German Tank Crew Highlights II

German Tank Crew Highlights II - a Vallejo acrylic paint, the Panzer Aces line

A bottle of acrylic paint of the Panzer Aces line, that is of the group of shades Vallejo put together around painting the crews of armored vehicles. The Roman numeral in the name matters: the group of lightening shades for German crews has several members and the number says which of them it is. That is exactly why it pays to order by the whole name including the numeral, because the paints differ from each other by a fine shift of tone which on a finished figure settles whether a transition looks natural.

How the shade is worked with

• The lightening is laid only onto a dry base. The most usual procedure is in two steps: a first, gentler lightening over the whole lit areas, a second only on the highest edges and the tops of folds.
• You will soften the transition between tones by mixing an intermediate step from the base and the lightening on a palette, because the dropper in the bottle allows the ratio to be measured out drop by drop and repeated next time.
• The paint has a thick consistency for a brush. If you want to spray it, thin it with a thinner for acrylics, because water alone weakens the binder.
• Lay on thin coats and let them dry through between one another. Acrylic dries quickly on a figure, but full curing takes longer and a fresh coat is easily smeared when painted over.
• Shake the bottle before every use, because settled pigment will otherwise give weaker and uneven coverage.

Who the paint is for

For modelers who work with layering light and shade on the figures beside armored vehicles and want the steps of lightening ready from a bottle instead of mixing by hand with white, which needlessly fades and bleaches a tone. For a beginner who paints a figure in a single flat coat this shade will bring no benefit yet.

A water-thinnable acrylic. Work in a ventilated room and store the paint out of the reach of children. The volume of the package and the exact shade are not stated here; if you need an exact match with another finish, please check it beforehand.