I’ve had an airbrush setup in my garage since last year, so it’s probably time I started learning how to use it. Over the weekend I applied a coat of GW ‘Vermin Brown’ thinned with car windscreen wiper fluid to the EBob Miniatures Opel Blitz that keeps appearing on the blog.
I experienced first hand the difficulties of controlling air and paint flow in a cheap double action airbrush. I also followed somebody’s excellent advice about test spraying your colours onto scrap card or foam board before applying them to whatever it is you actually want to airbrush. In fact I found the best way to do this is to set up your test card and model side by side in the spray booth (aka large cardboard box) and simply travel from one to the other once you’re happy with the paint delivery.
People always talk about airbrushes not requiring a lot of paint to cover surfaces and man they’re not kidding. It took me roughly three large dabs of Vermin Brown to cover this entire 1:56th vehicle. Albiet in a slightly patchy and haphazard manner.
If you’re wondering why I’m painting the truck a rust colour it’s because this is a base undercoat. Over this I’m going to dab Marmite using a torn sponge (yeap, Marmite) and then overpaint it with a Tamiya Desert Yellow spray can and finally some misted GW ‘Bleached Bone’ highlights with the airbrush. Then I’ll wait for the whole mess to dry, and scrub the truck with a toothbrush in some warm soapy water.
The Marmite dissolves and washes off, carrying off the topcoats and exposing the rust coat underneath. This was an interesting weathering tip that I originally read in Model Military International. Hopefully I can get it to work for me on this vehicle.
Great tip! As an American who’s tried marmite and didn’t like…I now what to do with my leftover container of it!
Works fine for 15mm vehicles as well, although obviously you have to be more careful while applying the marmite. I use a ripped up square of the packing foam that comes in every Flames of War blister.
I’m hoping to master the airbrush well enough to batch paint and entire German Flames of War armored company one weekend!
Ahh sounds like the perfect use for the entire worlds supply of the nasty black stuff! Must be one of the few things I don’t like and won’t eat.
This sounds very simular to the toothpaste whitewash trick
Man marmite gets a right bagging doesnt it… I love the stuff.
Wiper fluids a new one on me, can you explain what it does to the mix.
I am very impressed with your airbrushing too, I have a hard time maintaining that kind of coverage . which is why I havent hit any models with mine yet…
The wiper fluid is just a mild pre-mixed detergent. I read some where that it helps paint flow through an airbrush because of that. More or less so than ordinary tap water I couldn’t say!
Coverage is a bit spotty, mainly because I had to remix the Vermin Brown while waiting for the top of the vehicle to dry so I could spray the undercarriage. Unfortunately my first mix was spot on, while my second was far too watery. Some areas will be touched up by hand prior to applying Marmite and additional coats.
GW/Citadel paints seem to airbrush ok as well.
You should try hanging you models on a hook, its what they do when spraying real cars. that way you can spray it all in one go.
Its only going to work on larger things though bust smaller things are seldom textured on all sides
I cant really justify wasting Marmite on a modelling project when there is all that hideous vegemite available!