Architectural Models
When we’re satisfied that our airbrush work is done to our
clients’ standards, we finish our buildings by installing “glass”,
usually represented by box cutter-scored polycarbonate.
On models scaled 1/16”=1’-0” or larger, we prefer to enhance
window detail by applying masking film to the clear material,
stripping out mullions using a blade and airbrushing enamel
to the glass surface. Fogging white enamel to the back side
of the glass makes the material read as if it’s sandblasted.
Shooting colored enamel to the back side reads through as
an opaque spandrel. The unpainted front side with its painted
mullion pattern still reads as glass. These airbrush applica-
tions, when used carefully and specifically, can impart a great
complexity to the building design and serve to enhance photo-
graphic and presentation detail.
Buildings are then massed out in styrene sheet in preparation
Finally, we’ll add our landscaping, trees, vehicles and scale
for priming and painting. Latex is the favored paint material
figures and finish up any overlooked or enhancement details.
not only due to ease of matching design specifications but also
Scale figures and vehicles are typically made of white injection-
due to the fact that flat latex is totally non-reflective, making it
molded styrene, so we’ll shoot the vehicles with Testor’s enam-
ideal as a model building finish for presentation photography.
el and follow up with a glossy clear coat. Metallic paints look
Clear gloss acrylic or enamel can easily be loaded and shot
terrific on styrene, so we’ll add to our vehicle mix some steel or
to create reflectivity from such materials as painted metal,
chrome paints, shot without primer or clear coat.
glazed ceramics or wet/polished stone.
Copper is another good option for vehicles, if it works in with
the six or seven other vehicle colors in our mix. Copper paint
Painting buildings, usually done before “installing” glass, often
over scored styrene makes a terrific standing-seam copper
requires the application of multiple colors. I like to work from
roof, especially when you overspray a mist of dilute latex green
light to dark and in most cases the building will be designed
or aqua to simulate copper patina.
with the greatest surface area as the lightest. This isn’t always
the case, though, and sometimes the major building surfaces
Finished projects using the Paasche VL:
need a dark finish and lighter colored trim.
In either case, a great deal of very tedious masking needs to be
done between coats of different colors. At times, when shoot-
ing a dark base coat, masking of surface details like window
or door trim, eaves or rake edges needs to be followed by a
white primer coat to avoid application of multiple coats of the
lighter trim color. With many, often minute surface details in
architectural model construction, it’s smart to minimize the
number of airbrushed paint coats to avoid distorting fine edg-
es and textures.
We also do a little camouflage routine when we airbrush our
building and ground plane surfaces. This is accomplished, as
you might expect, by adjusting our airbrush pressure down
and applying a spatter overspray. This hides surface flaws
and allows us an opportunity to modify a surface color, warm-
ing or cooling the hue or imparting a pebbled texture to an
otherwise featureless wall or ground element. To achieve a
First Magnus Bank, Tucson, AZ.
rougher overspray texture, sometimes we’ll take the Paasche
Kevin B. Howard Architects, Inc.
metal protective cap, drill a larger hole in its tip, place it on our
This model, in airbrushed styrene and foam was finished in
airbrush and shoot our preferred media through it. It may
steel Testor’s paint and
take some trial and error to get the hole sized correctly, but
latex. Glass was done in scored reflective film on black styrene
it’s more precise than loading up an old toothbrush and flicking
and airbrushed mullion on tinted acrylic.
the paint toward your carefully constructed model.
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