BANDAI AT-M6

[Popeborg]

Hello all, let me preface this by saying I am new here and to building models and painting them. Any advice towards these subjects would be greatly appreciated.

I am somewhat limited to what paints and resources I have to work with.

First I primed it with a Krylon black gloss coat. I don't have any pictures of that. Just primer so nothing to crazy.

After that I gave it a coat of Krylon Pewter Grey. Then I assembled the model together.


I tried to use an airbrush and hit some areas to make it looked weathered. My airbrush skills are terrible. I'm still learning on how much I need to thin the paints, I thought I had vallejo model air but apparently I was sent model color instead. Anyways it turned out like garbage.



After battling with my paint being too thick and clogging my gun and spending far to long figuring out what went wrong I gave up. It wasn't turning out how I wanted it to anyways. So I decided to just try and use some black oil paint and weather it that way.




Please bear(rawr) in mind that I am not a photographer nor do I know how to properly light my models. When I used the flash on my phone you could really see the oil paint on the model and it made it look horrible. I tried my best to take some decent pictures of it. Overall for being my first model I painted I am rather proud of it. There are some spots I missed in the nook and crannies but I can live with that. The oil paint weathering was so simple and effective.

Now if anyone could help me out should I do a clear coat? And, am I using that term properly. I have watched a lot of videos and I hear a lot of terms like clear coat, lacquer, varnish and I'm confused on what they all are. Are they all a clear coat, and clear coat is just like a generic term for a protective layering? Or are they all different, which I think they are but when is what one useful? Also, when should I use a matte, or a gloss? I understand matte you get a muted, or a non-shiny finish like you would with a gloss but is there a general rule of thumb for when to use them? Or is it just personal preference on how you want your finished model to look?

Sorry, asked a lot there at the end. I do plan on making a little diorama for it. Just need to wait until I have some money to go buy the necessary accoutrement. Any advice or criticism would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Analyzer]

IMHO, you only need a clear coat if you will be painting it again with acrylics or need to put decals on it after doing the oils

The reason for that is because you need a layer that those can over instead of the oils. Basically I do it in between "incompatible" layers.
In your case, you might have done a clear gloss coat on the initial airbrush paint layer before adding oils.
The gloss will help the oils not stick on the raised areas and settle into the recesses easier.
Without that clear coat you sometimes get a staining effect on your base layer or depending on the thinner you use for the oils, it could remove some of the paint.

Personally I like the staining effect so I do not clear coat before doing oil washes

If you are done with painting, there is no need to clear coat it. One exception might be if there is a bit of a shine from the oils and you want to dull it down, then you can use a matte clear coat

As far as the paint in the airbrush, I find even when using something like Vallejo Air, you still need to add some airbrush thinner. If using the Vallejo paints, I would stick with the Vallejo thinner. You paint should be the consistency of "skim milk"

It just takes practice with that part before you get a feel for the right mix

As far as the diorama, I found the Micromachine Kylo Ren shuttle and AT-AT to be close enough size wise if you are looking for other vehicles to fill it out (note none of these are painted yet, these are how they come)

 

[Riceball]

You didn't do too bad of a job, there's not a lot you can really do for weathering at that scale. The only thing that I'd recommend is dry brushing it a bit so that some of the more raised areas are kind of highlighted a bit. But I'd go over it very lightly with very little paint on the brush so it doesn't cover too much of the darker tones.

 

[Popeborg]

Analyzer Thanks for the advice and helping clear up about clear coating. I'll look into those micromachine toys to help with a diorama. I wouldn't have really thought about other toys.

Riceball I'll give it a shot. It won't hurt to try it out. Thats kinda why I picked up some of these cheaper kits to experiment on. I won't get better without trying.