A bit more progress on the E-8 tonight: I’ve put on all the base colours.

I used a grey primer as that’s what looked best when I did some test sprays on a piece of cardboard.  Then came a layer of Deck Tan (VMC 70986).  I use an airbrush for this type of painting and I find a 50:50 mix makes most of the Vallejo Model Colours the right consistency.  However, they are each a little different, but as a guide you’re aiming for full cream milk consistency.

Once that was done I used an assortment of greys to pick out the details. The front nose-cone and radar protrusion were both painted in white (VMC 70951) with a touch of sky grey (VMC 70989) mixed in. This is done to make the white slightly less harsh. At this scale white and black look out of place and really jump out. Instead very light greys (or very dark greys) should be used in place. I believe this is because when you see an object at 1:600 scale you are usually quite some distance away and the atmosphere between yourself and the object gets in the way and softens the colours. For most colours this is not a huge problem as everything is close enough. However, black and white are the extremities and so don’t look right unless dulled down a little.

Following on from the previous colour I used German Grey (VMC 70995), a very dark grey, to paint the windows, anti-glare coating on the nose and the tail stripe. The tail stripe actually contains yellow text naming the plane. However at this scale this is barely noticeable and so I’ve skipped this.

The last area I detailed were the engines. First I used some black shade (VGC 73201) inside the actual engine to bring out the fan blade details. Then some medium sea grey (VMC 70870) was painted on the front intakes. On the actual plane this is a metallic colour. However, once again we need to consider our scale and we want to avoid metallic paints which will just look odd. Lastly the rear parts of the engine were painted Luftwaffe Uniform Grey (VMS 70816), a darker grey, to represent to raw metal that has been discolour by soot. I will be doing some more work to subtly weather this area once all the painting and markings are done, but for now we will leave it be.

That’s the base colours done. The simplicity of the original mean this is pretty quick and to be honest the photos and this post took more time. However I’m waiting for decals so there’s no rush. The next stages will be a gloss varnish and then a wash into the panel lines. To keep anyone who is following occupied here are some of the picture references I used.

• Good top view from Aircraft Information.
• Good underside view from airliners.net.
• Good front and side views from Aviation Explorer.
• View of the engines from airliners.net.
• View of the tail from airliners.net.