Scurvy Green

A sick green with a yellow core

Scurvy Green owes its name to scurvy and the shade confirms it: this is a green pulled toward yellow, without the freshness of a leaf and without the coolness of conifer needles. It is used on the skin of the undead and of swamp creatures, on mildew, on weathered copper and on the lights above a darker green, where it is meant to suggest something unhealthy. In a transition from green to bone white it serves as an intermediate stage that takes the sharpness out of the transition.

A retarder and why it is useful

Spraying green transitions means many very thin coats, and the paint dries faster than you can get around the area. That is exactly what a retarder is for, a product that slows the drying and leaves a coat open for longer. It is added by the drop and in a small amount, or the film will stay soft for a long time and fingers will press into it. For comparison: a thinner lowers the thickness, a retarder leaves it alone and changes only the time.

Before you start and before you finish

Before spraying, the model has to be glued, the joints filled and the surface degreased. Degreasing is often underrated, yet fingerprints from handling are the commonest cause of a coat not holding in some places. Choose a medium or light ground; on a black one the green would lose its poisonousness. When the work is finished, seal the surface with varnish and rinse the airbrush out with a cleaner, or the remains of the pigment will dry in the channel.

The shade suits combining with pigments particularly well. Dry green powder applied to a sprayed coat that is still damp creates a matte mildew of a kind that cannot be achieved by spraying alone, and the rest can be swept off with a brush once it is dry.