Well, I got the hull and the road wheels painted. I used Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black for the rubber part of the wheels, then I used a circle template to paint the inner part XF-61 Dark Green, which is the same color I used for the hull. I really like how the color looks. I think I made a good choice using Tamiya paints for my first go with airbrushing - and airbrushing acrylics at that - because they seem to be very forgiving. The same can be said about using Iwata airbrushes. I used the HP-M2 for the hull with the nozzle set almost full open. I ran the psi at about 18. I thinned at about a 1:1 ratio, which was pretty thin - like skim milk. It started to splatter a bit on the first trigger presses, but then I remembered a couple things: the paint was very thin, and I had the brush pointed downward with the nozzle wide open. I also remembered the Iwata instructions saying to close the nozzle if setting the brush down with paint in it. So, I simply made sure that I didn't tip the nozzle downward in between passes, and shortly thereafter, the splattering stopped completely. I also ran some alcohol and water through the brush before I added the paint, so there may have been some droplets left over from that
Here's the results I got so far. I did the road wheels first, and I think they may need another coat. I really like this color. It's pretty much exactly what I had envisioned for this M113. Getting close to the finish line!
