B17 Olive Drab tones

[Aidan.H]

Hi all,

 

I’m in the process of building a 1/72 olive drab B17. It’s my first build using an airbrush with acrylics and I’m trying to get to grips with some of the techniques to apply

different tones to the OD paint. I’ve been watching this video on youtube, the guy sprays some vey light black lines in between the different tones, does anyone have any idea what he might be using? Also any tips on applying different tones to OD would be great.

 

 

thanks 

 

 

Edited September 17 by Aidan.H

[Giorgio N]

In general there may be two main reasons to apply different tones of OD to a model:

1) To reproduce different paints. A number of OD painted aircraft showed marked differences between parts, even when they were supposed to be all painted in the same OD. The fact is that this paint could vary between manufacturers more than others and at some point a new standard was introduced. The use of parts coming from different subcontractors resulted in aircraft showing variations in the finish and modellers may want to reproduce these. Add to this that control surfaces were often fabric covered during WW2 and the finish of these sometime contrasted with the finish of the parts made in metal, even if the paint was supposed to be the same. This would be done simply by choosing slightly different paints for the various areas, masking each before applying the other colours.

2) To introduce variations in the finish, simulating different weathering in different areas or just highlighting panel lines and other areas, This is what the modeller in the video has tried to achieve.

 

Now if you want to follow option 2, there are a number of discussions in the modelling tips area of the forum and it could be interesting to check these.

In general the idea is to use darker and lighter variations of the base paint to simulate highlights and shadows on the model. Where to apply these highlights and shadows is up to taste (although it should always be led by careful observations of the real thing...), the modeller in the video seems to have simply chosen to add shadows around the panel lines. You'll find countless discussions on how realistic this may or may not be, but no point in going over them here. if you like the concept just go for it.

You will see that in the video the modeller started with a lighter coat and then sprayed darker paint in some areas. Now this darker paint may be black but most likely it's a darker OD. With these, sprayed freehand using thinned paint, he darkens the panel lines, so adding "shadows" around these. Then he masks a few spots and applies a ligher coat in these areas, so creating highlights.

It is important to note that to achieve these effects you need a good control of your airbrush. shadows and highlights are generally best introduced spraying without masks so you need to be able to follow the lines decently. A good airbrush is also advised, better if double action (but not necessary). There must be no hard edge between darker and lighter areas, just a soft transition and this is best achieve freehand.

Also important is to work with well thinned paint: you want to be able to control how much shadows/highlights you introduce so the darker coat need to be built up slowly. By passing more or less often in the same area you can add more or less effect. If you feel there's not enough contrast, just give it another pass or two. This also helps a lot in achieving that soft transition I mentioned above.

As to where apply the shadows, I would suggest thinking of how the light hits a real aircraft: light will hit from above while shadows will form wherever somthing will be an obstacle for the light. On my models I always add shadows at the wing-fuselage joint, under the tailplanes, where structural parts meet at different angles. On a B-17 I'd also include the nacelle-wing joint. At the same time I'd probably highlight the higher areas on the fuselage, going darker the lower I move towards the bottom. Any part above the airframe skin would be highlighted, any part below the surface of the airframe skin would have a shadow applied.

Many will also, as in the video, apply shadows along the panel lines while highlighting the centre of the individual panels. And here I have to make a comment on the video: the modeller added shadows to the panel lines only while personally I would try to get a continuous transition between the panel line (darkest) and the centre of the panel (lightest). This avoids the "quilted" effect visible on many models, that is IMHO a bit inaccurate... with the exception of those aircraft that show a rippled skin, where this technique can actually be used very well to simulate this.

Regarding the choice of paints, you can follow two paths: darkening and lightening a base paint or using different paints. Both work fine and personally I've used both solutions depending on what I have in the paint stash.

Personally I actually only use two paints: the proper final paint and lighter base, that as said can be a different paint or the final paint lightened with some light grey. I spray the lighter base on all surfaces in a uniform coat first. When this is cured I take the final paint, well thinned to achieve a semi-transparent coat (more on this later), and with this I start adding the shadows. I always apply light coats, starting from the areas that I want in shadow and then adding new areas with each successive pass. In this way the areas that will remain lighter may only receive one coat, the areas that will be the darkest will have received many coats, all areas in between will have received more or less coats depending on how close or far are from the areas in shadow.

It may all sound complicated but it is not and it's also much quicker than it sounds, especially using acrylics

Speaking of acrylics, it's worth mentioning that I work mainly with water thinned acrylics (vallejo and Lifecolors). For the darker coat I add a product from Vallejo named Glaze Medium, that turns the paint into a semitransparent glaze. The more the product the more transparent the paint is. This allows me to have a sehavmitransparent coat without having to add too much thinner (that could make the paint run). Something similar can be achieve by adding clear paint to the base colour.

A question you may have is how darker and how lighter should the paint be! Personally, since I build 1/72 models, I use the original paint as the darkest. The lightest depends on how strong I want the effect to be. I generally prefer a subtle effect so I only lighten the original paint a bit however some finishes would benefit from a much lighter paint. Again, looking at pictures of the real thing is IMHO the best guide.

One thing to keep in mind: the following clear and matt coats will tone the effect down ! So if you like a certain effect, you will have to overdo it during the painting process otherwise you'll risk losing it after the various clear coats. Only experience will tell you how to achieve the final effect you like. I've been using this technique for years and I still today sometime end up with models where I've lost most of the variations...

 

The above explanation is just an introduction to the technique and there are many variants (probably one or two per each modeller...). However what IMHO you should ponder is if you already want to start introducing colour variations on your model. Since this will be your first model airbrushing acrylics you may first want to experiment in getting your painting right as acrylics can sometime be tricky to airbrush (speaking of water based ones here). I would also personally first try the technique on a cheap kit before going for a nicer more expensive one. If in the end you decide it's worth giving these techniques a shot, then go for it ! The final result can be very satisfying

 

Edited September 18 by Giorgio N
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