"Camo: Lightest First?" Topic

Hello painters.

I've got a quick question about painting camouflage which seems obvious, but I'd like to clarify it in my mind before I start.

When painting camouflage, it it generally best to start with the lightest color first? That is, should I base coat with say, olive, and then mask to paint brown, and then re-mask to paint black?

I'll be doing small vehicles, for 15mm (1/100) sci fi (solo) gaming.

Thanks, as always, for the sage advice and kind words of encouragement.

Edit: Cross-posted to 15mm SF because of the general enthusiasm and gentle tone of that board, which I consider my "home" here at TMP. And because that's the scale and genre I game. Cheers.

Yes, always lightest to darkest, as dark covers light better than vice versa.

IMO it depends on your desired effect, I don't think light paint having to cover dark paint really comes into the equation when using a gun, it is more of a factor when you don't use a gun, or at least I have never had an issue with coverage, also there are different masking techniques which can give different effect, so my advise is to really think about what you want the end result to look like, and what technique you will use to achieve it, then do some research to verify you are using the right technique.
Here is an example of dark over light
link

and light over dark

Grommet,
I agree totally with Gunner,there are so many equations in paints, inks, painting methods etc that it would take a tome to list them all. ( for eg. see how I painted my orks & their vehicles in my TAle of a 1000 rivets post.They all have a matt black base/undercoat)

If you'd like,decide on a colour scheme & ask again & see what advise is given. It totally depends on what you envision your force to look like. And remember , if it looks good on the table,then it IS good.

Hope this helps & don't stop asking ( I think Einstein said that , if it worked for him ….. )

Btw that's an UberKool WW2 german forse there Gunner

Z

Interesting. Never really thought about it. I've always painted everything dark to light.

DM

I put the color on first that is the majority color. So if the guy is green with yellowish and brown spots, he would be green. If he is blue with red-brown and yellow lightning strikes he starts blue.

Paint the largest area color on anything first and it goes faster.

If you have the right paints painting light over dark or dark over light shouldn't really make much of a difference.

Light color then a dark wash, then dry brush & detail …

I paint my vehicles the same way that Pictors does: Largest coverage area first.

In the case of my King Tiger (painted in Ambush), I primed black and then damp-brushed the whole vehicle dunkelgelb. After that dried, I went back and painted the green and brown, then painted the spots. I think I went too far on the dots, as I have the other 2 colors on every large patch of color (dunkelgelb has brown and green spots, brown has dunkelgelb and green spots, green has dunkelgelb and brown spots).

At some point in there, I washed the beast to get some contrast on the zimmermit.

But I always start with the majority color, regardless of whether that's light or dark.

Thanks for the replies, as always.

I won't initially be using an airbrush, as I don't own one, yet. So I'll be brushing the paint on by hand. I've been having some issues learning to get a consistent consistency out of the paint, and I'm also learning how many layers certain colors take to cover other colors.

I get what you all are saying about considering which color will be covering the largest amount of area, that makes sense to me.

As far as color schemes and camo patterns, here are my ideas so far:

Primer is rattle can, colors are Vallejo Model Color.

Faction>Pattern(s)>Primer>Color1/2/3

A.A>urban/"Berlin">white?gray?>Ultramarine/Royal Blue/Azure

SF>blob/whitewash>white?gray?>Offwhite/Buff/Light Gray

PHU>disruptive/"Coastal">white?gray?>Middlestone/Goldenbrown/Flat Earth

9ig>night/"Dazzle">black?white?>Hull Red/Blue/Black

CC>"Wave"/low-vis>white?gray?>Prussian Blue/Gunship Green/Bronze Green

I hope that makes sense. I'm really not sure about primer colors yet, but I know I want to try a variety of colors and camo types, mostly to make the factions visibly distinctive, but also just for my own fun, messing around with different patterns.

Thanks again, painters. If the humidity ever gets below 50% here and my pneumonia subsides, I may start painting some day soon.

Cheers.