Re: favorite painting techniques?

> Date: 	 Thu, 2 Apr 1998 18:46:12 -0800 (PST)
> To:		 FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
> From: 	 trapper <trapper@nwlink.com>
> Reply-to:	 FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
> Subject:	 favorite painting techniques?

> What I'd like to know are specific techniques people prefer for the 
> painting of their ships.
I go for an undercoat darker than the intended final colour of the 
ship, then heavily drybrush the main colour over that, followed by a 
much lighter drybrush of a highlight colour. For multiple colour 
camo' schemes this still works - paint the camo' scheme in dark 
colours, then (carefully) drybrush the main and highlight colours. 
Follow this with picking out specific details (eg engine, guns) and 
then add markings and finally a coat of varnish.

> What kind of primer do you use?
Personally I don't - the dark undercoat serves the same purpose.

> What color patterns and details seem to work well for you?
The traditional spaceship colour (battleship grey) works fine, which 
is the colour of my NAC ships. The ESU are in dark green (actually 
Rifle Green over a very dark undercoat) and Kra'Vak are a brick red 
colour. I also have a fleet of blue ships (EE Space Fleet mainly) and 
another in yellow / black stripes (Irregular ships). Colourful 
schemes work well (just look at the paintings of Chris Foss and 
others for inspiration), although in the end expediency tends to win 
the day and I go for single colour schemes because I just want the 
models on the table quickly ! I tend to steer clear of metallic 
colours except for small details.

> Do you use decals?
No - I tend to find that there aren't enough flat areas on the models 
to put decals on. Decals lift too easily when the models are handled 
a lot. Rub-down lettering / shapes tends to work better IMHO. 

> Do you kitbash or add other accessories to your ships?
Not yet, but I'm about to try. The Model Aerodrome chain here in the 
UK has been selling off a huge number of Fujimi 1/700th naval kits 
very cheaply recently, and many of these come with an additional 
sprue of superbly cast accessories such as gun turrets, torpedo tubes 
and AA mounts. The AA mounts especially look as is they'll make 
excellent ADAFs and PDAFs for FT ships.

Tony Francis
(tony@simis.co.uk)

Brigade Models website
    http://www.uk-net.com/uk/freeweb/users/brigade