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Hey, picked this up after playing a little as a kid but with no experience painting models.

I have started my first model (couldn't have been something small and simple) and have primed (Humbrol grey acrylic) and started to basecoat (Vallejo game colour - night blue).

My question is regarding the coverage (photos hopefully attached). I've done one layer so far and I can't tell if I'm thinning my paint too much or too little. Not sure whether to bash on with another layer or to change tac.

Have been trying to look at tutorials online but most seem to be focused around airbrushing (out of my price range currently). Using a Humbrol airfix 4 brush and a dry palate (haven't gotten around to making a wet one yet). Any thoughts/advice/constructive criticism appreciated.

Cheers!
Dave

Welcome to Dakka!

It doesn’t look like you can see brush strokes or globbed on paint, and detail is not being obscured, so you are probably thinning OK. Multiple thin coats is the way to go, and it looks like you are on the right path. Better to err on the side of to thin. You can always put another coat on.

I do my Eldar vehicles (everything, really) with a fuzzy stick. While getting the smooth, sleek Eldar aesthetic is a lot easier with an airbrush (from what I’ve seen), it’s doable the old fashioned way. Just a little more time consuming.

Kepp up the good work.

Wow, way to start easy.. Vehicles are a major pain to paint..(in my opinion that is) at least without an airbrush. getting your layers down to get a smooth coat will be a long, laborious process, but it can be done. if youre going to paint vehicles, you might want to look into ways of getting tonal variation on your panels. pre shading, stippling, and panel lining will all help here.

I dont know what size brush youre using, but get a biggish one, and take your brush strokes in the same direction where possible on your base layers, to get nice even coverage and avoid those dark areas where paint has converged.

That's great, thank you folks!

Nevelon: Good to hear it's doable with a good old fashioned brush! I'll persist and see how we go.

Queen_anne: Yeah it seemed like a good idea at the time >_< . I'll keep going and see how we end up. Don't suppose you know of any resources re those tutorials you mentioned for panels? No worries if not. Current rush is a size 4 I think. Have a pack on order but with the current "situation" and the fact that apparently they are being shipped from Germany (swear Amazon said the store was in Bedford) it may take a while to get any variation on that. Appreciate the tips though! Thanks

Just look for panel shading on YouTube. Scale modellers are really the bosses of this sort of thing, but miniature painters can also achieve nice effects too.

I'd go for a bigger brush than a 4. You want a square or slightly diagonal straight edge of bristles rather than a point, like a gw base brush, but don't buy those.