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Building a B1 Centauro

Weathering
I've never been a fan of over weathered modeld, and you can better understand what I mean reading the outstanding Paul Owen's Wheathering Heresies feature here on Armorama.
What I do is to start with a selective wash of burnt sienna and lamp black (both oils from the Winsor & Newton range) thinned, at least at 80%, with Zippo Lighter Fuel (if I have to work indoors - this tip came from someone here at Armorama but I cannot remember his name or Essence F - don't ask me what it is I buy it in France...) or white spirit (if I can work outdoors) on the inset areas, panel lines, engine grills, crevices and around nuts and bolts. After this I gave a couple of coats of Hobby Color's acrylic Matt Clear to seal the wash and to prepare the model for a filter. A filter is something similar to a wash but I give it on the whole model to give a different shade to the camo colour and to help "blending" the wash into the camo. In this case the filter was Winsor & Newton Olive Green oil thinned at least at 98% in white spirit. It is important not to soak the model with it but just applying it with a humid round and soft paintbrush. A good explanation on what a filter is and how to do apply is available in this Miguel "Mig" Jimenez article.
Then I allowed the filter to dry overnight before proceeding with the dry-brush that was done in two stages, just to give more light to the raised detais and the other parts who need it. The first stage was done with a mix of Olive Green, Naples Yellow and Titanium White (oils always from Winsor & Newton) the second, more selective, using only Olive Green and Titanium White. Why oils? Becoming old and boring I prefer to work with something I can have the best control over it. In case of errors or problems, I can easily blend the effect with the rest of the model, just remove the excess or unwanted effect just rubbing it away with a dry cloth or, as last resort, dipping the cloth in white spirit.
After the drybrush is completed, I just put a tiny spot of Naples Yellow it the middle of the panels and with a paintbrush dipped into white spirit I blend it towards the edges of the panel. In this way I achieve the same results as paint a "could" with a lighter shade of the base colour on the panels with the airbrush.
The last step of the weathering is to use the "pigments" to reproduce the dust on the model. Once more I buy my pigments at the local art crafts store because they cost a fraction of the dedicated ones I find at hobby stores, and mixing them I can obtain as many shades of colours I want. For the model I applied the pastel just of out the jar, without any thinning, in light progressive layers, using a flat soft paintbrush for the application and to remove the excess. For further reference on using the pigments please refer to another "Mig"'s article.
The few parts showing bare metal on my Centauro were highlighted using a 3B pencil.

Project Photos
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About the Author

About Fabio d'Inzeo (scoccia)
FROM: MILANO, ITALY