Have you ever "Over" weathered a vehicle? I am doing a Sherman Tank and at first I planned on including it in a city scene but now will have to be in the country. I started putting my normal dirt and mud but kept wanting to get it "right" and now....I am covered in mud. Really pisses me off!! It's my own fault of course. I am now, at working, thinking all about it and can't concentrate! I plan on taking Saturday Afternoon and mixing up some plaster and applying some nice mud in the tracks and wheels.

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!

Yes sometimes I do... Usually I don't like it, but sometimes I was forced to. For instance I recently built an 1:32 M47 from Matchbox (but original molds were very old and came from an other manufacturer). Everything was ok with it until I washed it using oils and white spirit.
Once I did it I saw the tracks melting, the front lower hull cracking and all the suspensions falling down in pieces. So I accelerated the drying phase using an hair dryer but was a mess and the only way to "recover" the model I figured out was to overwheather it wit a couple of tons of mud...
Ciao

If it helps, realistic weathering is probably one of the single most difficult things to get right. This is one of the parts of scale modeling that is more art than science. I try to err on the subtle side, versus the heavy side. Photos help, and this website helps enormously.

Post some pics, let us see it and maybe then we can give you some specific suggestions.

HTH,

Scott

Over weathering is one of the great issues in scale modeling. How much is too much? I have always held the belief that less is more. You can always add more, but its darn hard to remove it after it dries.

Another point - oil based thinners can have devastating effects on plastics. I have been using rubbing alcohol and acrylic paints for weathering for a good number of years with no ill effects to plastic track or hulls.

Hope this helps

Someone posted a link to a Company D Armored in Vietnam. This has numerous pictures of tanks from 1966-69. Not a one has the heavy coating of mud so often seen in 1/35 scale. There is dust, but even this is subtle. Weathering, IMHO, should not look like mudbogging.

It all depends on the time and place of your vehicle. As a former M1A1 crewmember, I have seen AFV's from one extreme to the next. I've seen M1's covered completely in mud, hell the driver's hole was full of mud...nice orange Kentucky mud. Then eight long hours later, rolling off the wash rack, the same tank is nice and squeakly clean.

Bottom line, it's your model...do what you want with it. Don't worry about the "over-weathering" factions.

I've overdone it before. I have made myself take it slower and do more layering. This gives me a chance to sit back and take a look and the hard question - "am I done?"
Research and reference are key aspects. I find that I use photos more for general 'conditions' than detail accuracy. I've got a ton of 'coffee table' books for that.

I'm in on the sublte side as well.

A recently well-published and advanced level modeler had once told an advanced level friend of mine, " Your work is very good, but if you'd just learn to weather it you'd be great"

Translated to English, "You do not weather things like I do, so therefore you are no good."

I'm surprised my friend showed such restraint and resisted pulling the little twerps arms off.

Greenland once wrote he modeled the vehicle, not the countryside it operated in.

I find the overly weathered, overly chipped paint, overly rusted look too garish. Especially on late war German armor. The combat lifetime, not to mention the factory to loss time, for those vehicles was VERY short.
I cannot imagine them getting too mucked up before getting blasted or surrendering.

I am not a big fan of the currently in vogue trend of chipping the paint on everything like it just got out of a blender full of gravel.

I'd rather not have to weather my contest entries in any particular way to have them considered seriously.

But, like everything else, it is a hobby and to each their own.

My US$0.02 before inflation and "tax cut"
Mike

If you want to be Historically and geographically correct then you must weather accordingly if you do a model of a Tiger ok just a little but if you make a tiger on the lenningrad front early winter 43 then you will need some serious weathering, if you get my drift. all the best.

To compare a vietnam tank to a WWII tank is not accurate. The 'Nam tanks did not travel thru the same kind of mud/snow/slush/dirt as the tanks in Germany did. I have seen many pics from WWII and the tanks are so covered with Mud you can't see them.

I have said before I rush too much sometimes. I think this is a case of that. I was so proud of my subtle rust streaks I was going to show my wife but I thought "I need to add some mud"...then it all went down hill!!!

I made a Pz. IV and experimented with putty as mud...let's just say after I was done it looked like the German crew had just had a good day 'mudding'!!! #:-) #:-)

I personally think there is some kind of mass-hysteria over mud/weathering/paint chipped etc. For me the most succesful models are those which underplay rather than overplay. One of the points I began to pay attention to, was the condition of the vehicles in the recent gulf-war. One thing which many of us forget, is that no AFV is going to be in combat for weeks on end, vehicles get rotated, maintenance, minor and major has to be carried out. Some in the "front-line" and a great deal in the rear-echelons. I would like to hear a professional talk about the subject, as I am convinced that sometimes we are all guilty of "over-egging the pudding".... Jim

Faded, yes. Dusty, yes. Repainted patches, YES. (What else did tanks and crews do when not at the front?). Very little mud and there had better not be any bare metal chips.
capnjock

I think we are all guilty of over-doing one aspect or another on our models at one time or another.
I personally think that there are exceptions to all rules - hence no rules at all. Many a vehicle I've seen nearly buried in mud and slush, and many others as clean as driven snow.
It all depends on the individual's plans for depiction.

I say, whether it just came out of mud puddle or just driven out of the factory, as long as you had fun with building it, you achomplished the most important thing! (++)

Back in the mid 80's when we actually went to the field for more than just a couple of days, sometimes as long as 45-60 days our equipment sometimes was covered in mud....provided it was raining and such. An example of this follows...
45 day rotation to Graf' for an FTX-- Field Training Exercise. In that 45 days there is a lot of drivng in all sorts of terrain and conditions. Yes the roadwheels and suspension will get completely encrusted in mud, grass, branches etc. and would remain that way for quite some time. The only thing that we as crewmen would do is remove to big stuff and clean around the important areas like grease fiittings etc. The only time the vehicles were cleaned more thouroughly was for the train ride back home.
This is just in a training environment. Convert this to combat and there is a new twist in the mix. Bullets have a tendancy to impede the washing of vehicles in a combat theater, be it at the front or in the rear. With todays speed of movement across the battlefield, cleanliness takes a backseat to functionality and survivability. When the time is provided we once again get the big stuff, and tidy things up a bit, but that is about it. As for the conditions here in Iraq, we haven't had any mud, well my unit at least, but the dust is something beyond description. As to the issue of bare metal chips, there are plenty to be seen on the equipment in theater. Its not an issue of not painting, its an issue of we don't carry spare paint. CARC is very toxic and not the easiest thing to obtain. Spray paint explodes from the heat...etc.The chips are in your normal wear and tear areas. For all the excess baggage we carry, most of the chipped areas are covered by it and a sickening amount of dust. Just becase it isnt pretty doesnt mean it isn't functional and cant kill you.. heh heh. Just a little FYI on how things are here inthe big sand box. One thing to mention. We even have 3 color camo ie...europe based, vehicles in country. Not everybody is driving a desert sand ride. HTH "Q"

I have the same problem quite alot of the time i always seem to add to much wash or paint at times where it seeps into all the panel lines and the greater portion of detail is lost how do i add a wash to a russian t62 im not so sure what colour wash to use as i am an ameture offcourse only modelling for 2 years now