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Ok, I am going to be getting some Battlewagons in my ork army, and was wondering how to paint them? I don’t want to end up with a streaky mess of a tank (which I can see coming!). So how do you do it? should I get a spray gun thing? Should I be using some other clever gubbins to paint tanks? Or am I just worrying over nothing and paint it with a brush! Pleas help me before I make a mess!

Thank you, A small (but growing) waagh!

Can of spraypaint... car paint can be good and cheap!

stay away from the spray gun thing. If you want to go that route pick up an airbrush. It's all about what you're comfortable with. Simple brushing on paint works fine if that's what you do, or an airbrush would suffice (would definitely save you time).

Oh and I don't see anything wrong with streaky mess. That's how you make it Orky!

Use an air bursh or dry brush boltgun metal onto it on panels,metal areas pipes ect.then do this againwith other couors like red, brown,bule add spare trasfures here and there.Use weathering powders on wheles or add acrilcs to them for weathering acrilic paints use higlights.
Theres a brand of weathering acric paints called eazi there really good I use them on bases thrank treads ect.Theres also a Jampaniese companys weathering stick Ill find the website when I get home!

Thanks for all of the quick help, sounds like i might be able to get away with useing a normal brush, but i will look into geting an air brush next pay day ( or this one depending on a lot of stuff)! If any of you have one (an airbrush) could they link it so i know what sorta price i am looking at! Tanks again!

I actually just finished painting a BW last week. I used a rattle can of black spray primer and a couple of different size brushes. An Airbrush is not required to paint decent tanks (Especially Ork tanks). You just need to make sure that your paints are thinned down enough so you don't see brush strokes. After a couple coats you can get a nice smooth finish.

Spray is great for under-coating, but after that I would recommend brushes, BIG ones!
Airbrush take a while getting used to, and may be messy if you haven't tried out some techniques.
Plus, you don't risk paint over the details as easily.

And then we have the "look"-factor. A real tank is often painted with brushes, so it doesn't mean that the tank will be aweful just because you see the stripes from your brush.

Well, that's my experiences atleast

Thin paints work great, but a good airbush is king.

danesk wrote:
A real tank is often painted with brushes, so it doesn't mean that the tank will be aweful just because you see the stripes from your brush.

QFT.

To be honest, you can't go wrong with drybrushing, once you're good at it. Get a Citadel Tank Brush (if they still do them). Practice just gently dusting the paint on (so little on the brush you wouldn't believe it) with lots of mixes (so build up from black through 2:1 black : dark red to 1:1 to 1:2 and then pure dark red, then dark red : blood red and so on). The more mixes the smoother it'll look. Chalkiness from drybrushing is usually a result of too high a contrast going on.

Use a circular motion when drybrushing the middles of panels (like your gf putting on blusher) to build up the colour there. Build the darker shades up quite strongly - leave only a little of each previous shade showing. Takes a long while but it looks extremely effective.

Once you have the hang of drybrushing you can think about the airbrush - it's really a case of you should know the basics first.

One thing you must remember, is to water down your paints sufficently, if they leave streaky marks, then they aren't think enough. I used to think thick paints were better, as it used less coats (when i first started) but that is what makes the lines. Water down your paints and you should be fine!

I recently purchased a spray gun. After hearing bad things about the GW one I purchased one by revell instead. I was impressed by there solvent cement so thought i'd take a chance on the spray gun.

It works a treat, in just under 1 hour I based four rhinos and they look fine. So yeah if i'd recomend getting one if an airbrush si too much of an investment

Heres the web site I was talking about

I've worked out a couple of quick ways to paint vehicles.

For orky or other very worn vehicles, I recommend drybrushing over a base of black spray. Here's a vehicle I just finished. You can see some brush marks, but it's a nice sand-worn weathered look.


For my IG tanks, I used colored spray primer (Krylon ruddy brown spray primer), touched it up with a matching brush paint, painted the details and then dipped it (polyshades applied with a brush). You have to be carfull to keep the dip from pooling too much at the edges but the dip gives it a nice dirty worn look, and the spray paint is a very smooth base


These are pretty fast techniques, emphasizing speed over fine detaling and may not be what you're looking for. However, if you're not looking to spend a ton of time painting, they are two pretty good options yeliding much better results than the time spent would suggest.

I use an airbrush, then drybrush boltgun over the bolts and bits I want metal. I do need to wash them with some mud, though.

Except for the treads. Those get primed, then spray painted with metallic spray paint. A bit of wash on them and they're good to go.

Thank you all again, i will have to learn how to water down my paints well and practis on plasticard first! (along with looking for a tank brush!)

My tanks? Oh, see, i paint them like crap.