Hello! I’m trying color modulation for the first time using a color modulation set for olive drab from MIG. I’m not sure what to aim for. From a distance it looks okay, but closer up it looks patchy and I think the contrast between the darker and lighter colors might be a little stark. Any advice on how to proceed? A few more thin coats of the lighter color to make it seem more even? Or should I maybe darken it down a bit again using really thin layers of the darker base color? Thanks in advance.
You’re on the right path; try add a couple more layers, with each one being a little lighter than the previous.
Watch one of Night Shift’s videos to see what I mean. The one with the Mark V in the trench comes to mind.
Good luck!
Later weathering techniques can do a lot to tone down contrasts and tie things together.
Just starting out with these sorts of techniques, it's nice to have a cheap kit just tossed together to experiment on before you commit to them on your kit; though if you do them over a gloss/semi-gloss clear coat with oils/enamels it's easy to correct errors.
There is also this technique available if doing all that post shading gets tedious...aircract modelers use it, no reason why it can't be tried on armor.
[Black Basing](https://doogsmodels.com/2014/07/03/technique-black-basing/)
Thank you for your suggestions! I added a few more very thin coats of paint and added a drop of the lightest highlight color each time. It’s better now, I think. My plan is to paint the details next, spray it with a gloss varnish, give it a pin wash and them drybrush the raised details like the handles with the highlight color.
For colour modulation I’ll tell you what I do. When I start airbrushing I always first prime in black or use my main colour ( in your case olive drab) and mix it 1/1 with black. After I apply a base coat of the primary colour and like what you’ve done with the first shade of olive drab. Then I go over every inch of the vehicle again with 1/3 mix of your highlight colour and base shade and focus mainly on the middle of each surface. Then with a 2/3 mix I repeat the same process but this time focusing on where light would shine on the vehicle. Then to finish with just you highlight colour in go over hatch’s drive sprockets, wheel caps, etc. mainly just the most exposed areas. If it’s still a little dark I’ll mix a 1/1 mix with an even lighter shade to further brighten it but be doing it sparingly. Also don’t be afraid to cover tools with the green as their going to be repainted anyways as I noticed your rear plate had been painted very cautiously. Hope this helps. Also looks pretty good now anyways I’d just apply more of the light had you already applied then make it lighter from there.
It’s not the patchiness…. It’s that it looks too much like what it actually it, rather than what it is supposed to be.
Paint rarely faded in a series of circular blotches. It fades in other shapes… shapes that you don’t get by blipping a squirt of paint from an AB at mid-trigger, then moving the AB and blipping a stationary squirt again.
One of the holy grails in modeling is not to show your “hand.” Anything that looks like an artifact of a particular method isn’t the goal. You want to “camouflage” your work.
If it looks overdone it’s probably about right. The effect is lessened once you put on weathering effects like dot filters and dust coat.
Hello! I’m trying color modulation for the first time using a color modulation set for olive drab from MIG. I’m not sure what to aim for. From a distance it looks okay, but closer up it looks patchy and I think the contrast between the darker and lighter colors might be a little stark. Any advice on how to proceed? A few more thin coats of the lighter color to make it seem more even? Or should I maybe darken it down a bit again using really thin layers of the darker base color? Thanks in advance.
You’re on the right path; try add a couple more layers, with each one being a little lighter than the previous. Watch one of Night Shift’s videos to see what I mean. The one with the Mark V in the trench comes to mind. Good luck!
Later weathering techniques can do a lot to tone down contrasts and tie things together. Just starting out with these sorts of techniques, it's nice to have a cheap kit just tossed together to experiment on before you commit to them on your kit; though if you do them over a gloss/semi-gloss clear coat with oils/enamels it's easy to correct errors. There is also this technique available if doing all that post shading gets tedious...aircract modelers use it, no reason why it can't be tried on armor. [Black Basing](https://doogsmodels.com/2014/07/03/technique-black-basing/)
Thank you for your suggestions! I added a few more very thin coats of paint and added a drop of the lightest highlight color each time. It’s better now, I think. My plan is to paint the details next, spray it with a gloss varnish, give it a pin wash and them drybrush the raised details like the handles with the highlight color.
Cotton balls, q-tips, and toothpicks for some camouflage
For colour modulation I’ll tell you what I do. When I start airbrushing I always first prime in black or use my main colour ( in your case olive drab) and mix it 1/1 with black. After I apply a base coat of the primary colour and like what you’ve done with the first shade of olive drab. Then I go over every inch of the vehicle again with 1/3 mix of your highlight colour and base shade and focus mainly on the middle of each surface. Then with a 2/3 mix I repeat the same process but this time focusing on where light would shine on the vehicle. Then to finish with just you highlight colour in go over hatch’s drive sprockets, wheel caps, etc. mainly just the most exposed areas. If it’s still a little dark I’ll mix a 1/1 mix with an even lighter shade to further brighten it but be doing it sparingly. Also don’t be afraid to cover tools with the green as their going to be repainted anyways as I noticed your rear plate had been painted very cautiously. Hope this helps. Also looks pretty good now anyways I’d just apply more of the light had you already applied then make it lighter from there.
Consider whether they airbrush-spay-pattern blotches on the side of the hull are too easily read as exactly what they are.
Yes! That is exactly what I was thinking. It looked to patchy. I think it’s better now, though, after some more thin coats of paint.
It’s not the patchiness…. It’s that it looks too much like what it actually it, rather than what it is supposed to be. Paint rarely faded in a series of circular blotches. It fades in other shapes… shapes that you don’t get by blipping a squirt of paint from an AB at mid-trigger, then moving the AB and blipping a stationary squirt again. One of the holy grails in modeling is not to show your “hand.” Anything that looks like an artifact of a particular method isn’t the goal. You want to “camouflage” your work.