Perhaps if this forum had a search option I could find this..What color (Vallejo) do you use to simulate scratches on WWII German tanks-scratches that reveal the underlying color, which as I recall is a reddish primer color?
thanks,

there is a search function right at the top of the page in the kitMaker banner.

The primer is Red Oxide RAL 8012 . I am not sure whether Vallejo do a decent red oxide. Lifecolor do a RAL 8012 but I do not think it looks quite right. Tamiya do a "Hull Red" but that looks too dark to me.

IMHO your best bet is to mix your own til it looks right. You cannot really be too accurate and after weathering it will change colour too.

Remember that light is consistent in 1:1 scale so our 1:35 scale is actually lit wrongly...

if that makes sense

If you read the modelling guides online you will often see the pros use a lighter colour than real for the basecoat for chipping where the chip just removes the top layer of paint and becasue it is such a small patch our eyes are tricked into thinking it is the same colour as the base.

Don't know why but, again IMHO, it is not worth getting too hung up on the right RAL for tiny chips but more important to think about the effect you want.

Thanks, I'll mix something up with some reds and browns

I'm sort of in the school of "lighten the colours a little for 1/35 scaling".

I use the Tamiya hull-red mixed with a little deck-tan (gives a slightly warmer lightening effect than would come from adding straight flat white). Try maybe a 1/10 tan / red and see if that looks near to what you like.

On the matter of "paint chipping" and showing of primer...

I found it very informative to go look at used bulldozers and other heavy construction equipment.

Generally, what I found is that fine abrasions and "sand-blasting" may tend to expose under-coats and primer more, whereas real chips tend to actually go right to metal and thus to rust with very small or even hardly-noticable edges of exposed primers. A paint chip is NOT a slope-sided bowl-shaped scoop, but rather more like a flake with a defined "vertical" edge. The upper paint coats hold well to the primer and most come off with the primer attached... Just a thought if you are thinking here of chips and primer-exposure.

The German zimmerit coat is a different case for chipping, as it apparently did flake off and likely could leave intact primer surfaces exposed.

I found an AFV modeler issue (47 or 48 with the 1/16th king tiger build) where someone used cavalry brown from vallejo for the red primer and it looks really good. Vallejo makes a primer red and I have used it but I think it is a bit dark. The zimmerit definitely chipped leaving the primer exposed. I have some good pics posted of a jagdtiger with chipped zimmerit (search for jagdtiger 305004 on the search engine). To make this more complicated the zimmerit itself was a yellow ochre so the edges would be a different shade of yellow than the base coat. I posted this question elsewhere but what about vallejo colors for a german interior? The AFV article above used a combination of lifecolor paints which I don't have easy access to.

Nice idea. I always used white and it ended up looking pink which was most definately not the look I was after!




I saw a build log with that used and I have to agree it did look rather good. May try that myself actually.

Bob

I agree with what you say about bulldozers and the like and the wear and tear they show. However, we have also to remember that those "bowl shaped depressions" on AFVs may well have been created by a piece of metal travelling at some enormous speed . . . . .

Regards

Rob

From Vallejo I would suggest "Cavalry Brown" as a base to use or mix from to get the color you are after. I hope this helps.

From photos I've seen, it's rather an intense red, in fact it tended to show through the dark yellow, sometimes giving it a pink undertone.

WEM did a series of red primers, all are good, but I'd suggest the less dark and brown, the better.

One question this has opened up for me, is did they use the same red-oxide stuff on the halftracks and artillery pieces too?

Oxide Red was the primer for all German tanks. Tamiya's Hull Red is a pretty close match. The tracks only received the primer, so they are red oxide. You can see the primer through the topcoat. The last Tigers were red oxide in the lower hull. Most of what you see in museums are wrong. They have been repainted and do not neccessarily have the original primer or interior colors.