Paint Set - Desert Camo

The desert has more colors than it seems

In a photograph from a desert campaign everything looks equally beige, but that is only the veil of the sun. Underneath it hides a whole range of tones: fresh paint pulls toward yellow, after a few weeks in the sun it fades to a grayish cast, dust from another region adds a pink tinge, and the shadow on the lower surfaces stays surprisingly cool. A modeler who mixes a single sand color and sprays it on flat loses all that depth.

A breakdown of the shades

The set holds the Mustard Yellow, the warmer yellow tone Valkyrie Yellow, the sand shade Sandstorm, the field brown English Field-Brown, the more saturated green tone Rocket Green and the flesh shade Pecatum Flesh. It is the last two that tend to be a surprise: the green serves to break a coat that has gone too orange and to shade vegetation in an oasis, and the flesh color is intended for the faces and hands of the crew, which most desert sets overlook.

Usage tips

It pays to leave the darkest tone at the bottom and the lightest at the top, that is to respect the sunlight, which in the desert comes down almost vertically. Dust is applied only after the surface has been evened out with a matte varnish, otherwise it bites into it and cannot be wiped off. The paints are water-thinnable and tolerate both an airbrush and a brush; they suit soft plastic as well as printed and resin parts. For a faded surface it is enough to add a little of the sand color to each tone and apply the resulting mix in thin translucent coats over the most sun-struck surfaces.