More painted pieces for consideration

@trenacker
I’ve been painting some pieces the last two weeks. I’m having trouble with Rustoleum Lemongrass for the UK. The paint doesn’t apply very well. I use Eden for USA, French blue for France, rustic orange for Japan, flat gray for Germany. Lemongrass is just a pain for whatever reason.

@cavestone I also use vallejo paints. The key question here is are you brush painting, or using an airbrush, or both?

The Vallejo paints have a “Model Air” line that comes pre-thinned. You can buy a thinning product (from them) to add to the “Model Color” series paints, which are the exact same thing, just more concentrated and thicker.

If you’ve never used an airbrush, its a bit finicky–it requires regular cleaning and a without a good brush and compressor the paint will flow very inconsistently. The process will be very frustrating unless you use the pre-thinned paints because the brush can only blow paint that is within a certain set of thickness parameters that are difficult to achieve, especially if you are trying to mix the air in the brush’s reserve or in small quantities. That’s why having copies of both Model Air and Model Color is fine by me–unlike Warhammer 40K I’m using primarily earthy colors, greens, dunkelgelb and dunkelgrau… other AFV and camoflage colors and so i don’t need a collection of primary or bright colors.

But I recommend it. The airbrush creates a sublime, beautiful layer and slight mix variations can be used to create shadows, grades, etc. Then you go back over with your brush, adding highlights, lines, details. Then, back over again with a drybrushing…then back to the airbrush to blast Flory Wash all over it.

Can’t see your photos, you can’t post photos until you have a certain post count. I wouldn’t use water to thin paints, they are water soluble but the mix and viscosity is all wrong (though water is obv. cheap and easy to clean up)

As for oil-based paints, these require thinner to clean up, they are much more difficult to drybrush with and are not used for airbrushing. The days of the old testors paints is long behind us–even apple barrel paints are easier to work with and cheaper. The early painting methods were much more about glomming thick layers of paint onto lead miniatures and the modern approach with water based paint and a series of different techniques creates much better results.

Thank you for the positive feedback! I forgot to say that in the previous post, and it’s very important that I do. It’s very encouraging and motivating to get good feedback, and we certainly appreciate it. The above mentioned four Essex class carriers are complete, a long with several other ships of the US Navy, so its time to update the thread. Just ships by FOlewnik in this post. More aircraft are almost done but I haven’t put magnets in them yet (so not really done), so no aircraft pictures this post.

We’ll start with the two “odd men out” of the HBG sculpt Baltimore Class Heavy Cruisers. Why “odd men out”? Because in the below picture we have on the left, the USS Unnamed Baltimore Class Cruiser Wearing Measure 31a, Design 9C, and on the right is the USS Columbus (CA 74), which wasn’t commissioned until June 8, 1945. The cruiser with the long name is wearing a design that was never used, but was taken from a period design found at https://www.wikiwand.com/en/World_War_II_US_Navy_dazzle_camouflage_measures_31,_32_and_33:_cruisers. The USS Columbus is wearing a Measure 12 Modified designed by FOlewnik to match the pieces we’ll be using for the US Atlantic fleet. These will get aircraft added, but at the time of the photographs the decals on the wings of the aircraft were drying.
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Next up are some metal destroyers from GHQ. Below on the left, the very brave USS Johnston (DD-557) painted in MS-3_/6D as it looked when it was “Sunk by Japanese Warships off Samar October 25 1944,” and next to it is USS Van Valkenburgh (DD-656) painted in camouflage Measure 31, Design 9d. All Wartime photos taken from Navsource.org, a great resource for US Navy history buffs.
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Below, the real USS Johnston shortly before her final battle, and the official design sheet:
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A great wartime picture of the USS Van Valkenburgh, which is the same on both sides:
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Now on to these two. From GHQ, USS The Sullivans (DD-537) painted in Measure 1, and the HBG sculpt light cruiser USS Marblehead (CL-12) who always wore Measure 2 throughout the war. If I can get FOlewnik to put the Shamrock on the first stack of The Sullivans when he puts the scout aircraft on the Marblehead, as seen in the below wartime photograph, I’ll come back and edit the post.
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The post previous to this post showed four Essex Class sculpts from HBG getting prepped and started with a base coat. Those are now completed and I had too much fun playing with them and the aircraft (that are complete so far) while I was taking photographs. I’m pretty sure I didn’t make any wooshing sea or aircraft noises or FOlewnik would have laughed at me. I was tempted though, and here’s why:
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Above we have the first of the Long Hull Essex Class, USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) on the left looking as she did after her April 1945 refit from suffering a Kamikaze Attack on January 21, 1945, and USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) on the right. The Bunker Hill is wearing Measure 33, Design 6A, of which Navsource says, “Her port side camouflage pattern was the most intricate design applied to any carrier.” One glance can confirm that!
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The final two Essex Class carriers are the USS Essex (CV-9) herself, and the USS Bennington (CV-20). The Essex is wearing a unique pattern, Measure 32v6, Design 10D, adapted from a destroyer pattern specifically for the long hulled Essex. The Bennington is painted in Measure 32, Design 17A.
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Finally, some group pictures just for fun:
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Thank you for checking out the post! If you liked it, please click the little heart. I’m trying to figure out why our post is only rated with a 2 when it seems it should be a bit higher if the other likes are any indication.

Thanks for the support!

Which nation next…well for the next snowy day! Once you start it’s like…why stop there right! I dunno… will be a while till I pick up a paint brush again. Our game is in process at the moment.

RKKA, will post a pic in a few weeks when I get back to the game table. It’s early days in our game so all pieces are almost all there.

BH

If you are really looking for a good finish on all your HBG pieces, you could buy a couple small cans of differing lacquers and test each one. $20 should get almost 3 cans worth. It may be a waste to some degree, but at least you can know for sure which one works best.

I have a flat Testors lacquer/sealant spray that I used on Tall Paul’s finished pieces. Granted, these were painted first, so the effect may be thrown off. However, I will say that I did not observe any level of gloss on the HBG or OOB pieces after I applied it. It was quite flat as advertised. FWIW.

Very nice

@John:

I don’t know what everyone else likes, but I like videos. For example, you showing everyone how to put these I 94 decals on or how you do those awesome dry brush techniques, you are always talking about, or the whole process of a painted piece, from the time you prime it to the finishing coat, including how to place the decals on.

Any of those would be cool videos! :-D

Good to know! I have never tried videos, as I don’t have the camera skills (or the camera, for that matter) to film close up like that. I have friends around who have the equipment though, so I might give it a shot.

@jwo1984:

Hey spitfire… I liked the layout of yor original painting tutorial… With stages photos befores and afters with descriptions under each photo and stage.  I would like too see some face washes you use on infantry men. And some washes you use for a variety of infantry moulds. Even a gallery too showcase some of your personal playing pieces would be cool!

I will definitely do a tutorial on washes! I’m planning on doing another in depth infantry tutorial, so that will feature the face washes you’re talking about.

Hmm interesting cynight…. I recieved 4 hurricane fighters with my set… Is that standard with the order?  Thanks for the boiling water method I will try that this weekend and hopefully be Painting some units this weekend :)