BRITISH UNIFORM BASE – FIGURES

British Uniform Base - acrylic for figures, AK interactive 3rd Generation

A bottled water-thinnable acrylic from the 3rd Generation Acrylic range, from the subrange put together for painting figures. The word Base in the name says what role the shade has: it is the bottom, unifying layer of the uniform, over which shadow and highlight are only then worked. The paint is thinned with water or with the acrylic thinner of the same brand and the brushes are washed in water while the paint is still wet.

The shade and where it comes into its own

A khaki with an earthy, slightly brownish undertone, that is, the tone of woolen cloth, not a fresh green. On a figure it makes the continuous surface of the blouse and the trousers. Because it is a middle tone, you can move from it in both directions: adding a darker brown gives a shadow variant for the folds, adding a light beige gives lightening on the stretched surfaces. It is exactly these three layers that give a figure an impression of scale; a flat base color alone looks lifeless.

Airbrush: preshading under the base coat

On figures it pays to prepare the shadows before the uniform color comes. On a primed model, spray a dark tone into all the recesses, folds and places under belts and straps, then let it dry and apply this base color over it heavily thinned, in several misted passes. The dark base will stay showing through exactly where the shadow should be, and the transitions will form by themselves, with no hand mixing. The key is not to hurry and not to flood the preshading with one heavy coat.

Who the paint is for

• modelers of British figures in scales from 1:35 up
• those who build a uniform from the base coat toward shadow and highlight
• airbrush users working with preshading
• modelers who prefer thinning and cleaning with water

Keep out of the reach of children, work in a ventilated area and shake the bottle thoroughly before use.