New finishing techniques have been the name of the game in armor modeling for the last decade. Dot filters, pre- and post-shading, color modulation, layering, and mapping have replaced the traditional paint, wash, and dry-brush system at the vanguard of paint detailing.
These techniques provide terrific results, but for the uninitiated they can present serious challenges. Questions abound: How do I pre-shade? What colors should I use? Which layer should I start with?
Acrylicos Vallejo’s AFV painting and weathering sets are designed to remove some of the guesswork.
To test the U.S. Army Olive Drab painting set and the Weathering Set for Green Vehicles, I built Tamiya’s 1/35 scale M26 Pershing.
The painting set contains six 8ml (.27 fluid-ounce) eyedropper bottles. One contains Vallejo’s olive drab acrylic-polyurethane surface primer. The others are colors from Vallejo’s Model Air catalog: yellow olive, U.S. dark green, olive drab, U.S. gray green, and satin varnish (clear).
The weathering set includes: three 8ml bottles of Vallejo Model Color (German camouflage black brown, hull red, and buff); two 8ml bottles of acrylic model wash (dark green and dark brown); a 10ml bottle of light sienna powdered pigment; and an 8ml bottle of pigment binder.
Each set comes in an end-opening box with a plastic tray that doubles as a palette.
The back of each box has six-step instructions with photos and a one-sentence caption. This is the weakest aspect of the sets, especially for beginners. The instructions give vague directions about color placement, using phrases like “less recessed” and “most exposed.” It’s not insurmountable with practice, but more-detailed directions would help modelers get good results the first time.
I started by airbrushing my Pershing with the olive drab primer straight from the bottle. I was afraid the tiny container wouldn’t provide enough paint to cover the tank, but the primer covers so well I only needed a couple of passes, even over brass and resin details.
A day later, I started shading colors following the directions. The differences between the four shades seems a little stark, but stick with the system; the results will become apparent.
I airbrushed the darkest color — yellow olive — under the fenders, on the lower hull, behind the running gear, and under the turret overhangs.
Dark green followed on the vertical surfaces of the hull and turret. Then, olive drab on the upper surfaces of the vehicle as I concentrated on panel centers so a little of the darker primer showed on edges.
Finally, I airbrushed gray green on the panel centers. That turned out to be a mistake, making the entire tank look like a patchwork quilt. I sprayed olive drab over the affected areas, then applied gray green much more sparingly, focused along just the ridges. Much better! After decals, I sealed the paint with satin varnish. Overall, I was very impressed with the paint’s ease of application and the effects.
Next came the weathering set, starting by painting the vinyl tracks German camouflage dark brown. This and the other colors are from the much-thicker Model Color range designed to be hand-brushed. I thinned it about 1:1 with Vallejo thinner and airbrushed the tracks. The paint was a little thick but adhered and leveled beautifully. I applied washes of buff and hull red to the tracks, thinning the paint with distilled water.
Moving back to the tank, I applied the dark brown wash to the running gear and lower hull, and the dark green wash to the rest of the vehicle. These acrylic washes are thin enough to run into the recesses, but they also stick to and tint the satin surface like filters. The green wash turned the olive drab very, very green, an effect I toned down by applying an overall coat of dark brown wash thinned with water.
The instructions then call for an application of pigment “dispersed in pigment binder.” Taking that to mean dissolved, I squeezed some of the viscous liquid into a well of the palette, then added pigment. I brushed and daubed the sludgy mix around the running gear, lower hull, and tracks.
I sealed everything with a Vallejo flat varnish, then applied dry pigments to add more dust to corners and recesses on the hull and turret. Tracks on, I called the model done.
I think it looks good, and the set made it easy to apply an olive drab finish that is anything but drab. It is possible to achieve similar results without sets like these — modelers have for years — but these sets make it a little easier if you haven’t tried these effects before. Vallejo removes some of the mystery, but more-comprehensive instructions would make it even easier for novices. The paints themselves are first-rate.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the April 2014 FineScale Modeler.