Beginner's Hex Camo follow-along.

Hi! I've been trying out a new paint scheme recently while working on the Dark Hound and I thought that I should document the process for people who may be interested. It's a fairly simple spray pattern that can be done either via airbrush or spraycan, though I opted for the former since it's what I have on hand.

To start off, you'll need the following:

Left: Blue (22), Right: Gray (24)

Since I planned on using an analogous color scheme for the camo I went with two contrasting shades of the same color, in this case a light gray (Gundam Color Gray 24) and a dark gray (Gundam Color Blue 22)

Useful for making detailing out of pla plate as well. 

Next, to make the actual hexagons I utilized this plastic template. 

And then of course the Masking tape. you can use painter's tape or tamiya tape for better results. Again, i'm just working with what I got on hand.

Now the tedious work begins. First, before painting you should select the size of the hexagon "cells" you'll be using, and repeatedly draw it with a mechanical pencil onto some masking tape strips you laid out. How many you'll need is up to your preference. This is probably the most boring part of the entire process but absolutely necessary. 

You can see at which point I just gave up. 

Then you need to prep the piece you'll work on. this involves washing, and some cleaning up with putty and sandpaper if it comes to it. 

Now after priming it, you then need to spray the lighter color on first, as in the case for this demonstration, since the cells will stick out more on the  darker second coat (but of course if you want to do it in the reverse it's your call).

Now the fun part. Here is where you cut out the cells you drew earlier with the template and begin to stick them onto the part. It's important to keep some spacing between the cells, this helps you make the placement look more organized even though you're going for a more randomized pattern and also makes your placement look more natural. It also helps reduce the visibility of the uneven sides of the cut cells (cutting manually means that getting the same, evenly sided cells is very difficult to achieve. In reality you will only end up with cells that are 80% the same.). 

Afterwards, you spray on the next darker coat. Once dry you'll then peel off the cells to reveal the Hex camo pattern underneath. 

This applies to a lot of colors, even red. I find an analogous color scheme looks better than a heavily contrasting one, and looks better on the model as a design choice. Though as actual camouflage it won't actually work too well. 

And that's about it! Remember to keep experimenting and have fun, and if you're having any questions or suggestions feel free to drop me a line here.

I''ll be finishing up the Dark Hound Crossbone colors soon enough!