Painting a smooth coat of red on a vehicle...

[jamsessionein]

I\'m trying to paint smooth coats of red onto my ork battlewagon, working up from the darkest red I have.. (scab?), then red gore, then blood red. I\'m having trouble getting the paint to go on evenly -even if I water my paints down, they dry in odd patterns and I don\'t get a smooth paint application. Any suggestions? I\'m using one of the citadel flat drybrushes.

Here\'s a quick example of what I\'m talking about:

It looks a little worse in person than in pictures. Just not smooth and consistent like I\'m aiming for.

(Don\'t worry about anything that\'s painted on there. Nothing\'s anywhere near done, just roughing out some base colors and figuring out how it\'s going to look.)

 

[airhead]

1. try a glazing medium instead of water.

2. get a better quality brush.

or

3. use an airbrush.

*edit* that sounds cold & cruel.

Are you using anything besides distilled water for your paint thinning? I use a bit of retarder and some flow aid in my water. With that large an area, I would seriously consider airbrush medium or glaze medium as well. Simpling adding a drop of dish detergent to your mix water can help the flow.

Some of the paint company brushes are noted for not being the best of quality. Although most are improving. Go to your nearest art supply and look at a 1/4\" or 1/2\" flat brush in sable. Hang on to your wallet, but it won\'t cost as much as a good airbrush setup.

I assume that is black primer I am seeing on the tank?

 

[Modderrhu]

I agree with using a bit of flow aid (detergent) in the water to break up the surface tension of the paint. You won\'t get any paint rings with it, makes for much smoother paint.

You\'re painting over black? That\'s rather hard to do with red. First mix white and scab red, or codex grey and scab red, and paint over the black with that mix. This will make a smooth red much easier, since you won\'t have to fight with paint coverage issues.

Both points, poor coverage of red paint and paint pooling, could be contributing to the \"odd patterns\" that you talk of.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

Yes painting over the black surface is adding to your difficulty. You might wish to give it a deep red to purple undercoat.

Painting over the large surfaces is going to take time. It may take 10-15 thin coats of red to build up the color you desire. If you could get acces to a airbrush it would appl the base coats you desire. My advice thin your paints with a good flow aid as has been suggested and have patience and build up layers.

 

[Ogrebane]

If you cant get an airbrush thenget some red spray paint and then you can shade and highlight it.

Other wise you will need heaps of coats. I recon 15 is conservative.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Add some Red Ink to the Scab Red. That will increase the depth of the red and allow you to cover with a number of layers.

 

[bayrodney]

Tried Brown Yet..
.. Sometimes i paint on a thinned out dark brown before i use Scab Red

But if you dont like that, i would just use a red ink

 

[airhead]

I\'d seriously consider repriming with a red primer (or gray or brown.)

If this is your first tank, got any friends with airbrushs? If you are planning on doing lots of tanks/large models, I\'s seriously consider getting an Iwata HP-B or Eclipse and a small compressor.

 

[vincegamer]

You can try masking and spraying.
For the center there, cut a square hole in a piece of stiff paper and lay it over the model and spray.

I agree it would help to put a new primer coat down on the stuff you want red, either a white or gray - though someone mentioned brown which sounds preferable but I\'ve never seen brown primer. I find primer covers much better.
Don\'t worry about getting some of the red on the already black bits because you can just retouch them black. Black never has trouble covering.