Painting tanks without an airbrush

[o3gan]

I have the space marine battleforce and thats all i will be getting up until at least christmas (deal withing gaming group) and i want to paint the rhino that comes with. I have been told that i need to airbrush it, however i dont want to pay the £18 just to spray one tank. I have heard that the only other way to do it is to paint lots of watered down layers on.

 

my question is how watered down? like 50:50 or 25paint:75 water, if it helps im painting a base coat of Vallejo game colour bloody red on a white primer

[GhostLegion]

Ive been painting these things for years now and have yet to use an airbrush. sure you can get some interesting effects and nice speed with the airbrush...but its just not my style.

 

That being said, the most important thing to do is ensure you have a good and smooth primer coat down and cured before you work (by this i mean smooth, even, and not flaking anywhere)...im assuming you have this.

 

From that point, I would personally start with a darker base color than your final color (a shade or two darker tends to work for me) and apply with a larger brush as evenly as possible. Watering is fine...if youre staying with the vallejo line, I would say 2:1 (water:paint) or 3:1 for this base coat should do you fine.

 

Once your base coat is down, then either A) make a second coat closer to your goal color and apply as above, ensuring to leave the base coat in the recesses...or :) apply your goal coat in a 2:1 across the model, paying attention to leave the recesses with the base color.

 

From this, well its a matter of detail now...

 

Layering tends to work well. The ratios are normally pretty fuzzy as different makers create different blends, but 2:1 tends to be a pretty solid start...especially for tanks (in my book anyway). Other projects and figures may require more or less water depending on the desired effect. Reaper's Master series of paints tends to require less water for most colors for instance.

 

Hope this helps...

[Obliterator]

You can also buy a colored primer to get a nice even coverage without an airbrush. If you want to apply the paint by brush then I'd say something of a 2:1 paint to water ratio would work. Just take care not to overload the brush with paint, and make sure you apply the paint evenly and you should be fine. But it'll take you a whole lot of time as compared to the other options :)

[Bannus]

Don't forget that you can use a can of spray paint (color not primer). If the color you are using is not available through GW, you can find a near aprox color through other sources (like the local hardware store).

[Gurth]

I have been told that i need to airbrush it

I'm telling you that you don't. You can easily brush-paint tanks and other large models — it's just that the GW fanboys have discovered airbrushes now GW is selling one and so clearly they think you must paint your models with it.

 

I have heard that the only other way to do it is to paint lots of watered down layers on.

Nope. For starters, you can brush-paint the model. Just use the paint straight from the pot, or thinned slightly (and by that I mean nowhere near 1:1 water:paint ratio), using a fairly large brush — No. 4 or so is what I'd take. Take care that you don't put on a thick layer, and don't worry too much about plastic (or the primer) showing through the paint: you can always apply a second coat, and that will most likely cover everything pretty well unless you are using yellow, orange or red (these cover very poorly whichever type of paint you use).

 

Your other option is to use a spraying can. You could either buy one intended for game or modelling, or one for cars; in either case, put on a light coat of paint and once it's dry, repeat if necessary.

[o3gan]

i doubt ill buy a spraycan as i want it to seem uniform with the rest of my army. so what do people think the best ratio is.

above someone suggests 2:1 paint and someone suggests 2:1 water :) . also anyone know what ratio i should use for wet blending?

[Grey Mage]

I dont, because I dont airbrush.

 

I have about 30 vehicles between three and a half armies and I can tell you that just dipping your brush lightly in water, and then in the pots cap and doing two coats- add water as needed until it looks smooth on the model, and then just kind of mop it for a bit.

 

Gives you an even coat, though a bit shallow. A second, and rarely a third will make the color consistent throughout.

[o3gan]

I dont, because I dont airbrush.

 

is this referring to wet blending? because by wet blending i ment this

[Stolid Fox]

As to thinner[water]/paint ratios, I found the best rule of thumb I've been able to find is that the paint needs to be thin enough that if you were to paint it onto something with printed text (try a newspaper) that you can still read the text after putting 1 layer of paint on it. The exact ratio of thinner you need to accomplish this depends on your exact painting style (how much you load the brush, and so forth). That rule was a lot easier for me to follow compared to descriptions like "thickness of milk" and so forth.

[Arikel]

Big brushes I think would be best for this, pretty sure gw even sells a citadel brush they call a Tank Brush specifically for it. Since I went for the easy route of a main color black army I just painted highlights on for mine after priming. If you can find a color spray roughly similar to your army main color I would use that(becuase I am lazy;), and use it to base yer minis also, you can always work up the color you want after with additional paint layering.

[Grey Mage]

I dont, because I dont airbrush.

 

is this referring to wet blending? because by wet blending i ment this

No, it was refering to your origional post.

[Gurth]

i doubt ill buy a spraycan as i want it to seem uniform with the rest of my army.

That depends mainly on what colour(s) the rest of your army is. If they have some primary colour like red, yellow or blue (going by your signature I'd guess red) then I think you can find a spraying can with a very similar colour easily enough — just take the GW paint pot to a store and compare it to the spray paints.

[igor]

I'v tried using the bigger round and flat brushes, but they haven't really worked that well for me painting flat surfaces, so I've just bought a couple of rounded-tip flat brushes to try.

[Obliterator]

I dont, because I dont airbrush.

is this referring to wet blending? because by wet blending i ment this

You can always try to contact Jawaballs through his site or through Youtube, he's a fairly active member I believe. As far as I've seen, he doesn't thin down his paints too much, I think his blending can be obtained by using regular paint consistancy, the main issue is to blend it as it's drying.

[winterdyne]

For tanks, pre-airbrush, I always used to use 2 big, soft brushes for drybrushing - a flat 1" wedge, and a 1/2" round. The trick is to use a 'blushing' technique with the round brush (circular motion) and long, very light passes with the wedge. Note that you need to be competent at drybrushing to get a good effect on large, smooth areas. Practice on old pieces of plasticard till you get used to just how little paint you need on the brush. The brushes are also really important - you want strong, but very soft bristles - pure sable is good. Cheap brushes will leave bristles behind on the paintwork which are a PITA to get rid of, and most likely will upset the finish.

 

In general, the effect (with enough intermediate mixes) isn't really discernable from an airbrush job. Does take a while longer though.

[Bay]

I prime my tanks, then spray them with a mix of about an 50:50 mix using an Iwata eclipse airbrush, it works well with any brand paint I've encountered so far. But the issue with most decent airbrush's is that they start to become pretty expensive and you need a air compressor. It also eats paint pots pretty quick aswell. :D

 

The results I believe are great giving an even coat, but then again I'm always working with tanks, so it makes life that much easyer.

 

IMO if your just trying to paint a few tanks it would be cheaper to finding a spray paint that match's your armies over all color scheme or paint it with a larger than usual paint brush. (watering the paint down works well when doing this).

 

"base coat of Vallejo game colour bloody red on a white primer" This should be fine, just layer your coats lightly, one heavy coat will make it look uneven.

I have seen some brilliantly painted tanks that have been painted by hand. Don't let anyone tell you that "airbrushing" is the only way becuase it simply is not true.

 

If you are interested in airbrushing checkout Amazon, they got some great deals.

[winterdyne]

Actually I find the paint consumption on the airbrush pretty low - gravity feed brushes don't really consume much more (there's no siphon to hold wastage). Siphon feed (those that suck the paint up a tube) waste whatever is stuck in the tube.

This said, if you're quibbling over the price of paint, given the cost of what you're putting it on, you're in the wrong hobby!

[Dave the Twisted]

My solution to tanks. Spray Black. Use Mordian Blue ((or appropriate Foundation color)) + Water 1:2 ratio and a big ol' paintbrush. Let that dry, then straight Boltgun Metal on the appropriate metal gubbins. After that I freehand the odd piece of heraldry and a scribbled line of holy text and I have a fully functional Rhino. It's not terribly pretty, but it's on the table fully painted in army colors.

[o3gan]

how do you right your holy text