Field applied camouflage (Patreon)

(Patreon was broken and wouldn't upload pictures, but seems to be working now)

My friends, here's my attempt at the hastily applied DAK Yellow Brown. The historical photo shows how roughly it was painted, and it wasn't easy to figure out the best approach. After multiple tests, I decided that a mottled, semi-translucent coverage would nicely capture the essence of it, yet remain interesting to look at. After all, painting something to look crappy on purpose isn't easy! You can either botch it just like in real life but it'll definitely look bad, or try a few tricks and make it look as if you botched it with the intention of botching it! :D Anyway, you can try to mimic the real thing as closely as possible, or make your own interpretation that captures its basic look while making it more interesting to look at. Of course, replicating the random pattern precisely is something only an airbrush master would attempt, and I'm definitely not that - and I'd like to preserve my sanity!

But how would you post-shade it? Well, in my opinion, the translucent coverage takes care of that. You can build up the opacity wherever you need, letting the Panzer Grey underneath do the shading for you. To achieve this, and to make the color transitions as smooth as possible without sputtering, I mixed a very diluted DAK Yellow Brown with a small amount of Buff and a lot of clear varnish. To enhance the improvised look, I sprayed the mortar in the cradle, and in a horizontal position.

Of course, I had to make some corrections with the basic dark grey, but this was applied totally diluted, and I just used it to enhance the shading - darkening the camouflage in shadowed areas, and around panel lines and details.

Also, the decals were quite thick and sturdy, but after some hammering with a stiff brush and decal softener, they look pretty good. The model is now completely sealed with VMS Satin varnish and ready for weathering!

PS: I wanted to make this video ready as an early release for today, but because I just left the workbench, it won't be ready at the usual time. However, I don't think it's necessary to skip an entire week because of this, so I'll release it as soon as possible - sometime tomorrow!