"Is painting by hand for 20mm feasible?" Topic

Asking you 20mm builders if painting this scale by hand is possible? Seems like everyone is painting with an airbrush. I'd rather avoid this if possible :)

Can you get nice results painting this scale by brush only?

I'm coming from 1/300 scale and only paint by hand brush.

Thanks!

I paint all my figures using a hand brush. All the way up to 30mm.

I have never used an air brush.

I suppose you're asking mainly about the vehicles. I brush-paint all of mine. I bought an airbrush once, but it was more trouble than it was worth. I gave it away. I've looked at the paint on actual army vehicles – pretty sloppy, and that's before you add on mud, dirt, grit, oil stains, etc. Unless you want to do complex feathered cammo, or work in much larger scales, I say don't fool with an airbrush.

In any scale I only spray paint (not air brush) the base coat. Everything beyond that is painted by hand.

Glad to hear it!

now….any tips you pros want to add? :)

What are good paints? (using Vallejo now)

What about brushes?….size?….brands?

Thanks gents!

When I was in the military in the 80's and told to touch up the camo on the real thing,I was handed a paintbrush and a bucket of paint,so it works for me.:)

I use Coat d'Arms paint.

You can buy spray cans of paint if you want, like Tamiya.

I just finished a bunch of German vehicles using Flames of War German yellow for a base coat then Vallejo German green lightened for camo. I used various washes and European dust to create a duller effect. However I'm no pro.

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wrgmr1

those look pretty damn nice to me!

Vallejo is probably the best paint around. If I need a *specific* color (panzer yellow, brown violet) I use Vallejo. If I can get close enough (dark green, red brown) I use craft paint.

And before you dismiss craft paint, I once managed first cut at Golden Daemon using only craft paint.

I use craft paint for all my tank camo. and a lot of other stuff.

I use brushes too. I have had success brushing camo splotches on with a sponge dipped in wet paint. it gives a softer look. but I haven't been able to create really controlled patterns, so for those I go for a looser look.

I have also found that, when brush painting, a very light drybrush with the dunklegelb on top of the camo pattern softens it up a bit and looks nice.

finally, im all about making my tanks muddy and well used, so a good layer of muddy brown, and dry dirt colors brushed on will break up some of the hard lines too.

I like the way airbrush looks on others' work but I've never used one. All my 20mm stuff is done with brushes, regular Vallejo paint, and GW washes.

The only thing I've used an airbrush on was 1/35th scale models, back in the day.

Just slap that paint on with a brush.

An air brush can take some time to master. Just paint with a brush. Less clean up hassles too.

I'm at work, so no photo, but I've cheated with my 20mm vehicles to give an airbrush effect. What I did was do a basecoat, and let it dry. Then I took cotton (cotton balls could work, but I used strands of that stuff party stores sell as spider web for Halloween) and pulled it into long, thick strands. I wrapped it or affixed it to my vehicle, leaving space between the strands. Then I hit the whole thing with a light coat of spray paint. I carefully pull off the cotton so that the spray paint doesn't seep though. What I get is a vehicle with stripes that are a little fuzzy at the edges – faux airbrush. Then go do the detail work as normal. I've been happy with it.

I paint vehicles primarily with an airbrush, but excellent results are possible without, check out Brent's work:

houseofqueeg.wordpress.com

one of my inspirations.

"Troop of Shewe"

Beautiful work Troop of Shewe!

Here is my faux airbrushed tank. All the extra paint was added after the original effort to make it look a bit dirty (I'm not real thrilled with that in retrospect).

link

get an airbrush if you plan on painting lots of vehicles with camo patterns accurately and quickly. base coat with spray paint if you plan on brush painting. brent is the only who has ever achieved a great look without an airbrush in the scale that i know of. he along with troops of shewe and peirs are the best in the scale. I highly advise you look at their work. A decent set up can be had for $200. USD

An airbrush just isn't in my budget right now :)

Someday