How to paint 3 colour hard edge cammo scheme

[Paul-H]

Hi Guys

Looking for help and tips on painting the German Hard Edged three colour cammo scheme

I am building one of the Tamiya Hetza kits and although it comes with an excelent full colour paint guide, all the shown paint options call for hard edged scheme's and I have only ever done soft edged. So whats the best and easiest way to mask for a hard edged scheme or is it better just just brush paint instead of using an airbrush.

I did think about taking the easy route and just do a soft edge scheme but all my research shows that most if not all the hetzers where factory painted in a hard edged scheme.

Thanks for any help and tips on this

Paul

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Have you tried using wiggly worms of Blutak as a mask and filling in the bits in between with masking tape?

[gcn]

cut thin strips of tamiya tape (about 1mm - 2mm wide) and then that should be thin enough to shape as required.

[Test Graham]

Scale? For 1/76 I'd use a brush - but then I would anyway. (Ooops, I see you did say Tamiya.) For large scales you can mask with strips of masking tape cut to size, or any of many alternative approaches to the same thing, usually more expensive. Frisk mats comes to mind, but I haven't tried them.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Graham Boak

[Starfighter]

I use a brush for practically all my painting, as I have more control over that than an airbrush. I lightly draw the camo pattern on the model in pencil, then using a mix of 50 - 50 paint and thinner I paint the colour in freehand.

I give the model 3 coats usually, depending on the colour, and find this works for me. By the way I use enamels almost exclusively, as I've tried acrylics but didn't get on with them!

Here's a link to some pics of my recent 1/35 Tiger II, which has the three colour scheme . . .HTH

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=65573

[Jeenyus]

I would go with brush painting. A hard edge would come naturally from a brush, so perhaps the original was painted like that too? Anyone care to throw some light on that?

[T-Tango]

I would say to go with masking tape or Tamiya tape.

[daz greenwood]

Or paint freehand.

I've done it in 1/35th without the use of masking tape or blu tak.

But I have no photographic evidence now as I gave the models away.

Edited April 8, 2011 by daz greenwood

[ChrisITA]

I would go either with blutack or with 40mm tamiya tape

Normal masking tape has too much stick and tends to lift paint. the tack on Tamiya tape is perfect. I lay a length of tape out, lightly stuck down, to a smooth surface like a tile or such, then use a sharp blade to cut a wavy pattern in it, then you end up with two wavy templates from one strip.

Lay these on the model as you see fit. Be sure to ensure the paint below is thoroughly thoroughly dry before masking. Make sure you press the tape down well on the masked edge to prevent creep under the edge

If you peel the tape off carefully and stick it to something very smooth after (like clean plastic) you can use it again on another model

We want pictures!

[Paul-H]

Thanks for the help guys

Hi Starfighter, that looks to be an excelent paint job you have Certainly mastered your hairy stick, that almost looks like its been airbrushed you have such smooth paint work.

Paul

[Starfighter]

Thanks for the help guys

Hi Starfighter, that looks to be an excelent paint job you have Certainly mastered your hairy stick, that almost looks like its been airbrushed you have such smooth paint work.

Paul

Thanks for the kind comments, Paul H, much appreciated. According to a book I have on modelling the Tiger the "Hard Edged" scheme was indeed applied by brush. Personally I don't bother with masking tape or Blu - Tak, just a steady hand and nicely thinned paint.

[Wayne rc]

Thanks for the kind comments, Paul H, much appreciated. According to a book I have on modelling the Tiger the "Hard Edged" scheme was indeed applied by brush. Personally I don't bother with masking tape or Blu - Tak, just a steady hand and nicely thinned paint.

another way is to spray the three colours then once dry,touch in the hard edges with thinned paint and a decent brush,isnt funny I spent the late 70's and early 80's wanting a decent airbrush so I could do decent 3 colour 43-44 schemes, but since my favorite german afv are late 44 early 45 its mostly hard edge,but if you look close many late factory schemes are sprayed and have nearly hard edge, some hard edge camo was done with stencils,and some Panthers with the 'ambush' have some hard edge done with a stencil giving a micky mouse ear effect, and dk yellow sprayed freehand here and there,the triangular spots were sprayed thru a stencil on hetzer panther and jp lang type camo

[Basosz]

I lay a length of tape out, lightly stuck down, to a smooth surface like a tile or such, then use a sharp blade to cut a wavy pattern in it, then you end up with two wavy templates from one strip.

This is a good technique although I don't use a tile or any other smooth surface to stick the tape to, but I use the backing paper (size A4) of label-sheets and other sticker-backing-paper to stick my Tamiya tape to. It's actually made for the purpose of easing stickers off of paper so it's absolutely perfect. I also have lots and lots of it (from work) so I don't have to skimp. When I stick the Tamiya tape to it, I draw the camo pattern I want and cut with a fresh blade or some scissors. The backing paper just eases the whole removal process. It also partly prevents the curling of the tape when you pull it off a more sticky surface (like a tile or workbench surface)

[Wayne rc]

This is a good technique although I don't use a tile or any other smooth surface to stick the tape to, but I use the backing paper (size A4) of label-sheets and other sticker-backing-paper to stick my Tamiya tape to. It's actually made for the purpose of easing stickers off of paper so it's absolutely perfect. I also have lots and lots of it (from work) so I don't have to skimp. When I stick the Tamiya tape to it, I draw the camo pattern I want and cut with a fresh blade or some scissors. The backing paper just eases the whole removal process. It also partly prevents the curling of the tape when you pull it off a more sticky surface (like a tile or workbench surface)

This may help,maybe not. Late war factory schemes afvs were no base coated in dark yellow, but the 3 colours were painted on a primer either red oxide or possibly light grey,this was to save time and paint, so areas of brown and green were divided by swathes of dk yellow, if you look at hetzer ambush camo closely you may n otice a pattern that looks like joined up small circles with little triangle gaps, Ive seen someone spray the model green and brown and then masking selected areas with lots of small circles about 2 or 3 sizes touching and or very slightly overlapping so you leave little gaps,or make a mask on paper as suggested above or tamiya 40mm tape, with the same princple circles and cut the little gaps and cloud edges with a very sharp blade, if you are a bit clever you will get a repeat pattern here and there, as a common stencil was used, and I have proven this by noticing a repeat pattern of dots and edges on both the same and on different vehicles, I hope that all made sense.

[Wayne rc]

This may help,maybe not. Late war factory schemes afvs were no base coated in dark yellow, but the 3 colours were painted on a primer either red oxide or possibly light grey,this was to save time and paint, so areas of brown and green were divided by swathes of dk yellow, if you look at hetzer ambush camo closely you may n otice a pattern that looks like joined up small circles with little triangle gaps, Ive seen someone spray the model green and brown and then masking selected areas with lots of small circles about 2 or 3 sizes touching and or very slightly overlapping so you leave little gaps,or make a mask on paper as suggested above or tamiya 40mm tape, with the same princple circles and cut the little gaps and cloud edges with a very sharp blade, if you are a bit clever you will get a repeat pattern here and there, as a common stencil was used, and I have proven this by noticing a repeat pattern of dots and edges on both the same and on different vehicles, I hope that all made sense.

ps after spraying dk yellow remove masking from the brown and green and mask the dk yellow with your little circles or stencil and spray green and brown to get dark dots on the dk yellow, if you study plenty of late war pics of jgdpz 4, bergepanzer 3, hetzer, and panther you will see what I mean, and you can see how the stencil has been used one way over one colour and then turned the other way over another colour

[Starskey RC Tank]

Hi

Has anyone tried bluetac or plasticine

Instead of tape

It gets into the parts tape can't

Jon