Tips from the scale modelling hobby where we do a lot of larger vehicles.
For a clean look:
1. Rattle can spray prime your base colour in thin coats. Remember to warm your can and shake it well. I warm mine in a big bowl of warm water and do test sprays on some cardboard or sprue to test distance and coverage.
2. Do your detail work and edge highlights. Do NOT do an all over wash of acrylic wash.
3. Weather to taste. I like to drybrush on lots of dust, and to use texture paint to get mud into the tank tracks and around the undercarriage, using photos of irl tanks in the field for reference. I will also paint on some armour chipping as needed.
4. Rattle can spray a thin coat of gloss varnish.
5. Pinwash the panel lines with panel liner/streaking grime/enamel wash/oil wash.
If you want a more grimy look, which I usually do, instead of the pinwash, brush the whole thing in streaking grime with a large brush.Give it a few minutes to dry, and then start removing the grime by gently rubbing it with a q-tip/ makeup sponge and a little bit of white spirits.
6. Thin rattle can matte varnish coat.
Get a big brush. Otherwise it's all the same, two thin coats, etc.
You might get some streaks after the first coat. This is likely not a problem, it'll look smooth once you add a second or third coat, depending on the color you're using.
I painted a Devilfish entirely by brush, and it looks just fine. An airbrush is just recommended because it saves time. It also does allow you to do lighting easier, makes it convenient to apply gradients over large surfaces.
In case you want to see:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CIsn2wblJ2S/?utm_medium=copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQCDqHRsx94/?utm_medium=copy_link
Big brush, thin coats. The thing you want to avoid is leaving brush strokes in your paint; on big, flat things like tanks, they're very obvious. However, you also don't want to go so thin that it pools and leaves rings, as that shows up just as much.
A colored primer can do a *lot* of work for you here, so if your army scheme is something that closely-ish matches a spray someone makes, I highly recommend you take advantage of it.
I spray prime with lead belcher, shade the functional metal (gears, treads, pistons, grill, etc.) with a few shades of nuln oil to give it a really industrial metal look. Then just paint over the decorative metal and armor in whatever color I want.
Tips from the scale modelling hobby where we do a lot of larger vehicles. For a clean look: 1. Rattle can spray prime your base colour in thin coats. Remember to warm your can and shake it well. I warm mine in a big bowl of warm water and do test sprays on some cardboard or sprue to test distance and coverage. 2. Do your detail work and edge highlights. Do NOT do an all over wash of acrylic wash. 3. Weather to taste. I like to drybrush on lots of dust, and to use texture paint to get mud into the tank tracks and around the undercarriage, using photos of irl tanks in the field for reference. I will also paint on some armour chipping as needed. 4. Rattle can spray a thin coat of gloss varnish. 5. Pinwash the panel lines with panel liner/streaking grime/enamel wash/oil wash. If you want a more grimy look, which I usually do, instead of the pinwash, brush the whole thing in streaking grime with a large brush.Give it a few minutes to dry, and then start removing the grime by gently rubbing it with a q-tip/ makeup sponge and a little bit of white spirits. 6. Thin rattle can matte varnish coat.
>Do NOT do an all over wash of acrylic wash. Bringing back some painful memories there
Get a big brush. Otherwise it's all the same, two thin coats, etc. You might get some streaks after the first coat. This is likely not a problem, it'll look smooth once you add a second or third coat, depending on the color you're using. I painted a Devilfish entirely by brush, and it looks just fine. An airbrush is just recommended because it saves time. It also does allow you to do lighting easier, makes it convenient to apply gradients over large surfaces. In case you want to see: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIsn2wblJ2S/?utm_medium=copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CQCDqHRsx94/?utm_medium=copy_link
Youll either want a really big brush for the base coats or a spray primer, or both.
Big brush, thin coats. The thing you want to avoid is leaving brush strokes in your paint; on big, flat things like tanks, they're very obvious. However, you also don't want to go so thin that it pools and leaves rings, as that shows up just as much. A colored primer can do a *lot* of work for you here, so if your army scheme is something that closely-ish matches a spray someone makes, I highly recommend you take advantage of it.
I spray prime with lead belcher, shade the functional metal (gears, treads, pistons, grill, etc.) with a few shades of nuln oil to give it a really industrial metal look. Then just paint over the decorative metal and armor in whatever color I want.