After the tournament at Flameson I'd taken a little time out from painting my Dust Tactics miniatures while I worked on some other projects. But with the upcoming Operation Babylon releases due to arrive in a month or two I figured it was time to get stuck into my NDAK force in preparation for some big games.

The first model I chose to work on is the Horten HO-347, which was the first Dust aircraft released for the Axis. This older variant is currently out of print and can be configured as either the tank-hunting Fledermaus III or the Fledermaus IV bomber.

Step One: Priming and Pre-shading

Firstly I did a little bit of cleanup work on the main fuselage of the model, using some liquid green stuff to fill in some of the assembly gaps and sanding back to get smooth curves on the leading edges of the wings.

I then re-primed the whole model using an airbrush and AK Interactive Grey Primer. As with most primers the trick is to apply a very light coating to begin with, otherwise the surface tension of the primer can break up. Then apply a second coat of primer to get a smooth finish.

The next step is to add some Pre-Shading along the panel lines. This is a technique used by aircraft scale modellers a lot and something which I've been wanting to try out for quite some time.

Using a fine tip on my airbrush and low pressure (10 psi) I carefully painted a thin line of Vallejo Model Air Dark Grey along all the panel lines and into the shaded areas.

This will create natural shading once the basecoat is applied.

Step Two: Base-coating

I did a little bit of online research for the historical camouflage colours for Luftwaffe aircraft used in North Africa and settled on RLM 79 Sandy Brown. I applied this to the top half of the model in several light coats, letting the pre-shading show through.

Step Three: Highlighting

Next I wanted to add some more colour contrast to the base coat with some highlighting or modulation. Rather use the edge highlighting style used by a lot of war gamers I went with a more natural effect.

I mixed a few drops of white into the sandy brown and gave a light spray along the tops of the curved surfaces and in the centre of the flat panels. Once again I worked at a low pressure and with a minimal airflow through the airbrush to get soft, natural transitions.

Step Four: Painting the Underside

I then repeated the process for the underside of the model, having first masked off the edges with some Tamiya masking tape. For the underside I used RLM78 Blue.

Step Five: Applying the Camouflage

Next up it was time to apply the soft edge camouflage pattern, using some Russian Green (RLM80). I also added a little bit of modulation with a lighter green, so that the camouflage was lighter in the same areas as the brown base coat.

Next time I'll go through how to add the panel washes, weathering and markings.