I guess , like most of us when it comes to drybrushing AFV's I use the "traditional" method of drybrushing, being a mainly allied modeller most of my subjects are painted some shade of OD and when it comes to drybrushing I will use buff , khaki , sand colours to bring out the detail.

However after reading Vinnies excellent article on building the Italeri 232 6-Rad, I noticed he uses much much darker colour to drybrush (matt black in this case) and I must say i was very impressed with the effect he achieved.

Im keen to try this method of drybrushing but was just curious if anyone else use the same method and if so what colours do you use , can i use black on a OD subject ?

Thanks in advance for any help

Ian

The darker effect more closely mimics reality when you think about it. On OD vehicles, dusty areas are worn dark with contact. Imagine an M7 Priest. There would be dark areas all near the upper parts of the fighting compartment armor. In photos, you even see the dark spots near the climbing handles that the crew uses to get aboard.

When I've climbed over gate guardians, it's very clear that the hull edges, lifting lugs, turret openings are "clean" versus the dusty accumulation on the non-contacted areas.

Dr. Ahn is one of my favorite Sherman modellers. Have a look at one here:
http://missing-lynx.com/gallery/usa/m4early_cheehongahn.html


There are several more on the ML gallery

I'd imagine it's done with careful application of pigment dusting, with the raised areas wiped cleaner to leave the dark basecoat.