Painting Vehicles – Part 1, Basecoating a Valkyrie/Vendetta

I’ve split this in two and will be showing techniques spread over two vehicles simply because I got bed/no usable pictures of the second part of the Vendetta paint job, so all the weathering will be demonstrated on something else :)

I’ve made several posts in the past on both airbrush use and vehicle painting, but I’m at a stage now where I feel my “technique” if it can be called that is both more effective and streamlined. however for those of you wanting a slightly less beaten look, or wanting those introductory airbrush articles the following posts might be of interest.

http://excommunicatetratoris.blogspot.com/2010/02/times-they-are-changing.html

http://excommunicatetratoris.blogspot.com/2010/03/promised-kroot.html

http://excommunicatetratoris.blogspot.com/2009/06/painting-chimera.html

A note on primer.

I now use a flat grey halfords car body primer for everything I paint. I like the neutral tone, and the grippy surface. if you use black, you WILL need to apply more paint and in more coats, and if you use white, you will get brighter more vibrant results.

 

The very first thing for this colour scheme is to give the while model a coat of VMC Iraqi sand. the slightly pink cast adds a very authentic desert camo feel to the rest of the paint. you can of course substitute any light tan or khaki here.

While this coat Dries I apply a layer of humbrol maskol to the clear plastic parts of the canopy. this allows me to spray the canopy the same as the body, but without risk of damaging the clear plastic.

do take care however not to get this on the frame, as it will lift any paint that lands on it.

 

 

 

The next step is to hit the raised areas, upward facing surfaces and any angles that would catch the light such as the bend in the wing a dusting of a lighter colour, here I used VGC bonewhite. this provides some tonal variation, and a sense of highlighting.

I then block out all the metallic areas with black. this provides a solid ground for the next stage which is the careful dry brushing of the metals.

other metals are picked out too, such as the brass engine cowls

 

 

Drybrushing is absolutely best done with a large, soft brush, and a literally dry brush. there should be no liquid paint at all remaining, just a transfer of dry pigment, such as you might get from a dusty rag.

I also give the Khaki areas a drybrush with bonewhite to bring out the raised edges.

 

 

Careful masking of the underside of the hull is done with masking tape, making sure good contact is gained and that no bleed will occur.

During the spraying, the paint is kept to a very dry application, allowing no pooling, this further reduces the risk of bleed, as does control of the direction of spray, making sure not t spray “up, under” the tape. 

The accessories are sprayed at the same time, and the metallic weapons drybrushed and detailed.

 

 

 

 

The pilots and cockpit are painted using various colours, keeping them bright so they still be visible through the cockpit

 

  

 

 

And the canopy is sprayed and glued in place.

 

 

 

 

At this point, the basework is done, these stages are universal to all my vehicles, the next stages however vary, but I’ll try to run through -

Applying decals

Klear coat

Sponging on scratches

White spirit wash

Rust spotting/weather streaking

Oil/grease and soot

Weathering powders and dirst/dust.

Might take me a few days to get those done, so bear with me, and thanks for reading.