A quick little update (mainly pics). I’m undercoated the Ke-Ho in grey and then done some shading. I’m using a technique called colour modulation. This technique involves creating exaggerating highlights and darks in the early stages. At the early stage it can look a little goofy, as it over-emphasises natural lighting and makes it look way to harsh. As later stages and weathering are applied they tone things down and make it look a lot more reasonable. One of my earlier models (the Dust Heavy Tank) used this technique and it doesn’t look too crazy. The colour modulation technique is taken from plastic modellers and a quick tutorial can be found here from one of the earlier practitioners.

There are a few ways to get this technique and one is to pre-shade with black and white while undercoating. When the base layers are applied thin layers will ensure the pre-shading still shows through. With that in mind the following pics show how the undercoat on the Ke-Ho. The white is not very visible on the grey, but the upper edges have had it applied.

I’ve also put the actual colours down and they don’t look too bad. I’m glad I’ve gone with the more yellow stripes, as otherwise they do really disappear. The only decision left is whether to do soft or hard edges. Soft is historically accurate (at least for WW2), but in general I prefer the softer edges. It’s also easier to not mask (hard edges would be prepared). Anyway the next picture shows the actual paints (the yellow line is a little thin in parts, but look at the brighter spots for the actual colour). It’s also a little yellow (the white balance is off).