There’s just something about hazard stripes that make models look awesome. Here’s how you can easily paint your dozer blade to look awesome!
Dozer Blades made easy
This technique is easy enough and always gets nice reactions from people. It looks realistic and advanced, but it’s a really simple process that requires no skill at all; only a few fringe (but easy to find) products and an airbrush.
Step 1 and 2
Black Undercoat and Silver Basecoat
You can do both with shaker cans; or use your airbrush for the silver. For these guys I went with a shaker can, but if you’re airbrushing silver on your models, go with that instead.
Whichever method you chose, go lightly with the silver to leave some black showing through. This will add contrast to the final result.
Step 3
Varnish. A lot of people don’t realize this, but it’s perfectly fine to paint over varnish. It just serves as a protector for the coats we already have. It will allow us to use different products and techniques that might otherwise damage them.
Again, I like the shaker can to save time. Lay on a nice coat of varnish on your models. I am a big fan of the Anti Shine spray from Army Painter.
Step 4
Hairspray. Regular hairspray. This is a technique by itself that you can learn more about here.
As with most un-hobby products (stuff that’s not meant for hobby-ing originally) I tend to get the most generic brand/flavor available.
Make sure you cover pretty much everything with 2-3 light coats.
For steps 5 to 7, you really need an airbrush or at the very least a spray gun.
Step 5
Black
Lay on a thin coat of black on the front of the blade.
Highlight that by adding some Bone color to you black.
The key of this step is thin coats. Putting on too much paint will not work with the later steps, plus, using two thin coats of paint will make Duncan proud of us.
Step 6
Masking
Wait for your black to settle, then mask off hazard stripe patterns (or whatever shape and design you want, really. I like this simple diagonal)
Two tips for this step:
1- You really dont need to make them perfect, you can fix lazy masking later.
2- Find tape the of the correct size. Cutting through your masking tape to make it thinner is nasty and time consuming, so I advise against it.
Tamiya offers a few sizes perfect for hobby projects.
Step 7
Yellow. I like off yellow for this, as it feels more construction color. My favorite is Zamesi Desert, with bone added to the color for the highlight.
Again, you want to work with thin coats of paint here.
Spray away, and remove the masking right away ( its better to remove the mask before the paint dries )
Step 8
Large Flat Brush and Water.
Brush on a coat of water over the entire dozer blade. Then, using a downward motion with your brush, wipe away the water. You will see the black and yellow come off with it in patches.
Keep doing this and brushing on the parts where you want to remove the paint. You can be a little more insistent here and there. I really like random patterns and a really weathered bottom. This is where realisme comes in, as the lower teeth are where the dozer blade would hit the ground and debris, destroying the paint there.
You can add water to your brush and/or wipe away the excess water on your model with a paper towel to get the correct wet/dry ratio to work on. Be gentle when wiping away or you may end up removing a chunk of paint. This happens to the best of us.
Step 9
Varnish once the previous step has fully dried. I like to wait a solid 3 hours at least for the water to be completely evaporated.
This step of varnish is to prevent more hairspray to lift while we add paint on top of it.
Step 10
Final Weathering
Oil paint get the best results here, but you can add weathering with shades, washes and regular paint. Really, whatever you like. Here I used Burnt Umber oil paint.
This step blends everythig together, so it’s important not to skip it.
