Hand painting 1/72 scale

Both airbrushing and hand brushing take some skill.  To acquire that skill without ruining expensive models, you can practice on scrap plastic.

I maintain that doing a good hand-brushed finish is actually harder than airbrushing, and takes longer than developing airbrushing skills.  Flat finishes can be mastered more easily than gloss finishes.  Fortunately, armor models seem to take hand brushing more readily than some other genres of models.

Bit of a guide here, entailing 20 steps. 

http://www.scalemodelguide.com/painting-weathering/painting-guide/painting-sequence/#

Don't have to include them all, maybe use a few on your first build and progress from there?  

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An airbrush isn't necessary for the scale, but more for the final finish you want to achieve.  I will admit that for me the airbrush does help avoid build up of paint, particulalry small details like screens on the engine deck. 

regards,

Jack

Thanks for the tips and guide.

Since this is my first build, I found a less expensive T-34/85 at my local model store. I want to give hand painting a go for the first couple builds and if I enjoy it and want to continue, I'll get into airbrushing (all the while building less expensive kits).

As my skills increases, then I'll get nicer kits and a nice airbrush.

When I was younger all I did was handbrush my models until I got an airbrush and what a difference.  For basic painting airbrushing produces a much nicer model but does take practice.  This last year I gave up my airbrush and went back to handbrushing, much harder to obtain good results.  I have painted a dozen or so models and my skills get better each time.  I use Testors enamels and I have to thin them to brush smooth but they take a while to dry. Acrylics brush better but I like the look of enamel paint. Also I spray primer first then hand brush.

The drying time with enamels is indeed off-putting.  I built a simple drying box using a 40W incandescent bulb and it works fine.  Instead of 2-3 days to dry, it dries in 4-5 hours.