Marder III M

Welcome to the forum, I can only echo what has been suggested above.... Good luck

Welcome Rommel. As far as what to do, well it's going to come down to you really. Trial and error will decide what works best for you but if you decide on a particular course, by all means we'll help. I do my camo's freehand but other's like to use a soft mask or hard mask so it's hard to say so it this way. One suggestion though that's pretty rule of thumb. When painting camo's, spray your lightest color first and work to the darkest. So Dunkelgelb, then Red then Green on the Marder. That shows the least overspray that way.

Petbat and Lizardqing gave 2 good examples of a soft mask. A hard mask would be taping a mask or something similar.

The best thing is to try one way this time, and another on your next model to see what works for you. And once you decide what to try, let us know, we'll be glad to offer more opinions!

Eric

Rommel. Base coat Dunkel Gelb then spray the 'outlined' colour as a complete blob. Then spray the centre colour over the blob making sure you leave enough colour around the edges. If you use a your airbrush with low pressure and hold the tip close to the model you will get better results. To prevent splatter, hold a piece of paper in one hand beside where you want to paint and start spraying on that. Then move onto the kit.

If you are worried about overspray here is another way to do it. Firstly get some tracing paper (available from stationary shops). It is see through. Trace the outline of the main hull components (side shields etc). Then using a dark felt tip pen make the outline darker and then outline where you want the blobs to go. Then draw in the inner blobs a few millimeters inside the main blob. Take the completed sheet off to be photocopied and then cut out the main shapes leaving a little edge to catch overspray. Then cut out the centre blobs on one sheet and the larger blobs on the other. Now you have what are called masks. Use a little silly putty to hold the large blob paper mask in place so it is a couple of millimeters off the surface. Keeping it off the surface will give you a soft feathered edge when you spray, but don't spray too much paint or it will just run down the side of the kit. When that is dry, just position the mask with the smaller blobs over where the larger mask was and spray in that colour. You still have to spray in the smaller hard to get to places, but the results are good.

Hope this helps

First off, welcome to the forum.
It looks like the camo is a soft edge type , which means free hand is the best way to go about it. You could try masking with silly putty and as you paint the edges , angle the spray at the masking so that a bit gets up under the putty which will create that soft edge look.

Well then... it looks like you'd paint one of the three colors as the overall base color. Then come back with another color in small geo-morphous 'shapes'. Then 'outline' the shapes with the third color. I'd say the 'shapes' and the 'outline' would most likely sprayed on freehand.

HTH
Glenn

I know, but since the Marder was a brainchild of fighting in Russia I want to go with either of the Easter Front camo patterns. Besides, the challenge is part of the deal.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Rommel27 Anyway, I recently bought Tamiya's Marder III type M anti-tank gun, and I would like tips on how to paint it. For one, the camo scheme is very complex. The most complex I've ever tried to do, so I'm not sure what is the best way to do it. Should I mask or do it freehand? I don't know. Here's where you guys come in. All sugestions and tips are welcome.

Hey Rommel27-
You do know that you don't have to choose the box-art camo scheme. It does look like a tough one to do. The instructions do show a simple two-color scheme for the 348th Tank Destroyer Battalion which would be much less work.

My 2 cents...
Glenn