I am currently working on a Dragon M1A2 SEP that will be painted in MM #4720 Sand, and I'm to the point where I am going to paint and weather some of the subassemblies separately, such as the TC's cupola....what are the best colors of oil paint to use as overall washes and pin washes over the Sand color? Also looking for the best shade for chips?

For chipping I've used Tamiya Nato Black, and oversprayed with Buff. It has a nice effect using a sponge.

Thanks for the tip; I've looked at pictures of chipping on others' Abrams, and I couldn't tell if they had used black or a dark metallic color.

Greetings,

Noticed your response here. Could you please explain what you mean in more detail when you say oversprayed with buff and nice effect with a sponge. Do you mean overspraying the model then dabbing with a sponge before it is dry? Sounds like an interesting technique.

Thank you,

cbreeze

While that might work if you preshaded with dark gray or black and dabbed it before it dried, I used the sponge w/nato black before airbrushing a thinned down coat of buff.

I understand what Lucas is going to archive by spraying a highly thinned coat of buff. The high contrast of the nato black gets reduced and also the verhicle gets an all dusty look. Considering how much dust and sand there is in Iraq it's just right. Pretty nice and realistic result, by the way.
The same result can be archieved by using pigments. At least i always get it. For chipping (on modern vehicles) i use Tamiya german grey as the first layer of colour. Then the hairspray technique follows. Don't worry, the result at the end is the same, no matter if you apply chips by brush, sponge or via haispray technique. Just a matter of taste.

For a general wash i recommend dark ockre, lightended with some white. For doing the streaks which can often be seen on the front, raw sienne, combinated with some darker or lighter colours for some variation in the streaks, should do the job pretty well.

NEVER (all-important!) use pure black for pinwashing, especially on sand coloured vehicles! Relatively dark grey, mixed with a dash of some earth tone is much better and not as contrasty as pure black.

Lucas and Bernd,

Excellent! Thanks for the replies, think I am on the right track now.

You've gotten a lot of great suggestions from people, so I just thought I'd add one more to the heap for future options. When I was beginning to paint my Tusk 2, I first coated it all with a layer of Tamiya Gunship Gray 2 spray lacquer. I used lacquer because its solvents melt into the plastic ever so slightly, and it stays on very well. I let that cure for a few days, to allow the lacquer to get full bite into the plastic. Then, after spraying it multiple times with MM Sand (FS 33531), I took a few different-shaped scalpel blades and actually chipped the sand paint away, exposing the dark colors beneath. It lifted in very realistic patterns, and I could control it very easily. Scratches also were very easy and looked quite good. After chipping it away, I dirtied it up a bit with a rusty mixture of earth brown, red, and touch of orange. I dry-brushed that over some of the chipped portions of paint very sparingly, and it definitely got the effect I was hoping for. I'll have pics of it soon.

Just another option to add to the arsenal. Post some pics of your beast when you get done. I'd love to see it!