Hello Gents!

Quick question... what color do you use for recreating paint chipping/scratches?

I just finished a STUG III/G, solid XF-60, and performed the dot-fading technique for the first time...not quite 110%, but not too shabby either...

After the chipping, need to apply pigments...

Feel free to critique! Paint in images appear lighter than it is up-front. for the fading I used white, burnt sienna, yellow ochre and cadmium yellow light (very little of this one... bright, and goes a LONG way...).

Anyway, here's a couple of pics...

I usually use a dark dark brown, or flat gunmetal color.


Others may say they use reds (for exposed primer) or lightened versions of base colors (this is more for scratches).


I find a dark brown looks best in most cases for conservative chipping (which is how chipping should be done, conservatively)

My wallet's balance: - $0.02

Nice work indeed

You did very convincing rain mark in my opinion

Jorge,

Here's a suggestion for some basic chipping that simulates wear through the paint down to the base metal:

I use two colors for about 80% of all my chipping - Citadel (Games Workshop) "Tin Bitz" and "Boltgun Metal." The first color is a medium metalic rusty brown and the second is a medium metalic gray.

I lay down chips of the "Tin Bitz" around hatch edges and other high wear spots. I follow up on top of the "Tin Bitz" with the "Boltgun Metal" allowing a small bit of the "Tin Bitz" to show around the edges. (Call this a "bulls eye" painting technique or method.)

This last, leaving a thin darker line around the edges, is important to give your work some depth and "3-diminsionality," and is the basic technique for most chipping.

The next step up (in difficulty) from this basic two-color chipping is to add a third color to represent the worn edges of the vehicle's paint. This is also done in reverse by adding the lighter vehicle color chips, followed by the rust color, followed by the bare metal color, allowing thin lines of each layer to show around the edges.

If you can't find the Citadel Colors, you can use any other acrylic paint that you're comfortable brush painting. Thin paint, maybe with a bit of flow enhancer and a drying retarder with good brushes is the key.

Here's a photo of a bit of 3-color chipping that I did:



The lighter vehicle color is Vallejo "Khaki" the rust color is Citadel "Tin Bitz" and the bare metal is Citadel "Boltgun Metal."

To add variety, leave some of your rust chips without the bare metal or only use the lighter vehicle color to represent scratches through the top layers of dirt and paint, but not down to the underlying metal.

German armor benefits from the occasional scratch through the top layer of paint to the underlying red primer paint. This is done the same way as the earlier two color chips but this time only with a lighter vehicle color followed by the red primer (which cold be followed by a rust color and then by bare metal for a 4-color chip if you're ambitious).

Keeping 2-color chips to a scale size is easier than with 3 or more colors, so that's why the basic chip is a simple 2-color one. After you've mastered that, then the sky's the limit.

The most "advanced" technique is to apply the lighter chip edges around the darker center chips. This just requires more brush control and ability with the paint, but represents about as far as most painters carry the effect. But using a basic "bulls eye" method (2 or 3-color) will get you about 98% of the appearance achievable with the more advanced brush control.

And this is all there is to it.

HTH,
Mike

Jorge,

I don't want to hijack your thread, but here's another example of some chipping that I just finished using those same two Citadel colors ("Tin Bitz" and "Boltgun Metal"):



All of the chipping on these radios is done with just those two colors, and the same with the chipping on this StuG IV driver's compartment:



Mike

[quote]Jorge,

I don't want to hijack your thread, but here's another example of some chipping that I just finished using those same two Citadel colors ("Tin Bitz" and "Boltgun Metal"):

Don't worry, I appreciate your feedback.

I also read last night that some use a very rough sponge-like A/C filter as the chipping "tool" instead of brush... hear anything about this one?

Thanks!

Jorge

Some peole also use those rough green scouring pads torn into pieces.

Guys,
I would suggest using both a fine tip brush and a sponge. This will ensure that your chipping stays random. As for color, I usualy usa a very dark brown, something from Vallejo or Lifecolor.
Just be sure to keep the number of chips reasonable. A little goes a long way. Also, remember your scale and the environment that you intend to represent in the model.

I actually used a variation of that technique to do the chipping on the floor in front of the driver's seat in the StuG IV driver's compartment above. I use small bits (about the size of the tip of my little finger) of open-cell foam / sponge held in cross-tip tweezers. I dab this into a puddle of un-thinned paint, wipe off the excess on a paper napkin, then stipple it onto the model.

(On the other hand, all of the chipping done around the openings in the ammo storage box were done by brush. In that area, I wanted a lot of wear, but the area is very small, so to add "visual depth" it is necessary to keep the colors separate. I also wanted to concentrate the wear around the edges of the holes. Sponge chipping would not have allowed this control and would have been too much here.)

In the above example, I again used two colors - an under lying rust followed by a bare metal. (This was also followed by a wash of burnt umber oil paint on the floor.)

This is a good technique to simulate large worn areas. I have used it for general chipping or scuffing, too. In the close-up of the Sherman engine deck, the darker OD spots were added using a bit of sponge and a dark OD Vallejo paint. The effect I was going for here was scuffing of the dirt and dust off of the base color of the vehicle feom the crew walking and climbing around on it. Note that this scuffing was added before the detailed chipping to keep it visually in the background (i.e. to keep the OD off of the rust and bare metal chips).

(It's also obviously a single color, so I guess it's an exception to the 2-color chipping rule.)

When using this method, you need to rotate the bit of sponge so that the same spot isn't used repeatedly to stamp the chips. If you don't do this, the pattern of chips will become repetative, and the effect loses its "randomness." Also, because it's so fast and easy, it's very easy to over-do leaving your model looking like a poorly maintained bit of old construction equipment rather than precious war-machine relied upon by its crew for life and death and likely only a few months from the factory assembly line.

For my tastes, a lot of modelers add too many chips too evenly over the entire model. The wear and tear should be simulated in logical places. Many places on a large vehicle hardly ever get touched by the crew or tree limbs, etc, and other spots get nearly constant wear.

The size of the weave or cells in the pad or sponge also have an effect on the size and appearance of the chips and scratches as does the amount of paint you leave on it and the force you use to stamp it onto the model.

Mike

[quote][quote]



THAT'S precisely what I was talking about... Thanks, Mike!!!

Jorge