"Mass-painting camo on 6mm tanks -- any ideas?" Topic

I have about 250 6mm sci-fi tanks (and about 30 mecha) awaiting painting, and I'm really not looking forward to the task of putting camouflage on each and every one. Luckily, this is sci-fi, so I'm freed up from the constraints of historical patterns, and I've been trying to brainstorm some ways of doing a mass painting.

I have my forces split up and temporarily glued to that plastic sign-board material with the internal ribbing (it won't melt from paint propellents). The minis have been primed and basecoated — depending on the force, with either OD green, khaki tan, or grey.

Some options I'm mulling over:

I've been considering using a cheap mop head, the string-style kind, dipping the ends of the mop strings in paint and lightly dragging the mop across the rows of minis.

Or, another option, using a toothbrush and thin acrylic paint to do a spatter-painting kind of effect.

Third option, buy an airbrush and use the tightest-spraying nozzle they've got to make my little blothes.

Or else a drybrushing approach, using a 3" wide paint brush and tiny dabs of paint which I would whisk lightly across the tops of the minis.

The sad thing is, I've probably wasted more time mulling this over than it would have taken to just paint each mini individually. But I still am undecided. Anyone have tips/tricks/pointers/ideas to share?

Thanks,
jav98

1. Buy Testors spray enamel in the desired undercoat. Spray liberally.

2. Wipe with a rag heavily damped with Minwax all-in-one Bombay Mahogany. Wipe off excess with another rag.

3. Drybrush light gray.

4. Dullcote.

Ok,
Paint up all the minis in basic color…
Then… get some hot dogs and cut them up into thin slices and place these on a board.
Then… put the minis on the board inbetween the slices of weiners.
Then… put a 'moat' of paint puddles around them all.
Then… put the board right next to the biggest ant hill you can find.

Okay, that's the funniest painting suggestion I've ever heard.

This post is not an attack on America or its people. :)

My method for 6mm tanks is to spray on the lighter color first, then wait till they dry and then mask them up with torn bits of masking tape, and spray again with the next colour. This can be repeated at least three times.

A dark wash can be applied afterwards and this helps to take away any harsh borders.

Start with a base coat on the figures. Take a file folder and punch holes all over it (any hand punch should do just fine). Hold the folder over the figures, about an inch or two above. Now, spray your first camo color over the folder (any spray paint will do just fine).

Enough paint will get through the holes in the folder to put color patterns on the vehicles. Cheap, easy, and quick, although punching all the holes can be hard on the hand!

GHQ models web site, found on the index here under manufacturers, has a guide to painting 1/285th scale figures which is both excellent and very helpful.

I painted a mess of WWII micro with a method similar to Jizbrand's. I took a piece of plasticard about 5"x3" and cut rows of tiger striping in alternating directions. I aligned my tanks, sans turrets, so that the mask would get all of them in one go. Then I laid the mask on top, and sprayed my stripe color and moved on to the next batch, then I did the turrets the same way. Worked a treat and I was able to do many Tiger IIs in about ten minutes. I realized I could do a cross hatch pattern by just turning the mask around and doing them again if I wanted, but that wouldn't have been 'right' so I didn't.

My pattern:
//// //// //// ////
\\\\ \\\\ \\\\ \\\\
//// //// //// ////
\\\\ \\\\ \\\\ \\\\

Don't know how that'll come out in the post but you can probably get the idea. Would also work for verticle figures . You'll want to let the mask dry or clean it off at times if the paint gets to runny.

Oh, I should note that I had primed and base coated before the stripes and I washed and drybrushed afterwards. They look pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

Get a regular paint brush (the big coarse kind, like for painting walls), dab the very end of it into your paint (the best way is for the paint to be painted onto a flat surface so that it doesn't overload the bristles), dab off the excess onto paper, then lightly dapple your vehicles. Repeat with two other colors, trying NOT to hit the same areas you hit with other colors, but still letting your base color show through. (Make sure the brush you use is dry, otherwise the paint gets thinned and spreads more.) Then paint all the fiddly little details normally.

Here are some suggested color combos (not necessarily in application order, and you may wish to experiment first.):
Tan/khaki: Dark brown, dark green, either a yellowish sand or light brown.
OD: tan, light brown, dark green.
Gray: black or dark brown, very light gray, tan.

This is the method I use for camo-ing figures. It's also a way to use those nylon brushes whose bristles end up sticking out all over like Einstein's hair ;)

Jav mate I used the cut strips out of a piece of card, lay it on top of a row of tanks and spray away.
link

All the pictures of green painted tanks on that page are the ones I did using that method.

Jeremey
germy.co.uk

Something that I tried that works REALLY well…

Get a spray bottle of water (or solvent if you are working in Enamels, but make sure that you have an Acrylic base or an acrylic clear coat over the base if it is enamel) and lightly spray all of the models that you are wanting to "camoflage" (Oh, line then up fairly closely on a tray or large flat surface that is dust free, first)…

Then, get a diluted color that you want to use to create a mottled effect (much like the WWII Nazi Mottled camoflage) and dip a toothbrush into it… Shake off any excess, and then light flick the toothbrush over the models (You need to do this while the mist on them is still damp).

The paint that is flicked on will create small dots that will have a beautifully faded edge. If you get good at this (You can practice by just priming a sheet of glossy paper and painting it the base color, and then come back with the spray bottle and toothbrush wash/flicking to finish and get good at how much "flicking" you need to do to get the appropriate coverage).

You can also apply layered "flickings" of color, so that you have a deeper looking camoflage.

The same technique can be done with "Stripes" by misting the models to wet the surface, and then instead of using a toothbrush and "Flicking" the paint… You use a regular paintbrush, and leave enough thined paint in it so that you can "slash" it through the air "FLINGING", instead of "flicking", paint in stripes over the models. Again, you can practice on a prepared sheet of paper. Basically you are just wriggling your hand back and forth over the models in one direction. This will give you "stripes", you can get "curved" stripes by doing the same thing "Flinging" the paint in archs… This method is best used in multiple layers…

Another variant of the masking techniques mentioned is to take some moderately stiff plastic sheet and use a small sharp soldering iron or plastic cutting tip to make small irregular linear shapes. Support above models and spray paint with something that won't disolve the plastic. Rotate and spray with another color. This will create an effect similar to US 1970's three color camo schemes.

Distance from models with the same template gives different appearance as does varying the intensity of the color.

I camo WW2 Germans by using Dunklegelb primer, then using colored pencils to do the 'squiggly' stuff. Also, the red brown pencil is a good rust color for tracks and exhust pipes.

ive heard of using pens

Tape the base color areas you want to keep, then "spatter" camo color on with a toothbrush ( Check on the web for demos – remember, drag the bristles toward you ) and then remove tape.