Hi guys. Im in the finishing stages of assembling my Dragon M1A2 SEP. Since it is single color i was thinking of ways to liven it up a bit. I was thinking about doing some preshading. What would be a good undercoat color for the Carc Sand? I was thinking of a burnt umber or dark earth color. Any ideas? Thanks.

Hi, here you can see my abby with the preshading.
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/183113&page=1

For the preshading I've used model master Italian sand with some black in it, so the color was like mud.

I've personally been trying to get away from pre-shading AFVs as I'm finding it doesn't provide for much realism when it comes to the overall weathering process of a vehicle. It's, of course, a personal choice, but I've recently been experimenting with various techniques used by many others here and elsewhere and which include things like altering the base color with lighter and darker shades of the same after initial application, applying various filters, using layered oil washes to alter the tones of the panel lines, etc, etc. In the end, I seem to be getting much better results than when I pre-shaded and did minimal weathering afterward trying to keep the pre-shade visible. I now worry about weathering when I actually get to the weathering stage of a build and not before I even apply the base color.

Just some opinions, of course.

Rob