Acrysion - smaragdově zelená

Emerald, not olive

Emerald green is the color of a precious stone, not of a camouflage paint. It has saturated color with a blue undertone and on a model it behaves the opposite way to military greens: it is not meant to blend into its surroundings but to be seen. It is at home on car bodies, motorcycles, helmets, on machines from comic and gaming subjects and on accessories where green is meant to read as paintwork rather than as camouflage.

The base decides

Greens that look translucent are sensitive to what lies beneath. Over a light base they light up, over a dark one they darken into bottle green. When you want depth and glow at the same time, spray a white base, a thin coat of the green over it, and build the strength of the tone by the number of passes rather than by the consistency of the paint.

Work and clean-up

The thinner is water, so the smell of solvents is gone and the tools can be flushed out at once. The pigment settles, so the contents have to be stirred thoroughly every time. For a level surface with no brush strokes, spraying in weak coats is the surest route.

The marks on the packaging

At the top is the number of the shade, in the middle its name. On the left you will find the gloss level and on the right the recommended field of use. Shades tied to a particular kind of hardware also carry the country and the period, and with general colors this part is missing.

Setting the airbrush

Paintwork surfaces punish both too low a pressure and too great a distance of the nozzle. The paint then lands half dry and the surface roughens into the texture known as orange peel. A shorter distance and a higher pressure give a smoother film. A test spray on a spoon or on a piece of scrap plastic settles that question in a moment.