Going Digital with Dropzone Commander

Recently one of my friends (Jeff over at Adeptus Malaysia put up this post) showing off  a really nice Dropzone Commander test model he had airbrushed up using a series of home made "hexocam" masks. My DZC stuff has been sitting in a box as I had consistently failed to come up with a camo scheme I really liked. I have two models sitting in Simple Green at home from failed experiments already.

Jeff was kind enough to send me down a set of his masks to have a play with and they are fantastic (although Jeff did make it sound way easier than it was). I undercoated the tank Black, then progressively sprayed Dark Grey (which I will swap out for a Dark Geen), Light Grey and Buff over the vehicle, adding more masks as I went in an effort to duplicate the current US Universal Camo Pattern. My intent once the masks were removed was to varnish it, pin wash it, paint the details and done.... 

In reality, once I removed the masks I found that some of the tape managed to pull away all the paint, right down to the resin. So this tank has joined its platoon mates in the Simple Green!

I am going to try something a little different next time around and wash the resin more throughly (I normally dont bother but I think it may be worth it in this case), do a couple of undercoats with plenty of curing time, and then give the tank a light gloss varnish to try to seal everything in. I also need to put twice the number of masks on as even though I thought I was putting a lot on, once I removed them I realised I need many many more.

However I am pleased with the result and need to try the Universal Camo 2.0 test so I can make these a fun Christmas project..