I'v had this built and sitting in the closet for a few months with just a base coat of reddish rust. I added burnt out wheels by Panzer Art and tried to give it a darker shade of brown. Now I want to give it some lighter "orangy" shade.. I'm using Tamiya paints.. any suggestions which colors I should mix to get an orange shade? Desert yellow + Brown or just plain yellow + brown? Then I'll try to add the black soot and white ash with pigments.

Any suggestions and appreciated.







Hisham

I use Mig bright and standard rust powders - mix with acrylic thinners to make into a paint. As an aside, if I may..? If the vehicle is to be totally burnt out the mantlet cover and rear (rubber) mudguards would be burnt off; as would the rubber fuel hoses. You also seem to be missing a rear bracket on the right fender.

I have MIG pigments.. do you spray that mixture or apply with a brush?

Thanks for pointing out the mudguards. I'm thinking of having the bulk of the burn in the back and I'll give it a desert yellow towards the front.

I have the rear brackets in the box.. I was keeping them to put on at the end.. because if I glue them, then I can't remove the top hull.

Thanks for your advice

Hisham

You have a great start there. I tried doing a burnt out vehicle a while back and I used some clear Tamiya red, orange and yellow along with the MIG Pigments rust colors.

Hisham;

I would start by surfing the web for recent burn-out pics from Iraq, etc. and find examples which look most like what I'm thinking of for the project. Each burn-out is actually sort of unique and the color-range will differ.

I would next head to the paints and a pallet - I imagine that using hull red and tan, light grays, yellows and white could give you a lot of possible fired-rust potential. Depending on the burned hull parts, there could also be some sooting (dark grays and blacks) and some ashing (light grays). Having a couple of nice color burn-out pics on the screen by the pallet as you mix would be good!

PS: I am guessing that the tank is some "enigma" version... I'm naïve about it - but what are all of the boxes supposed to be - I keep thinking reactive explosive armor. Can you find any burn-outs with those still intact? Just asking...

Bob

Hisham,

Lets forego the painting for a bit. THis vehicle is too pristine: what caused the tank to burn out? Bomb hit, shell hit, what?

You need damage. I did a burnt out T-55 last year. My idea was an HE round hit aft of the turret near the road wheels. The resulting explosion blew off the storage boxes, lifted an engine cover, destroyed a couple of track links and burnt off the paint. This was based off images I found on the net of burnt out T-55's and T-62's. Here's a link to what I did.

http://www.plasticarmour.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=583

Once the damage is done, then I would move on to paint.

Steve

Of course I agree with you about the damage. It's just that I didn't start out building it as a destroyed vehicle.. I just thought I'd experiment with the "burned look" after I had already built it.. which is why I'm concentrating on the painting part of it. Anyway, I'll try to do some damage to take care of the "plausibility" part of it

You did a great job on that T-55, by the way.

Hisham

Hey, thanks for the compliment.

Adding damage at this point won't be difficult. A dremel to thin out the fenders, a pair of pliers to bend and tear them, make a hole in the hull and viola!...instant battle damage.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do.

Steve

The blocks are layers of steel plate, air and rubber, so entirely passive. Nothing to be detonated in a fire, so no reason for them not to survive one without external signs of damage.

Painted the front to make it look like the burn was mainly in the rear part.. used the salt chipping technique and gave it a wash, but I guess the wash was too thin.. the effect was too subtle. Maybe I'll give it another coat of wash.

Anyway.. this is an experiment piece.. so, try to forget about the lack of damage and just concentrate on whether the paint job does give it the burned look or not?



Hisham

Looking good, so far.

Don't forget to extend the burnt area up the turret sides, but you're probably already aware of that.

Looking forward to more pics.

Steve

I extended the burn to the side of the turret.. don't know if it looks OK this way.. I'm having trouble with a lot of washes separating and pigments hardening.. Anyway, I think for the next step, I need to put the track links together and paint them. Anyone ever work with MasterClub "Clickable" type tracks? Do they hold together well, or will I need to some glue on them?





Hisham

Check out some of the pics on this page. This guy is one of the best I've ever seen doing destroyed vehicles.

http://ost-front.ru/en/2010/08/27/rob-ferreira/

and here's a couple more. The first one will be of interest in what you're doing.

http://modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/10537/last-year-gleize-stug-iii?page=1&scrollTo=288315

Hisham- just wanted to say what a cracking job you are doing on the Enigma- I'm looking forward to seeing you develop this look further.

Thank you all for all the tips and links.. they've been very helpful

Karl.. thanks a lot for your kind words.. I actually feel that I've bit more than I can chew, but I'm going to keep at it.. at least I'll get enough practice, and for the next burned vehicle, I'll plan it out right from the beginning, with damage and all

Hisham

You're going about it the right way, Hisham. As with any new technique, it'll take time to develop, but you're on the right track with the work you've done so far. Keep it up.

I have crawled over my share of burnt out T55/62/72's Often with a T55/62 the back deck is ajar. When the rounds cook off inside the interior engine access plate is blown into the engine compartment and the force of the rounds cooking off dislodges the back deck or turret. There will be nothing recognizable inside except the breach. Everything inside will be pulverived and burnt to the metal. There will be ash piles where any rubber from the road wheels burnt. Any storage boxes will be open and the contents scattered about if the vehicle has been there very long. Paint scorched by the heat is not black but some other color and the degree of scorching causes different shades of paint. There will be sections of the vehicle that show no damage from the fire. Some thing had to cause the fire in the first place. It is not so interesting if the tank burned because it had a leaky fuel line even though that happened to mine. If it was hit by a SABOT round there will be an entrance and exit hole. If it were hit by a HEAT round there will be only an entrance hole. The type of round leaves it's own characteristic impact hole. Things near the impact point get damaged. Hand rails may have come off, storage box lids damaged, and some parts might knocked off the tank. The torsion bars get too hot and lose their spring effect and the hull may sit lower if it was really hot inside. This makes the track look like it sags too much.