Put a #1 head on the Paasche H and thinned down the Vallejo RLM76 and just opened it about 2.5 turns. The left side was done first. about 20 PSI (my compressor is not stable below that. the right side the paint was clogging at the brush and it was a bit harder so I have to clean it up. The wing tail cammo needs tightening up but I am liking what I am seeing. A bit more fussing with paint thinner and she'll come out ok.
It looks good Don! If I were to correct anything it would be the mottles that are characterized by individually discerned splatter marks, which I think detract from the scale effect. Andy had some very good advice about the importance of paint/thinner ratios as well as air pressure. I am constantly playing with my paint/thinner ratios and will not shoot anything on the model until my test sprays are nice and clean. I'm still figuring out the best ratios, especially with the new Hataka paints that I'm using but that's why test sprays are important. I will often attach a Post-it in the immediate vicinity of where I will be painting just for this purpose.
Very nice. I like this particular Fw variant a lot. (Got the same boxing in the stash)
The mottle can be tricky, espicially when using acrylic paint. I find this most difficult and always have better results using plain laquer pant as it thins better. My modelling budies told me that you need to add a bit of retarder? to the vallejo paint to avoid splatter. You need little air presure and kind of draw with you airbrush as you would using a pencil.
I always have a scrap of paper to get the right consistnecy of the paint and I usually end up painting twice or more as mottling on the scrap paper then on the actual model. (On my Me 262 for GB 26 I spend a half day getting the mottle right...I still find it very hard to do, but it's rewarding in the end.
I know a lot of modellers avoid Luftwaffe subjects if the involve mottling or wellermüster patterns, esp in th e1/48th and smaller scales...
Wot!!! Mottles and waves are the ONLY reason to do LW paint schemes!
As to spraying onto paper first, I don't recommend that as paper has a very different surface than the hard plastic of your model. Better to practise on a similar material like sheet styrene or an old model.
Sorry, to clarify; the paper I use is very simelar to a kits plastic surface (No Idea what it is exactly, it's some sheet material I have from work, used as protection sheet for large Litho plates). As pointed out above, regular paper is not consistent and therefore not reccomended for practice airbrushing.
Sounds OK. I used to be a Graphics Rep for Kodak, and the larger litho plates had a sheet of thin plastic, probably styrene, on the top and bottom of the pack, to protect from pressure damage in transit.
Paper such as a Post-It works fine for me. I'm not practicing as much as testing the paint mixture prior to spraying. I like to have a portable waste area, so to speak, to check the spray for paint consistency and splattering. It also helps me visualize the position of the spray to minimize those errant bursts.
To actually practice a mottle or camo pattern, by all means use an appropriately non-porous material!
You're doing good there Don and like many of us, this thinners, paint ration, pressure is something we just have to keep practicing at. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.
Nice effort and good tips from the guys here. Definitely looking more representative of the a/c your modelling. My last Wurger had a heavy mottling so I wasn't challenged by the need so much to get the light camo spray on the fuselage but even so in 1/48 scale its a still a challenge to get the proper scale of the camo pattern with your airbrush.
Thank you all, great discussion on the painting tips. Been very busy trying to land a job up in Austin and I heard unofficially I have it today from my inside man. I should hear Monday or Tuesday officially. Means a Hugh pay raise even over the last good paying job I had in 2009. I'll be working as an engineering technician for a small computer company which specializes in professional workstations. These are the machines that all the computer animation are done one for all the movies. These things are super cool. Check out Boxx Technology.