This stage of painting is a big one, as camouflage completely changes the look of the model.
It is the most fun of painting any model. Choosing one you like the look of and whether you do it free hand or with masks the outcome can have huge results.
This being a German tank destroyer I had a lot of camouflage options to choose from.
It can be quite a daunting and nervous part of the build as when a basic camouflage is applied it can look very bold and in your face...doubt can set in but as any experienced modeler knows, the subsequent painting and weathering stages will tone it down considerably.
The process I went with after pre-shading was to add a coat of oxide red, I went with one from Mission Models. I sprayed it on in light coats as I wanted the pre-shading to show through slightly to give it different tones.
I wanted to use the hair spray technique for the chipping so I went and bought a TRESemme strong hold spray. I gave the model a couple of passes and waited 10 minutes for it to harden.
I then sprayed on the base coat as normal, using Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow. I waited another 10 minutes ( and waited only 10 minutes or so ). I say this because if you wait too long, say over night the paint has time to cure and the results would not as good as if you did it straight away. I took a soft brush and started to dab tap water on the area I wanted to work on, then waited a minute or so for the hair spray to activate and dissolve underneath the paint. I took a stiff brush and started to chip away on the raised areas and edges. This way the paint comes off in little chunks mimicking the real way paint chips off metal.
When I was happy with the results, and before going overboard with chipping it was time to think of the camouflage pattern.
I saw a nice looking pattern in the game War Thunder which I decided to recreate, it's an unusual one with shapes and sharp edges which goes well with the vehicle.
To achieve the look I made masking tape templates of the armor panels then drew the shapes on the tape and cut them out with a scalpel knife. then placing the tape template on to the model to be sprayed.
I used Ammo by Mig 001 Olivgrun for the green and AK Interactive 718 Schokobraun for the brown parts.
I added some depth to the existing scratches with some Model Color black grey and around the edges with a lightened Tamiya Dark Yellow.
To tie it all together I applied a filter, made up of 5% of the base coat (Dark Yellow) and 95% thinners. Spraying it on in thin layers until I had built up enough color that I was happy with. The result was a very toned down camouflage, blended to unify all the colors together.
Next up I will be picking out individual details, stay tuned!.
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