Originally posted by PJ Deluhery+Jun 22 2005, 05:54 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (PJ Deluhery @ Jun 22 2005, 05:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Can you recommend any books or articles on the subject?
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Other than my two or three articles in Mil Mod (sorry, don't have the numbers here) not really and I didn't take pics of the process.
There are various articles online on spraying models, most of the figure-related ones are for garage kits (like here) but they don't paint quite like we do most of the time because of the scale. I picked up this specific technique reading a written description - very brief - of how Mike Good tackled an old Verlinden figure about 11 years ago (belated thanks Mike!) this one in fact:
and just played around with it. I think this was the first model I did with it, in '94, but it might have been second after Poste Mil's Pawnee bust which is another ideal spraying project, being mostly one colour.
<!--QuoteBegin-PJ Deluhery@Jun 22 2005, 05:54 PM
But, I have tired it and can't seem to figure out how to make it work without creataing MORE work for myself.
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The actual spraying is really straightforward*, it's the masking and cleaning up that's most of the work, plus cleaning the airbrush of course, but it's worth it and you get used to it like most things (plus with an Aztek you can leave all the dirty parts soaking and do it later!). Getting the hand-painted work to blend seamlessly with the sprayed effect, that's where it gets difficult. This is actually a good training aid for careful brushwork as you just can't get away with being a little sloppy or it's immediately obvious.
*It really is about as simple as I described above, I think one reason it's not publicised by the big names that also do the basic shading this way (you know who you are guys! :lol
is that it's
so simple you almost feel like you're cheating. You just need to imagine the paint being light and spray accordingly - moving the airbrush around so you're spraying from a general overhead direction, mimicking the diffuse lighting we usually depict in the hobby (if you want something more directional spray accordingly). Sometimes, depending on how the piece is sculpted, I spray only from above, so I basecoat in the middle shadow, then spray midtone, medium highlight and then highlight, before laying in the deep shadows by hand and adding the final highlights.
Masking is a big issue with this sort of approach, no getting around it and there are a host of ways of doing it. I use a liquid latex (I use W&N's) for detailed edges and complex shapes (I've also used Blu-Tack in a pinch) and I used to use it for almost everything else too - since it usually goes off in the bottle long before being finished it wasn't being wasted. But now I use Parafilm M for larger areas as it's safer and much faster to apply and remove, with a bit of plastic food wrap for larger areas. For some kinds of masking Tamiya's yellow masking tape is supposed to rock, I've tried other alternatives and nothing seems to be as safe to use and not risk pulling paint off but the type of paint you're spraying will be a factor so test different things for yourself. Even common electrical tape is pretty good if you just reduce the tack a bit, over paints other than the type of acrylics I use it should work even better. One thing I should mention here is you
must have a proper undercoat doing this with anything other than Parafilm (virtually zero tack) as otherwise you'll lift paint guaranteed.
This is where I bought my lifetime supply of Parafilm M:
Pollardwater if anyone wants to try it. You may be able to find it for less elsewhere now, that was the cheapest I could find at the time.
Einion
