How would you approach painting this Su-35 camouflage? Use stencils?
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I’d use that rolled up white tack I see folks use.
Kitty Hawk model has 642 parts! Don’t think I want to tackle that.
The blue/tinted metal….no idea.
Everything else looks like expert airbrush shading plus washes and oil weathering.
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Metal has probably been tinted with inks.
Rest of it looks like dark pre-shading and airbrushing of progressively lighter coats of blue-grey. Wash, oils, maybe some weathering pigments?
A little overdone for my tastes, but I have seen Russian aircraft looking tatty in photos. The red stars look a bit bright against all that fading. Maybe could’ve been toned down to bring it together?
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Agreed over done for my taste as well, markings (decals) look like they were applied after the weathering stage.
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Looking at it, the wing stars do like they’ve had a dark wash applied. But still a little too bright. Needed fading to tie them in with the faded and patchy paint of the wings and upper fuselage.
The one in the first image is more to my tastes. I’ve always thought the Flanker was a good looking jet and I wouldn’t spoil those looks with too much grime.
I’ve no doubt though, that somewhere in Russia there is an SU-35 looking that sorry for itself. It’s well done and whoever did it has shown far better airbrush control than I’m capable of.
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Hey Rob and fellow modelers,
To get a hard-edged camo I’d use Tamiya’s flexible masking tape. For a softer edge, you can try free-handing with an airbrush, but practice first. If you don’t feel like that (because it is never easy) you could use white tack as has been suggested. Try rolling it into thin strips demarcating the different colours and spraying directly from above. Mask off areas with tape to avoid overspray.
As for the dirty grey version, it seems to be a representation of this aircraft:
It looks to me as if the builder used a whole range of techniques, possibly including pre-shading, post-shading, and washes, plus the others suggested here. The only way to know for sure is to ask the modeler if you can.
I hope that helps.
With best wishes,
Steve.
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