Zvezda BTR-80 in 15mm

[ErikB]

I made these from some of the better Zvezda kits.

Dangit, they looked pretty nice until that last drybrushing.  I was trying to follow some of Westphalia Chris's good advice and it was going well... at first.

Should have waited for the brush to dry out a little more before putting paint on it.  I was being impatient.









They're going to really thrash these on CMON....

Any ideas on how to clean up that drybrushing?  It didn't *look* like that much at the time.  That final little dusting turned out to be a lot more than I meant.  So frustrating.

[Catullus]

I don't think they look half as bad as you're making them out to be! I'd leave the sandy parts as they are and just re-drybrush the green areas with a colour that is slightly lighter than the base green.

[ErikB]

Good idea.  I'll give that a go.  Hopefully, it will fix the chalky drybrushing.

[von Lucky]

Yeah - don't knock yourself up - these are nice.

[Poiter50]

I'm with Catullus, I think they look good if not great.

[Ballardian]

As Von Lucky et al said, don't wory too much, they do look good.
 Another (slightly lengthier approach) to smoothing the colours out a bit is the use of filter washes. They're very dilute layers of wash that, possibly over several applications, smooth out colour transitions. It is possible to do this with acylics, but because they dry fast it's a much less forgiving medium, you don't get much time to manipulate the paint. Enamel washes like those produced by MIG Ammo or AK Interactive, despite being enamel based, I think are easier to use, though they do work better if the model's been given a coat of gloss or satin varnish first (a smooth suface lets the wash slip easily around the detail - matt paint has a fine granularity that tends to grab the pigment, creating 'tide marks'). It may require two-three coats (giving each at least a couple of hours to dry) before a final coat of matt varnish.
 It's probably also a good idea to keep some turpentine (or the brands preferred thinner) to hand as it's good to experiment a little on a piece of scrap plastic in the colour you're trying to blend to get the right consistency - it being better to have to apply another coat than it be too heavy.
 You can see how filters can smooth out colour transitions in the Centurion below - the first pick in the 'raw' green modulation & the second after two coats of Mig Dark Brown for Green filter.
 Hope that it may be of some use!
 

[ErikB]

Wow!  Nice job on those Centurions!

I stopped using turpentine-based paints a while back, when I had kids.  Didn't want the smell in the house or chemicals around my little ones.  For now, it's 100% acrylics. 

Love your advice and ideas, though.   

[Ballardian]

Yes, I know what you mean, I thought I'd seen the last of enamels & solvent based paints long ago - you can do all of these things with acrylics, it's just a bit harder - as you've got to be more on top of the process as you've got much less time to play with. There's a good Mig Jimenez video that he did for Vallejo a while back, it's on YouTube somewhere, I'll put the link up tomorrow when I've had a chance to find it again. In it he goes through a step by step, using only acrylics.  

 EDIT: 5/5/17
 The YouTube video is Mig Jimenez AFV Acrylic Techniques, there a number of different postings of this hour long vid, but this version is broken down into four segments, one of which (sorry can't remember which) hs the material your after.         

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youtube.com/watch?v=2bUNxiI6Qxw