I just finished my first armor and i want to put it on a desert diorama
Is there any where or anyone who can point me to information on how to weather this kind of environment. I have been unable to find any info

Thanks in advance

What kind of desert environment are you trying to recreate ? there are many possibilities,
ranging from a small road or path in a rocky area to plain old sand, even dunes...
I think that the most important factor of weathering on your AFV will be dust.
Often a vehicle running through the desert will lift hught amounts of dust. This can be done
with pastels. You grind them to powder and then apply them with a brush on the desired
spots.
For some good quality reference pictures, maybe you should look for israely equipment...

Just like Penpen said primarily dust would need to be applied. If you use an airbrush this can fairly easily be done. Just use or mix a dust colored paint. What paints do you use?
Use a stepped process: ie: the road wheels and lower hull undersides would be the dustiest. The hull sides and rear and front would be next in line. The engine deck, and hull top side. Lastly the turret would be getting just a slight dusting.
Pastels will work just fine too. Either alone or after the ABing.

Two other things for desert weathering:

1. The sand polishes the metal parts of track and they become a dull steel color, and if a rocky area the rubber parts on the outside of the track (the side against the ground) gets chewed up and chunks get removed from corners of rubber pads. I admit that this should be completed before tracks are mounted and painted and only applies in a rocky desert.

2. Rust is almost non-existant, and at the scale of 1/35 all but invisible.

This is based on 13 years of living in the Mojave Desert including 2-1/2 years at Ft. Irwin, CA.

I had all kinds of nicks on my car doors and not a spot of rust on a 12 year old car. As soon as I moved back east, spots of rust immediately grew on my car.

Hmmmm, should we start calling you 'Lawrence' instead of Ranger?

Tread.

You'll need to replicate lots of dust. If you seal your kits do that first then add pastels,or it'll ruin th finish. If the vehicle has been running awhile you'll also have some buildup around wet spots(get your mind out of the gutter) from grease plugs, POll openings and exuast areas. Any thing that has a depression will also fill with sand and dust. Anyone who's been on operations inthe desert can tell you the dust gets everywhere.

Josh
aKa shiryon

Great information. Thank you all for you input

TH - Not Lawrence, but "He with Clear Sinuses". But not anymore back here in teh allergy belt