Well, First steps of the Chipped sand paint have been done, but I'm not to sure if I've overdone it on the side shields. Are the chipped areas to uniform, and should I have followed the corners as much as I did? I've added some irregular chips with a brush, but I wonder if I should paint sand on the base coat, to make the chips appear smaller and more irregular, or should I add more base coat around the chips?



Turret roof detail



Some more pic's in my gallery, thanks for looking.

Cheers
Henk

HI,, Personally I think it looks d---- good! A very nice and weather-worn effect to it all over. You may, as you suggested, tone it down a just a tad bit, very slightly, depending on what kind of look you are going for. But it looks great to me! Excellent job.

Take care, Sgirty

Sorry, but it looks way too chipped for me. Looks like a range target. In-service vehicles are not allowed to get that weathered and worn down. Modern CARC paint is also pretty tough and does not wear down that easily. Also, the underlying color of the sand would most likely be 3-color NATO camo. Most vehicles during ODS were repainted NATO camo vehicles. The other option would be overall forest green under the sand, but not the red oxide primer as yours is. Tools wouldn't be the same colors as the hull either. They may be overall sand if left in place when the vehicle was oversprayed, their undercoating would not be the same as the hull. Just looks way to worn out for me. If you are going for an abandoned vehicle, it is looking good (even though we, US Army, don't usually abandon our vehicles unless they are destroyed, we still usually recover them eventually).

Sorry, but this looks like it's been sitting in a field with 30 years of neglect.
The shovel would have worn off at the tip of the spade long before it worn off an the top end,
For all that wear and tear on the top, your wheels are pristine.

Henk, I remember looking through a desert storm book, I can't remember what one exactly, but they had a vehicle that resembled yours almost exactly. The knuckle heads probly didn't clean the surface properly before they painted it in the desert scheme and when they got there it was sandblasted to almost exactly what you painted. I do agree with Heavy Art though, it would have another army camo underneath it, most likely NATO. Can it happen? Yes! Like I said, if I had a better memory I could name the book and the page where I saw a vehicle destressed like this.
The question is, will other people at a model show buy the concept? Most likely not. Why? Because like he said, these guys have to take care of their equiptment. But, even though they do work on there stuff doesn't exclude the fact that it could happen. I think, if you're going to present this particular piece at a show, you'd be safer taking it in another direction. Why? Again, some people are so hard fast in their mindset that there's no way that it could happen they'd just over look it come judging time, unless it was open judging.

I was in a show once judging with a guy and the modeler portrayed the tank commander standing out of the turret with a playboy book. One of the fella's that I was judging with insisted that the model be over looked because he was in vietnam and the book wasn't allowed and it was portraying the vietnam warrior in a bad way and he was there and it wouldn't have happened and that was that and and if we judged it he was going to call in a air strike and blow up the building and ooooooooh my God you had to be there. So, you can see where it goes from here.

Thanks for your swift (and brutally honest :-) ) observations. It confirms what I thought already, it's to much of a good thing..

Sgirty, thanks, I'll be toning it down, it's a bit to much as it is, although the effect itself worked well, and looks good.

Gino, the color I used is a enamel one, I believe matt olive drab, not red oxide, which I thought I give a try as it does have a nice faded feel to it, but it has not worked as I hoped it would. I have a tin of Forrest Green, but somehow don't like the color, it looks to light to me. I think I'll add a NATO 3 tone in a few places, and cover the lot in Sand again, and do the chipping again, but much more restraint than this..

Al, you spotted that shovel alright, I'll have to work that out a bit better after I have redone the overal scheme.

Cheers
Henk

EasyOff,
I know what track you are talking about. I have the book it is in, but for the life of me, I can't remember the title either. I do remember that the track was from the 24th ID during Desert Storm though!!!!!!

John, I don't know if you remember Rich of Hangar Deck Hobbies who used to be in the club. As a loadmaster, he did a lot of flying back and forth in ODS. He once told us how equipment was painted in prepartion for that. Get out the spary guns and paint away. No prep work, just paint. The driver would then be given a paint scraper of sorts for the windshield/vision ports.

Easyoff, I missed your reply, but thanks for the info. I will redo the paint, with NATO 3 tone, and tone the chips down a bit. I think I might have gotten carried away a bit with the photo's of British Armour in mind... . If seen plenty of photo's of Brit vehicles that looked twice as badly sandblasted as this, but I remember reading somewhere that the Brits use different paint.
I don't intent to show my models in competitions ( I've only been to one show so far at any rate. :-) ) as my models are not 'clean' enough. I like them rough, battered and muddy.. . But I see what you mean.

Cheers
Henk