to Posthumanrepublican's post;

acrylics vary. Vallejo and Italeri acrylics are thick, Tamiya aren't, and Gunze are thinner again. Advice such as 'one drop of water to one drop of paint' does NOT carry across all brands. Test them for the result you want.

Gunze acrylics are also a weird mix of matt and semi gloss and tend to be translucent. In that case, you could easily undercoat a mini in white, ink wash in black, then slap a thinned coat of Gunze over the top and have all your shading done. Just highlight (that's theoretical, BTW, I haven't tried that with Gunze, only with thinned Tamiya so far). Tamiya and Gunze paints mix with each other quite well.

Water is an effective way to slow drying time and to thin the paint but it can also effect how matt the paint ends up. If you're coating in Dullkote or similar that isn't an issue. Tamiya make retarders for their paint. The retarders slow the drying time considerably. Get the mix right they behave like enamels.

Squeeze bottles are a matter of taste. I do not understand the argument that they save paint. You can't put unusd paint back into them, and you lose about 5% with what sticks to the inside of a very small bottle. Think ketchup bottle. Do you get it all? My preference is to pre-mix into a pot and keep THAT for years. Each to their own.

Future/Pledge/Klear is an acrylic. Works as PHR advertised.

PostHumanRepublican · Post by **PostHumanRepublican** » Sun Oct 27, 2013 5:33 am

Yes as perisyf stated and I only hinted at, ratio of water usage differs greatly across brands. I never ever thinned my acrylics from Citadel and until I switched to Vallejo didn't even know that people thinned acrylics at all. In general, Vallejo is good with 1:1. Citadel doesn't need thinned, and I don't know what the ratios would be among other ranges. I test literally every single paint I buy just to see how it dries.

Yes squeeze bottles are a matter of taste but what I like about them is being able to control exactly how much I squeeze out and generally I'm decent at only squeezing out what I need so there isn't much waste. Also, given that Vallejo is a thick range, because I mix 1:1 I am sort of kind of getting 34ml of paint per bottle and not the advertised 17ml. To each his/her own.

TAMMY · Post by **TAMMY** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:04 am

Did anyoe tested Dryig delayer or Pigmenti binder by Vallejo? Or any other delayng medium they manufacture.

TAMMY · Post by **TAMMY** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:06 am

double