First BMP

[ErikB]

I'm not happy with my edging and drybrushing.  I'd love some constructive criticism to improve my painting.

[carlos marighela]

Looks pretty good to me. If the intent is an Afghan war era camo then the sand is a bit greyer in photos and seems to blend well with the usually heavy layer of dust covering them.

[Da boss]

what scale and maker??

[von Lucky]

There's a Panzer III somewhere else on this board, you should check that out to get some pointers

(Nicely done.)

[Westfalia Chris]

I think it looks very nice, maybe a bit "chalky".

May I ask what colour(s) you used for the drybrushing? Did you use a single tone and drybrush all over the vehicle?

Personally, I prefer to use lighter tones of the areas to be drybrushed, in this case a lighter brown and greenish-grey. A single light tone applied indiscriminately (like a pale sand, light grey or white) isn't that great in my opinion, and I'd avoid very light tones in any case or use them only very sparingly for the outmost, "defining" edges.

Maybe you could also retouch the tracks with a bit of a dark brown wash to darken them and separate them a bit, visually, from the light tire rims.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Very nice.

The dry brushing does appear a bit stark, possibly try some close matching washes on the corresponding green and brown areas and greyer washes on the tracks.

I am a regular culprit for dry brushing with Citadel Terminatus Stone, but then I wash/shade with Citadel shade or washes.

Recent example: http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.com.es/2017/04/post-war-bolt-action-miniatures.html

I wish my BMP looked as good.

Some weathering would be useful.

[ErikB]

Gosh, thanks, guys!

It's a Team Yankee BMP from Battlefront.  Great little kits (and I do mean little.)

I wasn't sure which colors to use.  I decided upon a "cool" looking scheme as opposed to a well researched authentic one that would have been used in WWIII in the mid-1980s.

Colors were: Vallejo Violet-Brown, Vallejo Iraqi Sand, barrel was Vallejo German Grey, my cocktail of washes, and GW Ushabti Bone for the drybrush.

My cocktail is made of: 1/2 lahmian medium, 1/3 Army Painter Soft Tone, some Citadel badab black, and some Liquitex flow improver. 

> Personally, I prefer to use lighter tones of the areas to be drybrushed, in this case a lighter brown and greenish-grey. A single light tone applied indiscriminately (like a pale sand, light grey or white) isn't that great in my opinion, and I'd avoid very light tones in any case or use them only very sparingly for the outmost, "defining" edges.

Please tell me more about how to do this, Chris and Smurf.  Some of that Bone color with the two base colors?  How do you keep within the lines?  I struggle with color selection for washes and weathering-drybrushing.

[tom_aargau]

Try to use oils for drybrushing - a lot softer edges and not as chalky

[Captain Blood]

Wow. 15mm? That's very impressive. Would have taken it for 28mm easily.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Wow. 15mm? That's very impressive. Would have taken it for 28mm easily.

My thoughts exactly.

Excellent.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Well, when I get round to finishing this: http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.com.es/2014_07_01_archive.html
Base colours are Vallejo Russian Uniform Green, Desert Sand and German camo black brown.

I would lighten the base colour (probably with Vallejo Old Wood, Army Painter Skeleton Bone and Vallejo Leather brown respectively) and apply as an edge highlight on the respective base colours. Lightly dry brush with either Citadel Terminatus Stone or Kazak stone. Once dry, wash with green over the green, sepia over the sand and the brown. Shade with green and brown shade inks (Citadel Camoshade and Earthshade).

Track gets a darker Earthshade and Citadel Nuln Oil.

Weathering is difficult at 15mm scale.

So far most of the vehicles painted recently have not had a camo pattern, the big cats are, but are heavily weathered so do not count.

I hope that is of some help.

[Westfalia Chris]

Personally, I prefer to use lighter tones of the areas to be drybrushed, in this case a lighter brown and greenish-grey. A single light tone applied indiscriminately (like a pale sand, light grey or white) isn't that great in my opinion, and I'd avoid very light tones in any case or use them only very sparingly for the outmost, "defining" edges.

Please tell me more about how to do this, Chris and Smurf.  Some of that Bone color with the two base colors?  How do you keep within the lines?  I struggle with color selection for washes and weathering-drybrushing.

I would avoid using such a light tone until the final stages of drybrushing.

For the Iraqi Sand areas, I would suggest a first drybrush of 70.847 Dark Sand and a second one of 70.837 Pale Sand.

For the Violet Brown areas, I'd opt for 70.924 Russian Uniform mixed two parts to one with the Dark Sand tone. Russian Uniform alone may not provide enough of a contrast, especially if you have colour perception issues.

After these two, you might go for a very light edge drybrush using pale sand, and put a wash on top of that to tie the various drybrushes together.

I would like to add, though, that I am not too fond of using a drybrush approach on small-scale vehicles if they are as finely-detailed as that one (I first thought it was a 20mm kit, very impressed as it is 15mm and doubly so if it is a Battlefront piece - the WW2 stuff I had from them ranged from OK to abysmal). Personally, I'd suggest using more flat areas in a slightly lighter tone, then using several layers of thin washes to shade it down. Also, I avoid edge-drybrushing these days and usually stipple on a highlight to the centers of the various areas and unify it with a wash afterwards.

It worked very well with this 28mm APC, showing up well in the photo, and I hope you'll be able to make it out:



This was done with a 70.890 Reflective Green base, camouflage of  70.913 yellow ochre. The stippling was done by adding a bit of the Yellow Ochre to the Green, and a bit of 70.976 Buff for the Yellow Ochre. Over all of this, a thin wash of Sepia and a spot of German Grey, and some final edge highlights drybrushed on using a light mix of both base colours with some more Buff. This was only very sparingly applied to the edges.

I've used the same technique for 20mm African Wars stuff, but the pictures aren't good enough, and for WW2 German Armour in 15mm scale (of which there are no pics, I'm sorry to say).

Generally, I'd say less is more in 15mm. Better to deepen the colour using washes and using very dark tones for pin washes around moving parts and hatches than using the tricky-to-control drybrushing technique.

[ErikB]

Great advice, folks!

Chris - how did you know I had color perception issues?  Is it obvious from my painting...?

I have a very hard time deconstructing what I am seeing.  It's like the image goes straight into brain-interpretation without me being able to break apart what I am seeing.  One of the big reasons I love this hobby is that I must learn to get beyond this. 

I tried copying one of Agis's robots once.  It was very hard to deconstruct, mentally, but I think I made a reasonable duplicate.  (No offense, Agis!  It's meant as flattery!  Trying to learn what you do!)  This helped me separate technique from color selection.  Very helpful.

[Catullus]

Nice work! I have the same BMP model here on my workbench and it's a great kit. After seeing your work I feel my paint job looks a bit weak and I may revisit it. I agree with the other posters here – the drybrushing perhaps contrasts too much with the base colour. It looks almost as it is weathered for a desert kind of look. I try to highlight edges subtly and, if I overdo it, I also try to tone it down with a wash. Like Chris, I don't drybrush much these days. A succession of washes seems to give me better results in 15mm.

[ErikB]

One thing I am realizing is that I see things like a desert. 

Partially, I'm sure, because of my country being at war in the desert for the past 15+ years, but also because I live in California which is, technically, a desert.  We have very little green around here.  This winter is the first time we got any serious rain in 6 years.  The drought has been a serious problem - especially with farmers.

When I go for walks around the marshlands it's still brown, dry bushes and weeds, some gray or tan stones, there is green but only in spots.  Things are dry and scuffs on cars, tires, shoes, and the like, are basically Bleached Bone drybrush, so to speak. 

So different from when I lived in Germany and Austria where white, gray and green were the colors, and weathering on real items was usually mud and wet marks. 

These are totally different and affect how I see and paint things.  Go figure.