RE: Lazy Man's Cammo

Tim spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> >	Just some thoughts, of dubious worth.  What do you guys think?
> > Workable, or am I merely dreaming?
> 
> I don't think it will work as the decals won't deform enough to cover
> large areas or any surface detail. They are just going to look lumpy
and
> peel and crack. You can only apply a large decal to a totally smooth
> surface with a reasonable curvature. Like the old Star Trek Bird of
prey
> in the three ship set, the bottom of the ship was baby bottom smooth
to
> apply the BOP decal and even then it was a total pig to get right.

I'd have to concur. Decals are a pig (especially if you have to fit 
them to complex surfaces) and they give (many times) a glare 
(although this can be reduced with a dullcoat). About the only place 
I'd like them is if someone made some shoulder flashes and cap badges 
for SG2 and I would probably apply them. 
  
> I'd buy an airbrush like a Badger 150 that can go to a fine point and
> spray the cammo patterns through frisk film or by hand. You could
print the
> basic shapes onto the frisk film with the printer to use as a guide to
cutting
> out. The problem with masks is that you have to get them close to the
surface to
> stop bleed and this requires some patience and practice on paper
first. Just
> doing it by hand and using a simple edge mask gives OK results.

You can also get away with painting a basecoat, and then using one or 
two other colours with the spray directly - an ambush scheme - 
probably one of the harder things to paint 'exactly' like a 
historical pattern, but a good knock up can be made. Instead of the 
large patches you get the basecoat with a lot of smaller splotches of 
your chosen spray colours. But I'd consider doing this before doing 
final detailing. In many ways, this is easier than trying to apply a 
template and probably produces a consistent result across a force. 
(From my microarmour days, painting 1/300th scale leopard IIs in camo 
by hand can be awful time consuming). 

Is there a kit out there with MGs, cupolas, etc. and things like 
jerrycans and the like - those who build dioramas will recall 
that those kits from Itareli or Escii that had MGs, barrells, boxes, 
ammo crates, sleeping rolls, etc. - these things make nice additions 
to stock vehicles (along with antennaes and applique reactive 
armour)?  

 
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