Hey all,
Ok so I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to building and painting tanks lol. But I'm hooked I've built two so far. And both look good. My question is this. I built and painted a 1/72 scale jagdpanther and it looks really good I added a few things to it like braided wire instead of plastic that shaped like a tow rope. Anyway I decided to do a diorama with it and I picked up a few Sherman's an m3 lee and a tiger today. So anyway I made the jagdpanther look like it had been damaged in battle used a small drill bit for bullet holes and based the damage I seem to the front fenders and the side skirts off a real tank I seen. Now I wanted to make it look like it had a fire in engine compartment since that's where I put the penetration holes. But I'm scared to mess up the paint work o did which looks perfect is there an easy way to blacken the rear of the tank up so it looks like it burned without getting to complicated. I'm a noob with paint and am brush painting

If you don't want to use paint to make the blackened area, I think the best bet would be to use pigments.
You can buy pigments, such as MIG's online, but you can also use artists chalks which you grind up. That's usually the cheapest method.

Which ever route you choose, you're going to mess up your paint work.

Steve

Oooo, in 1/72 scale? With a brush?? Yikes, you're taking on a challenge. What you need first is a spare kit to practice practice practice, you do NOT want your first try to be on your finished JagdP. I'd suggest one of those spare kits you've got, put down a base color and use it as a test piece, you can always paint over it later.

I agree that pigments or pastel chalks will be your best bet. With a brush you can get a nice soft edge as opposed to an unrealistic hard edge like you'd get from just slopping on paint.

Another consideration is depth of color and tonal variation, meaning don't just use stark black; it's boring and unrealistic. If the damage is slightly older then the areas that are burnt will be rusted, but even if it's fresh you can used bits of dark grey and dark browns to break up the black. Just think of what burned metal looks like. Also, there will be white ash from the burned off paint around the edges of the burned section.

Do you have any artists oils? They are great for weathering and very forgiving. You can put a clear gloss acrylic over your paint job to protect it from the oil paints and thinners. Once that is dry, use the oil paints and some Mona Lisa odorless thinner to apply washes or filters or even heavier dabs of paint. If you don't like how it looks you can clean it off with a tissue and thinner, that's the benefit of the acrylic gloss coat. Anyhow, you can get some cool burned effects with the oils, plus they're great for pin washes, streaking, etc. Get black, raw umber, and burnt sienna from Michael's or Hobby Lobby. A small tube of each will last you forever. I'm 36 and I still have tubes that I bought as a teenager!!!