Model Color - Black & White Set

From black to white in eight steps

A basic palette that suits any scale and any subject: black, dark gray, neutral gray, earth brown, a German Second World War camouflage beige tone, a warm deck wood shade, ivory and white. Between the extremes the sequence is smooth, so depth and light can be built up without mixing further bottles.

The whole eight aim at the procedure known as underpainting in gray. First a dark base is laid down, then the areas are lightened in layers toward white, and only at the end comes the covering shade thinned to semi-transparency. Beneath the surface a drawing of light then remains, which an even coat in a single tone can never give.

Typical use: modulation of large areas of a fuselage or a hull, bringing out rivets and panel joints, smoke streaks behind exhausts, fading of tarpaulins and covers, dust settled in the running gear. The warm tones of ivory and wood push the cold gray toward the look of used equipment, and the earth brown is a good springboard for muddy pools.

Properties: water-thinnable acrylics in dropper bottles, so they can be measured out drop by drop and the mixing ratio repeated. They dry matte, they are worked with a brush, and once thinned with an airbrush as well. Paints from this set of eight will not be used up on one model; they will last as a permanent part of the workbench.

A neutral scale is at the same time the best practice material you can get. Anyone still learning to control air pressure and the degree of thinning will see every irregularity on a smooth transition between gray and white sooner than on a colorful camouflage, where the color hides it.