Unteroffizier, Großdeutschland 1942 - Painting the Field Grey Tunic - Part 1

In this instalment, I will reveal my process of utilizing my signature set of colours from AK Interactive to render a Field Grey tunic. 

To create a greenish-blue tone of field grey typical in most early war tunics, I will concoct a mixture of Field Grey Base #1, Grey Green and Dark Prussian Blue. Take caution to add only a modicum of Dark Prussian Blue as it is extremely overpowering.

The colours were mixed on a metal surface and the mixture was allowed to dry. Once dried, I added Mr Colour Leveling Thinner 400 to dissolve the paint, rendering it usable for airbrushing.  

A flat brush was used to draw the paint from the metal surface and transferred to the airbrush. The dilution rate is a 1:3 paint to thinner ratio.

The high dilution of paint was necessary for two reasons; firstly to allow a smoother discharge of paint from the airbrush nozzle and second being that I only needed a thin veil of paint to cover the surface so that the effects of the underpainting can peep through. 

Truth be told, with the exception of Tamiya acrylics, I have never attained good results airbrushing  with acrylic paints until most recently using the "Lazarus" method. This opens new possibilities as one could now "resurrect" dried up acrylic paints and reuse them as lacquer-based paint. If you are still sceptical about the results, just look at the following photos and you can see that it boasts a smooth and matt finish.

That is all for now. In the next instalment, I will cover the shading and highlighting of the figure using the brush.

Cheers,

Calvin

Unteroffizier, Großdeutschland 1942 - Underpainting

The timing could not be more perfect as I commence on the painting of this figure using my signature set of colours composed for painting WWII German Uniforms by AK Interactive. 

The figure is primed using Mr Mahogany Surfacer 1000 from Mr Hobby as I wanted to work with a warmer tone as a ground colour. 

The darker areas are airbrushed with black to simulate the cool tone of the shadows.

A light mist of AK 11003 White Grey was applied to simulate the lightfall. This process allows the areas for highlighting to be identified and more importantly improves the luminosity of the base colours.

AK 11003 White Grey was thinned with water to a milk-like consistency and successively applied in thin layers to strengthen the highlights. In traditional painting, this technique is referred to as underpainting and it has been pioneered by Titian during the High Renaissance.  

In my next post, I will briefly cover the painting of the face so stay tuned!

Cheers,

Calvin

Signature Set for WW2 German Uniforms from AK Interactive

 

Through the courtesy of the good folks at AK Interactive, I am so happy to receive my copy of the 18 colour box set of AK Interactive Gen 3 acrylic paints. It is composed of all the essential colours I use to paint World War Two German uniforms and a small pamphlet containing my colour mixes. Stay tune for the upcoming weeks in which I will reveal on how I go about using them. Till then have a good weekend.

Cheers,

Calvin