The gang is getting ready for some action (Patreon)

My friends, two days have passed, two videos have been edited, and today means it's time to start painting figures! 

Let me start with the most exciting part, I'll be painting them with an airbrush! Not entirely of course, it's gonna be a combination of airbrushed lights and shadows (just like post shading on tanks!) and then brush painted details and very fine outlining and refining of those dark and light spots. 

I was very nervous before committing to it, because I haven't sprayed Vallejo paints in years, but they thin and spray very well with Lifecolor acrylic thinner. 

And the best part? It all works like a system. I can try mixing an appropriate base color + lights + shadows on a wet palette, check if it looks good and then repeat the mixing process in the airbrush. Once I'm done spraying, I can get back to the wet palette and use the same paints to emphasize the airbrushed surface. Neat! (You can see the difference between airbrushed pants and additional contrast added with a brush in photos 4 and 5). 

Masking individual pieces of clothing should be pretty easy with Panzer Putty, or in my case, Mr. Hyde Putty from MRP. 

Of course I'll get to "cheating" with oil paints in the end, again to stress out the deepest crevices and outlines, because hey, it's easy and it works! 

So stoked about this process, I'd love to continue tonight but it's getting very late and I don't want to make noise with the compressor, but I'll damn sure get back to it first thing in the morning!