"anyone have any tips on painting micro armour?" Topic

Hi All,
Does anyone have any tips for a quick but effective way of painting US and German micro armour?…. I'm after stuff that will look good using the 3' rule so no rivet counting required!
Cheers,
Steve
simply6.flyingcart.com

Undercoat black, dry brush firmly with base colour using an ordinary brush (olive drab for US, grey or sand for Germans), add any detail including tracks and any camouflage you want. Apply any decals (white stars/black and white crosses). Dry brush very lightly with a "goat mop" brush using light earth/dust colour (I use Colour Party dried earth). Varnish.

White primer, wash on base colour so it shows a tiny bit of white through on the raised parts, detail, hit with the dip (future floor wash, and black/brown paint), decal and base.

Simply 6,

I've seen both John's approach and Bob's approach done and both look good. If I had a preference, I'd go with Bob's approach, just because these things are so small, the lighter colors seem to scale better.

TGD

I go with the black primer, solid coat of paint on deck and turret, drybrush wheels/rollers, etc., dark wash then drybrush earth tones or lighter color of vehicle.

link

i think his tutorials are great. not overly fancy but really good.

Done both black and white priming, more recently have come along to Bob's way of thinking – especially for the really small scales (still prime 28mm in black)

I have done priming in black, gray and white. I too have now settled on white.

To speed the process I use spray primer. No airbrushing for me -- costly kit and clean-up don't fit my ideas of simple and quick. Don't bother with the hobby shop primers. Go to your local hardware or home-improvement store -- they have many shelves of spray-cans for $2 USD or $3 USD that give you 3x more paint than hobby cans at $5 USD each. I use Krylon brand white primer. Cheap and very good.

I also spray-paint the base coats in most cases. Here I do go with hobby shop brands, as I want to find the right colors. For US WW2 armor I use Testor's Modelmaster Olive Green.

I can prime and base-coat a company of Shermans (17 tanks) within 20 minutes. (Krylon dries in 15 minutes!)

I dark-wash with a 10-to-1 diluted black paint. I wash everywhere on the tank, then after about 5 minutes (the time to wash 3 or 4 more) I come back and yell "what have I done?!? I've over-painted my tank in black? What was I thinking?" and I try to get most the wash off with a brush, alternating between the brush with lots of water, and the brush squeezed dry, hitting the tank from all sides. I really like the way the results look.

Then I dry-brush the whole tank. I try to use a similar, but lighter shade. Most folks I know whiten the base color, but I usually just pick another paint. Polly-S "Sahara Sand" works well for Olive-Green painted tanks.

Both of these steps (wash and dry-brush) are pretty quick.

Where the real time goes is in the detailing. So if you need to paint quickly, I suggest dropping most of the detailing. Give the tracks and running gear a heavy wash (diluting only 2- or 3- to-1) with a rust or mud color, put some gun-metal on any visible MG barrels, touch the end of the main gun muzzle with a black felt-tip pen, and head for the dullcoat!

I don't take this short-cut, but I've seen some very good looking vehicles done by folks who do.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Spray paint tank with appropriate base color (I uses Testor's flat paints in military colors, so you should be able to find a suitable one). Paint tracks black. Dry brush in a lighter shade of the base color. Drybrush the tracks either in a dark metalic steel or a mud\dust color (or both). Then wash the whole thing with GW's new washes (use the Badab Black in most cases). Note that usually I wash first then dry brush, but for microarmor I like to wash second as it subdues the drybrush a bit and blends it in.

I have just done a few dozen 1980's Soviets.
1. Spray Green
2. Paint all the underside, running gear and tracks black.
3. Paint tracks a muddy brown, leaving some blacl in the grooves.
4. Drybrush all wheels and lower surfaces a mud/dried earth/dust colour of your choice.
5. Dry brush top surfaces and sides with a sand or lightened base colour.
Done

You can add a bit more detail if you wish but esentially thats it. About 20 an hour on average.

Try looking at these, fantastic micro armour painting guides.
William

link

Soory forgot to add…
step 4a Wash the whole model in a Kleer/ black ink wash.

Graham

What John said, although I will often do a wash as well.

Never had much luck with white undercoat, too many unpainted bits seem to end up showing through. I must be a very sloppy painter.

Look on the GHQ website,they have a guide for monocolor as well as camo.Rob

I use Dave Gamer's approach. I never saw much sense in using a primer with a model that 1) is mostly one color, and 2) you can buy that base color in a spray can (Testors).

Just visit my blog.
Tips and pics
link
link
link
link
link
link
link

JF

I did a German Wehrmacht armored Kampfgruppe at 1:1 once, airbrushing two- and three-tone camouflage. Insanity! I'll never do that again. Spray base color; wash and drybrush; that's all--if I ever dig out the multiple stashes of microarmor again.

Allen