Hello! I have seen photos of Abrams tanks in Nato colors and some of the paint looks chipped off or faded as if washed down by water. What's the color appropriate to recreate this? I notice this on the turret front and on the hull 'deck', i.e. the area in front of the driver. Thanks!

I'm not sure what effect you're looking for, but if you want the paint to look faded from the sun there are a few ways of doing this. One is just by adding white to the base color of the tank and spraying that on. Another is by lightly spraying a coat of thinned white paint over the model after the decals are on. This method also fades the decals somewhat. I have seen other methods described in the Features/Sections part of this website.

Nic

For faded paint the most effective method I have seen is adding a little white to the base color and lightly....I say again LIGHTLY, spraying the mixture over the selected colors. If it is a camo pattern, the same effect can be acheived with just white, but you have to be especialy careful or you'll end up with a white wash looking tank!! Best to practice on some beater models until you are confident you can lay the paint down how you want it on your work in progress. Just my .02 cents... "Q"

Could I post or send a picture to you to show the effect of what I want? Thanks!

By all means yes. I'm not sure myself how to add a picture to these messages, but it can be done. If I don't know how to acheive the desired effect you're looking for, I'm sure someone else does, so post the picture.

Nic

Here are some pics of Abrams that show what I want to represent:


Note on your right hand side of the turret, there seems to be 'streaks' of faded paint


Note the hull. Seems though that it now looks more like dried mud than faded paint or boot scruffs.

Thanks!

The pictures aren't the clearest, but perhaps you could get the desired effect with pastel chalk dust.