Tips and tricks

Various attempts at kit bashing, conversion work and general painting techniques

Cam Net Tutorial

Decide what size of Gauze or Cheese Cloth you want to use to represent camouflage netting. I use a looser weave for 15mm, though a tighter weave can be used to represent burlap or hessian.

Once you have cut some pieces of Gauze, you will need a soft brush, tweezers and a cup of water as well as some CA glue (Crazy Glue). DON’T USE CA GEL.

Position the netting where you want it. If you are applying netting to be on a vehicle that is not supposed to be static, then be careful not to block engine exhausts, air intakes, periscopes, firing ports etc…

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Wet the netting down with water using the paint brush.

Push the netting into the exact position with the tweezers.

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Dribble small amounts of CA glue into the netting as the water dries to tack the netting into place. The CA glue should flow into the net and be absorbed.

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Do final adjustments before the glue cures…. quickly.

Repeat as necessary. A lot of assembly work is easier and quicker if you can do multiples at the same time. Now the vehicles should be allowed to dry overnight, before going on to the next step.

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To prepare the netting for painting, I use some matt black craft paint. Put a bunch of paint in the center of your dish, then add some water. I like to use a 50/50 mix (approximately). However, by not mixing the paint, you can thicken or thin as you need to.

Paint the cam netting. The paint should be thick enough to help as a cementing agent, but thin enough to flow into the netting. Painting with thin paint then by adding thick in places can also work. Find what works best for you. Avoid the paint being so thick that you loose netting detail. If you “oops” just add some water with the brush to thin it down.

Once that is complete, let the models dry over night and then it’s time to prime and paint your models.

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Now that the netting is dry, do any rough painting in your desired method.

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Add detail painting with the exception of any crew that may be visible.

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With the cam nets, I cheap out and again, use craft paint (matt). Pick a colour that works best in agreement with your research and “artistic intent”. Remember, looking cool is half the job…

Dip your brush in water, the pick up some paint. The paint should be runny enough to soak into the netting leaving a bit of the over paint from your rough painting showing through.

Now, the most frustrating part, waiting overnight until the paint dries……… I recommend singing to yourself “It wasn’t the Tanks that won the War,
The Anti Tank guns were there before,
With my boy Willie” to kill the time and keep your tankers humble…

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After the model has dried, I mix up a “wash”. I use approx 1/2 cup of water and 10-30 drops of flat black paint. I use Vallejo since it has a high pigment concentration.

The wash can be applied with a brush, or simply immers the vehicle in the container and remove. You may want to use a more concentrated wash on enginge grills and hatches and other detail to increase contrast. Now, again, time to wait for the wash to dry. I recommend a different song to hum to yourself while you sit and stare at the model. Almost anything by Forgotten Rebels will work at this point.

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Once the wash is dry you will need some light coloured paint, in this case, Vallejo Buff and a soft make up brush. Apply a very small amount of paint to the end of the brush, then wipe the brush against a dry surface so that only a minute amount of paint is left. Then “dust the surface” of the miniature to highlight edges and high points. Please note, if you have raided your wifes make up bag to get a brush, do not post pictures of it on Face Book or other media….

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The almost finished product. One final step, painting the crew……

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And now, after painting the crew in whichever way you want to, you are now ready to cross the start line. As this photo demonstrates, it is usually best to paint the complete lot at the same time to avoid internal variations.

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This tutorial was done with 15mm tanks, but the technique can work (with some tweaking) on other scales. Here are some 28mm tanks from Warlord Games.

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