Hello,
I've been trying new techniques lately and have been improving my skill with the weathering process, i wanted to know how to fade paint and blend it all in. I came across the "dot method" (what i call it). You use 4-3 colours dot them onto the area and streak them downwards blending them together and fading the paint.
Do you apply your filter of burn't umber before this or after? I make 3 tone camo german armor. Also, with the 3 tone camo, what colours would you need to achieve the faded paint look? I know 1 is white, but what about the others?
Thanks,
Callum.

I used an overall filter of buff first, that seems to work quite well for me.

In terms of the dot method ive used various colours but found white, buff, naples yellow and green turn out quite well.

Follow up with a pin wash of burnt umber and you'll be laughing.

Ive started using raw sienna to apply rust/rust streaks too.

Hello,
Thanks for the reply. I'll give it a try and see how it turns out.
Callum

The first and most important step in a tri-tonal camo scheme is to airbrush heavily diluted buff to blend in your colors and fade them. I us tamiya buff with great results. From there I will do some dot weathering to add variation. Depending on what colors you use, will determine the results of the filtering. I usually use a yellow, raw umber, white, grey, and a sienna batch not to necessarily fade, but to add variation to the tank. When I want to lighten an are I will use more white. Always add your washes after this. Good luck

Callum- I tend to apply a dark pin wish prior to using dot filters. I always put the lighter color oil dots in the centre of a panel and the darker ones to the outside of a panel.

Color choice isn't terribly important but its best to stick to earthy, drab colors like buff, tan, browns and greys. Something a little more vibrant doesn't hurt but if you add more than a few dots of something like an orange or mid-green it can overpower the other, more drab colors. When blending the dots on a vertical/angled surface its always good to use a flat brush, blending in a veritcal motion- while on a flat/horizontal surface its good to use a round brush and to blend in a circular motion.

Remember not to drench the brush in thinner and don't blend too much or you'll end up diluting the oils too much and taking them off the surface- if a panel has turned out badly then you can always get some thinner and clean it up and do it over.

There's also no real 'rules' around techniques like this- my advice is to try various approaches for various finishes and to find what you are happy with. So try it before applying a wash or after, or maybe use a strange color or heavily contrasting colors for panels in various areas. Experiment until your happy with it basically !

Hope this helps,

Karl187

Thanks karl, lots of useful information there. I'll try out the earthy colours.