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.