Now it happened: I´m stuck.
The assembly of my Schwimmwagen went smoothly, even the painting scheme works well. She is now covered with satin coat and waiting to be weathered.
My problem is that I don´t know where to start. I thought about giving it a very dusty overall look with splashes of wet mud over it to make it as dirty as possible.
I just don´t know where to start. I sort of panic as I haven´t done any armor before and being afraid of ruining it, or that after the weathering the model won´t fit the street scene...
I have two days of vacation left and I´m gonna finish this!!!!
Toni

Envar,

try starting with a ligth oil paint wash. This can be easily removed if you don't like the results. I use an odd technique. But hen again I'm odd by nature, and consider it a virtie.

I do my washes with the application of a rainbow host of small localised colours, all well diluted. By varying the tonality you vary the depth.

Jack Suomi

For a dusty finish I airbrush a thinned coating of Tamiya Buff color. I would work from the bottom to the top, going in layers from the front to the back. I usually do two or three light coats and build up slowly.
For mud I have used hardware store spackle (joint compound). I just use a small probe and dab on the 'mud' where appropriate. The spackle dries smooth and with a semi gloss paint on top looks like wet mud. You can add in a bit of static grass if you want.
Another method of dust I use is pastels. I scrape off a big pile of the desired color(s) into a soda bottle top. I then take a stiff brisstle brush and work it into the pile. The I brush liberally on the model. Again, bottom to top.

These have worked for me, I hope this helps.

Envar,
Thee is a great way to make mudd splashes, check out the article Paul Owen wrote find it HERE
Might wanna try it on a peice of scrap first though

Hi Toni

First, have you taken a look at my Schwimmy in the Diorama gallery? I'll describe what I did here.

First I got the regular basecoat done, added decals etc. I painted it with PollyScale German Yellow on the uppers, and dark earth on the running gear and all areas below the waterline.

Similar to Jack, I used an overall wash of raw umber oil paint heavily diluted with odorless thinner. I then added some more washes of various dirty colors. I also used globs of raw umber oil on the lower parts to simulate ground in mud/dirt.

I used pastel chalks and a bit of pencil lead to add dust to the lower parts and the rest of the vehicle. I don't have an airbrush, but I find ground up pastel chalks work like a charm for dust. Could be because they are... dust!

I wanted my Schwimmy to look like it had recently come out of the water. I don't know if it worked, but I used diluted white glue as a wash all over the surfaces that would get wet. I added some drops of that mess over the engine compartment etc. to represent splashes of water in the dust. I don't think that worked!

The white glue wash (2 coats) added a sheen to the lower surfaces that I like.

Is your kit the recent Tamiya Schwimmy? Nice kit, eh!

Oops, I forgot to mention that pastel chalks work much better applied to a matt surface. I tried weathering a T-34 with a semi-gloss finish. The chalk just wouldn't stick!

Tanks everybody for the tips!
This time my path was chosen for me as I placed the model on a paper with CA glue on it...
First I panicked, tried to think of a way to clean the dried glue. Damn, I just finished the painting.
Instead of removing the glue, I added more! It´s gel-like glue and guess what: in two minutes I had made pieces of dried mud and in ten minutes I was able to paint!
I used reddish tone for the mud, added some of the colours I used for the cobblestone road to make it fit, and after that gave it a light spray with a lighter tone. I used Citadel and awesome Lifecolor acrylics.
The result looks great to my eye. Too bad I´m not able to take production shots now as my camera in unavailable...
I should make a series of my "lucky accidents"....

Thanks again,
Toni

Darn......you lucky bastard Envar.....

I've some armor to weather. Preferably the "Stalingrad look".

Can I bring em over some time.....

Just keep it under running water and put it in the freezer!
That´s what I would do...only that it would probably result in a catastrophy. My freezer would blow up just for general principle and I would find my model in good shape, with some strange freezer liquids attached to it, it would look perfect in scale and if you touch it it´s cold.
Would be just my luck I guess...

Toni