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What is the best way to paint camo like this:


I want to paint a Chimera for IG like this.

templates and airbrush

Hey,

I think, that's a nice idea, but I don't think, that military vehicles are painted or will be painted in digital camo...

Anyway, how big should be the 'camo spots'

Just an idea: You could mask the structure with (fine) tape and paint it with airbrush or with your paint brush.


Best regards,

The C-K

This is going to be really difficult to do, IMO. I think it looks awesome, but it's going to be incredibly challenging to do with a brush.

Ooops, there are vehicles with digital camo.... like these:




source: flickr.com

Those Chinese PRA AFVs are nice. Thanks for the pic.

The Chaos-Kraut wrote:Ooops, there are vehicles with digital camo.... like these:




source: flickr.com

look like lego cars.and the white tires dont help camo ^^

Ah but the Brits did it first Circa Berlin 1982 -ish

Make potato stamps. different patterns for different colours. Stamp the base coated Chimera!

Well the british tank looks like a toy tank for 6 years old girl scouts... ;-)

And I've found another camo: I think it's a nato camo...


source: nachrichten.de


It's not digital, but desert camo...

The current issue(May) of Fine Scale Modeler has an article on how to do digital camo on vehicles.

The British camo was a specifically urban type designed to blend vehicles in with the sort of background found in European cities.

Apparently it worked very well.

You could probably build some stencils out thin plastic-card, and cut out all the little boxy shapes, than rotate the stencil for the next color. I don't know how effective digital camo would be in real life, seeing as most trees and deserts aren't pixelated, but nonetheless its a cool idea! I am camouflaging my Tau, but I'm just doing splotches of grays and greens over a black undercoat. Good Luck to you though, a camo army looks mighty fine on a table. Assuming you can see it of course!

Who knows what kind of odd planets the Guard have to conquer. The Emeror needs pixeled desserts and square forests as well as the Terran style romantic nature
(do admit, it would be a neat gaming table if it was well done)

You can get some pointers here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcMtAsQu2Jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gW2EwI0078
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBD1ugLUT4Y

http://forums.tauonline.org/index.php?topic=90794.msg1302978#msg1302978

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?p=27878
http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/painting/177256-digital-camo.html

Basically ending up with this result ( models assembled, painted and property of MunDMC ):


[url]

Kilkrazy wrote:The British camo was a specifically urban type designed to blend vehicles in with the sort of background found in European cities.

Apparently it worked very well.

Let's face it, trying to 'hide' a 56 ton Cheiftain main battle tank in a city would be challenging... They're quite big you know

Jackcrow, good camo, nice models

have seen this done on a 1/72 scale guy, it looks amazing but it's pure madness!

There's a fair amount of military modelling forums with several digi-camo projects and WIP's on the go.

I read one that was done on an F-16 in artic camo shades and it looks mazing but took the guy a very, very, long time to do properly.

I wouldn't go the digi route with IG IMO but Adeptus Mechanicus Tech Guard on the other hand.........

One of the funny threads, but full of inspiration for a modeller camo wise:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4045086&page=1

I just had an idea:

Paint the tank the lightest colour all over then get a blank sheet of decal paper that you can use in a laser printer.

You'd need to play about with the colours but if you had the right pattern and two or three darker colours making up the patterns you could stick it on? You could use the pattern on the first post. You wouldn't really have to be spot on cutting out each section if you used clear decal paper.

It would still take a while but much quicker than masking.

Vet Sgt Ezekiel wrote:I just had an idea:

Paint the tank the lightest colour all over then get a blank sheet of decal paper that you can use in a laser printer.

You'd need to play about with the colours but if you had the right pattern and two or three darker colours making up the patterns you could stick it on? You could use the pattern on the first post. You wouldn't really have to be spot on cutting out each section if you used clear decal paper.

It would still take a while but much quicker than masking.

Easier said than done, I played with this idea for a few weeks about a year ago. It might work on tanks with more flat surfaces, but IG tanks have too many raised areas and depressions along thier surface. Getting a decal(which is flat) to apply to a chimera or Leman Russ had me give up on this idea after tearing up alot of test decals. Getting them on straight was also a challenge since they like ot wrinkle up.

Also, generating the actual camo patterns/colors is pretty tedious trying to get the colors to match up with the GW or VGC colors.

So, a stencil is probly still the optimal solution. Generate an image, print it out. Get some of the sticky laminating sheets- laminate both sides of the paper. Cut out you stencil. Its flexible and pretty durable.

I should also add that a large amount of the 1/35 or 1/48 scale kits you'll find of modern forces(there's one of the German Peacekeeping Forces in Afghanistan and at least two or three of the USMC in Iraq) actually include several sheets of A4 sized paper that are intended to be cut to size and applied as decals over the model to provide digital camouflage.

White dwarf did an article on battle damage a while ago.

In order to achieve a "salt eroded" finish, the painter would basecoat their vehicle black, then apply a mixture of salt and a dab of water to the model. Airbrush your desired color over this after it dries, then shake/scrape/dissolve the rest of the salt off. The salt and water dries in crystal structures, so it can be used in several layers to create a digital pattern.

brother_zach wrote:White dwarf did an article on battle damage a while ago.

In order to achieve a "salt eroded" finish, the painter would basecoat their vehicle black, then apply a mixture of salt and a dab of water to the model. Airbrush your desired color over this after it dries, then shake/scrape/dissolve the rest of the salt off. The salt and water dries in crystal structures, so it can be used in several layers to create a digital pattern.

Problem there is the size and shape of the salt crystals and the angle they attach are all going to be different. It can be used to a cool effect in other uses, but for this one I think it would come out very sloppy.

Thanks to this thread I now have an overwhelming urge to make a Challenger II Main Battle Tank
with a Mondrian Broadway Boogey Woogey paint job

Halsfield wrote:

brother_zach wrote:White dwarf did an article on battle damage a while ago.

In order to achieve a "salt eroded" finish, the painter would basecoat their vehicle black, then apply a mixture of salt and a dab of water to the model. Airbrush your desired color over this after it dries, then shake/scrape/dissolve the rest of the salt off. The salt and water dries in crystal structures, so it can be used in several layers to create a digital pattern.

Problem there is the size and shape of the salt crystals and the angle they attach are all going to be different. It can be used to a cool effect in other uses, but for this one I think it would come out very sloppy.

That may be true to a point. From a real life POV, this might help conceal something better, as long as it didn'd draw attention to a big turret or antana.

The technique did not cover its use in several layers. It is important to not that it did not say to completely soak the salt in water, you want only enough to make it to stick to each other and the vehicle. Perhaps a better substitute for this technique would be sea salt, as it seems to have bigger crystals. Or better yet, a combination of both.

the salt technique is normally used for heavy chipping of paint because of the random effect it produces.
It would not be precise enough and too unpredictable to replicate digital camo afaik

It would certainly be too impresise to do some of these MARPAT ideas. Other digital camo patterns do exist, such as ABUs.

I strongly encourage an option b, because I wanted to field an entire guard force of ACU eqquiped guardsmen. It worked for the first 20 models, then I got tired of painting little dots.

brother_zach wrote:It would certainly be too impresise to do some of these MARPAT ideas. Other digital camo patterns do exist, such as ABUs.

I strongly encourage an option b, because I wanted to field an entire guard force of ACU eqquiped guardsmen. It worked for the first 20 models, then I got tired of painting little dots.

You should open a thread about them. I'd like to see them.

calgar 2.5 wrote:

brother_zach wrote:It would certainly be too impresise to do some of these MARPAT ideas. Other digital camo patterns do exist, such as ABUs.

I strongly encourage an option b, because I wanted to field an entire guard force of ACU eqquiped guardsmen. It worked for the first 20 models, then I got tired of painting little dots.

You should open a thread about them. I'd like to see them.

I don't have enough pics of them. Plus, they got repainted camo green and codex gray.

But here's a link to them in some buildings in my gallery: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/48595-.html?m=2

sucky pic, I'm sure.