Preshading Question

Kildlawyrs

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I gathered  that's what it is, but by question is this; Is the model first painted with the selected base color coat, and then a thinner coat of that same base coat applied in order to allow the shading to show through? What do you do when the base coat consists of several colors such as in a camouflage paint scheme?

The model is first painted with a uniform color. Doesn't really matter what. The exception I'd make is probably for white or something like that where coverage is tough. It may make a ton of sense to get a good, solid white coat first, then preshade (you'd want thinner and lighter colors in that case), then white on top. I'm actually planning that for my PV-1 Ventura WIP.

For several coats/camo, unless you're talking mottling or something, I ALWAYS mask. I can get nice demarkation lines, but I use such thin paint that it's hard to keep a consistent line. Even with soft-edge masking (got a few methods I've found work well for that), I shade and paint one color, then mask, then shade and paint the next, rinse and repeat. Works well for me...

You can also be more inventive with it depending on what you're going for.

The overall idea is to provide depth and variation to an otherwise uniform color, laying that complexity in beneath the top coat (then going over with a light hand). I've seen some pretty cool preshades using blues and browns and such underneath greens - or yellow, orange and pink underneath the red of a Japanese hinomaru. I also know some modelers who just paint the whole thing black (or brown or whatever), then just use the top coat to determine what shows through and what doesn't...

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I gathered  that's what it is, but by question is this; Is the model first painted with the selected base color coat, and then a thinner coat of that same base coat applied in order to allow the shading to show through? What do you do when the base coat consists of several colors such as in a camouflage paint scheme?

Nice work Herc! That's much, much better than mine.

In short it is spraying all the panel lines with a dark color prior to the final paint coat.  Pictures below