Weathering has to be the most confusing part of armor building vs. aircraft modeling that I've come across. Everyone seems to have a different way to do things, or even worse how they do the same thing or things, that's driving me crazy.

I've painted my M4A1 DV in a two tone camo paint scheme, then I sealed it with Pledge (Future), and decaled. At this point I applied a filter of dark brown, and let it dry. Then I worked using the Dot method with various browns, greens, yellows, & white, to try to achieve a weathered look. When dried, it look ok, but not what I was really looking for.

Now I've come across articles that have the Dot method being applied before you seal the paint so that it's worked into the base colors. Seems to be that this would have a more pronounced color shift and varying of the base color from spot to spot.

At this point I'm getting myself so confused, I'm not sure what to do next.

I've sealed the model in Dullcoat and was going to start to do some earth and dust over coats. But I would really like to do a few more oil controlled washes to blotch of the base coats a little more. Is this possible to do over a Dullcoat?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Joel

I think you will find each person does it differently, to a style that suits them. For me, I apply the dot filters after painting, prior to sealing and decal. I will also do some drybrushing to bring out some details. I have also applied some streaking then too. After sealing and decals, I seal again with Future, and start the weathing. I usually start with full washes and pin washes into recessess. I then apply a coat of Testor flat clear, and start the pigments, building up layers, some times with more coats of flat clear in between. Once I am happy I seal it with a final coat of flat clear.

Hope that helps. For me I read a lot, and tried a few thinks, but in the end I found a way for it to work for me. Having a old model around to abuse and try things on helps.

Kevin

To answer your question, yes. You can do washes over the flat coat.

Joel,
A good place to start if you are confused or overwhelmed with information is my friend Matt Thoms painting sequence listed within this "Painting" section on Armorama.
The truth is that there are many different ways to get different results. The most important thing is to experiment and find techniques that you are comfortable with and that give you a finish that you like.
I personaly do not always follow Matt's sequence but it is a ROCK SOLID way for you to put things into a logical sequence to work from. From this list you can begin to tweek things to fit your needs and experiment with different techniques & products in order to learn and inhance the finish of your models.

Thanks to all that have offered some help. I've copied and pasted Matt's procedures for quick reference. And I'm going to do a few more washes now that the flat has dried. One thing I did note was that it looked a whole lot better with the flat coat, then it did with the gloss coat.

I have my build posted in the constructive Feedback forum for those that want to see how things are progressing. Will be posting picture Thursday of the weathering to date.

Again. thanks to all that have offered their solid advice.