Not an active poster so forgive me if I break some sort of rule about files, photos, etc ...

So I saw the new on Star Wars Legion. I have always wanted to play a game like that and never had a genre that really clicked for me. Have not painted a model in a good 30 years ... Reagan may have been in the White House ...

But I saw Sarasto's Video.

Have been watching the posts on here the last 2 weeks. As in, wow ... could I do that?

Then, watched about 4 hours of "how to paint" videos; went and burned the weekly coupon at a pair of Hobby Lobby's; same at a few Michael's and a visit to a local hobby/modeling store ... boom

I wanted to see if I could use the techniques and paint a tiny little ship. And, I wanted to up the ante and try a camo with rattle cans ...

I got it this far with Zenithal Highlights; some Tamiya 6 mm tape; tin foil; blue tack and both light and dark grey Tamiya sprays ...

I then took and put a layer of purple camo pattern on fuselage and wings ... the photo will not load ... and for me, as a new guy, feeling pretty good about progress.

My guess is someone solid with an airbrush could do this very quickly. The taping/re-taping and lack of control with the cans ... and do over moments ... made it harder. Or at least I would imagine

Then, tragedy ...

I had used a purple tint via TINY brush through the middle of my purple pattern. Worked out.

Next, I used Nulin Oil over ALL the grey ... it totally killed the camo; bled the grey areas together and, currently, the Z-95 is taking a Simple Green bath

So question ...

Do you strategically use the darker washes over engine areas/exhaust ports?

If used on fuselage, do you really, really, really water it down prior?

And I get it ... Star Wars did not have camo. This was more of a "teach myself how to paint" versus the game. Trying to understand "how to" prior to Legion showing up in the Spring

Any help appreciated

Not sure what happened with your wash? Could have been too thick or maybe the later underneath wasn't dry?

As for the masking, try using sticky tack like the stuff you use to put posters on the wall. You can mold it into shapes and use that to mask off parts of the model.

The Nuln oil will really dull and darken paint. You can do a couple of things help mitigate the problem in the future:

As you mentioned you could water it down to a 1:1 or 2:1 ration of water to Nuln oil. That's the simplest way to go about it. Remember to sop up excess wash before it gets out of hand and pools up where it is not wanted.

Secondly, you could try to apply the wash directly into the panel lines and crevices you want to darken. For the most part, once you stick your brush into one of those lines, the wash will be drawn out of the brush and fill the line on its own. Be sure to use a size 0 or smaller brush.

Another method is to give your ship/figure a gloss coat, then apply the wash. The gloss , being slick, lets the wash run into the recesses more easily and allows you to wipe off excess wash from unwanted areas. When it dries, apply a matte varnish and the gloss goes away.

Lastly, after applying the Nuln oil with whichever method you use, go back with the base color and lightly do some touch-ups.

Then depending on how far you want to go with your paint job you can add edge highlights, glows, weathering, rust, chips, etc., etc. There is A LOT you can do without an airbrush. It just takes time and practice.

I liked your Z. It was well on its way.

Here is a great resource that is worth exploring. Lots of examples for both figures and vehicles. And terrain!

Good luck! And hope we see more of your work.

11 hours ago, John Rainbow said:

Not sure what happened with your wash? Could have been too thick or maybe the later underneath wasn't dry?

As for the masking, try using sticky tack like the stuff you use to put posters on the wall. You can mold it into shapes and use that to mask off parts of the model.

Thanks for reply. I had used the blue tack for the initial camo pattern. Works AWESOME ... the plus. It tends to get stuck/hung up in places around the engine and hard to get out. Thus, I opted for tape on some portions.

John R, thanks for note. I had used blue tack for the initial camo pattern. Best tool for job but I found it getting stuck in the engine parts/back half of ship. Then switched to the tin foil/tape.

Force M, thanks for the note. I have no idea what happened. The paint was dry and, while no expert at this, I had never seen Nulin Oil behave like that before. I mean it totally killed the pattern. That was all rattle can. In an attempt to fix it prior to a dunk into Simple Green I did work it a little with paint & brush.

It killed it. It looked like brush work over a nice, sprayed layer. Not good enough with brush at the time to correct.

Starting over and appreciate link and notes

10 hours ago, Force Majeure said:

The Nuln oil will really dull and darken paint. You can do a couple of things help mitigate the problem in the future:

As you mentioned you could water it down to a 1:1 or 2:1 ration of water to Nuln oil. That's the simplest way to go about it. Remember to sop up excess wash before it gets out of hand and pools up where it is not wanted.

Secondly, you could try to apply the wash directly into the panel lines and crevices you want to darken. For the most part, once you stick your brush into one of those lines, the wash will be drawn out of the brush and fill the line on its own. Be sure to use a size 0 or smaller brush.

Another method is to give your ship/figure a gloss coat, then apply the wash. The gloss , being slick, lets the wash run into the recesses more easily and allows you to wipe off excess wash from unwanted areas. When it dries, apply a matte varnish and the gloss goes away.

Lastly, after applying the Nuln oil with whichever method you use, go back with the base color and lightly do some touch-ups.

Then depending on how far you want to go with your paint job you can add edge highlights, glows, weathering, rust, chips, etc., etc. There is A LOT you can do without an airbrush. It just takes time and practice.

I liked your Z. It was well on its way.

Here is a great resource that is worth exploring. Lots of examples for both figures and vehicles. And terrain!

Good luck! And hope we see more of your work.

This about sums it up! The only other thing I would add is that sometimes after giving a wash to remove excess wash and to scuff in the process I give the ship a gentle brushing with a very soft (1000 grit or more) sandpaper or MicroMesh. It works very well on flat areas in particular.

Going to work the wash in specific areas with, as suggested, very small brush ... very small. For a new guy I was pretty pleased with my ability to get a zenithal result with my primers and, then, the initial grey pattern. If I had only stopped there ...

The purple is not easy to remove via Simple Green and light brushing

So for all the new guys afraid to paint but reading the forum and thinking ... "if I could only do that" ... give it a go