RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I favour the approach you've just outlined, Gary, that is; one of working from light to dark. Until now, I've been mainly concerned with finding primers that do what they're supposed to. Tick. Then, I've been finding ways to lay on topcoats from a rattle can (Tamiya mostly) by using home made paper stencils to help create Camo patterns..tick.. and then to mask areas off that don't need painting. Tick. At this time of year..and not having a heated workspace (shed is too cold), it takes too long to set the airbrush up. Cross. At the same time, it doesn't like cold weather.
This, by the way, is my compressor: Midwinter in the Highlands, is not ideal for painting in any medium, but the airbrush suffers most. I can do a couple of (warmed) fast sweeps with a Tamiya rattle can in my porch, with the windows open and a mask to prevent my lungs from being coated with Dunkelgelb... . Even then, it's not easy. I really need to be able to use the Airbrush for finer detail, not rattle cans, but that will have to wait until the Spring...
Meantime, I'm doing the sensible thing, and finding out as much as i can...

43rdRecceReg wrote: Midwinter in the Highlands, is not ideal for painting in any medium, but the airbrush suffers most. I can do a couple of (warmed) fast sweeps with a Tamiya rattle can in my porch, with the windows open and a mask to prevent my lungs from being coated with Dunkelgelb... . Even then, it's not easy. I really need to be able to use the Airbrush for finer detail, not rattle cans, but that will have to wait until the Spring...
Meantime, I'm doing the sensible thing, and finding out as much as i can...

I applaud your efforts.. I can't use an airbrush to save my life.. I've never been good at painting anything.. An 8 year old with a rattle can could probably do a better job than I could.. I've seriously tried.. But I can never get the spray pattern right. And it looks like blobs instead of smooth lines..

gp100 wrote:

43rdRecceReg wrote: Midwinter in the Highlands, is not ideal for painting in any medium, but the airbrush suffers most. I can do a couple of (warmed) fast sweeps with a Tamiya rattle can in my porch, with the windows open and a mask to prevent my lungs from being coated with Dunkelgelb... . Even then, it's not easy. I really need to be able to use the Airbrush for finer detail, not rattle cans, but that will have to wait until the Spring...
Meantime, I'm doing the sensible thing, and finding out as much as i can...

I applaud your efforts.. I can't use an airbrush to save my life.. I've never been good at painting anything.. An 8 year old with a rattle can could probably do a better job than I could.. I've seriously tried.. But I can never get the spray pattern right. And it looks like blobs instead of smooth lines..

Thanks. Rattle cans deliver a relatively heavy stream of paint. In fact, it's possible to cover an entire (and typical) 1/16 scale model in just a few sweeps. Few airbrushes will allow you to do that. At the same time, the rate of deliver is potentially the biggest drawback of using rattle cans, however. One sweep too many, and you'll have some unsightly runs and drips. Nozzle sizes are also pretty standard (and therefore generally invariable) on rattle cans, and this makes fine detailing very difficult, if not impossible, except with careful masking. Airbrushes, by contrast, can be fitted with different sized nozzles (jets); paints can be thinned, and pressure can be varied on many compressors. This flexibility makes them ideal for model painting.
I'll post some examples tomorrow. In fact, it is possible to buy alternative nozzles for some brands of rattle cans. These can offer a broader or narrower angle of spray. Details were posted in another thread previously.

Using the rattle can, I make camo templates/ stencils out of the absorbent sheets of paper you'll often find scrunched up, and used as packing, in Amazon boxes.
Here's a pic of me working on my Tamiya panther G. The Tamiya Panther is the unwilling recipient of the infamous 'Old Rope'... Ignore the bits of paper dust and detritus on the hull.I forgot to blow it away before taking the pic..
Incidentally, I've discovered since that wetted jeycloths are a good means of holding down curling paper templates. Effective, this is, so long as the paint they're sitting on is already dry.. It might not look it, but it's almost Zero degrees out there (Midwinter). I snatched an hour or two of midday Sun to air these. I don't want to have to wait until late Spring or early Summer to use my airbrush; but i have little choice.

Still a way to go with the painting. Touch ups and corrections, here and there, as well as some weathering down the seams and on the 'bolt on' accessories. Obviously, I still have the lower front plate to do. The rear is untouched as well. I don't want to tri-tone the wheels; but I'll simply age and 'grease' the bolts and wheels caps. :think As usual, click to ENLARGE the photos: As might be apparent from the first photo, the rattle cans are Tamiya's own brand.

As the saying goes: 'what goes around, comes around. So, here we are back with the 'Old Rope.'
Following the earlier suggesting that the string can be sealed with PVA glue, I made a small pond of it to drag the string through: and...this is the result (superior to effects of the infamous 'blue pill' some abdominal thrill seekers crave..not my thing, personally )

..and now after the wonders of PVA enhancement, It's possible to use Tamiya's cheapo 'cable' to do this:

Here's the finished item, though, painted with XF-Metallic Grey But here's the catch. After treating the string with PVA, the damned string thing has shrunk . Previously (and you can see it fitted in an earlier pic), it was cut to the length suggested by Tamiya in the Panther build instructions, and it actually fitted on the Panther correctly. Now it's 6mm too short
Solution? Well, I've ordered a brace of cables for the Panther G from Steve at Welshdragon....
What goes around, comes a round...but a little shorter every time

Roy such an inspiring yet unusual result.... Things were looking up ( no pun intended) your rope was the pride of the countryside ...

It's gets stiff, yet shrinks no..

I like your idea to resolve the problem in the end -very smart

Some time back faced with a similar problem I tied a length of cotton around the metal loop and tied the other end to a clothes hanger dipping the "String" into a tin of "Hammerite Silver Paint",
I left it soaking for a couple of hours then removed it and hung it down the centre of an old Cardboard Newspaper Tube for a day to dry,
It is now a flexible "Steel" Tow rope on the back of a PZ4.
It worked for me.
Shaun.