I just built my first AFV, a Dragon King Tiger premium with Atak zim kit. I have a basic selection of mig pigments(the rust kit and a couple earth colors). I went a little nuts the first time around and was totally dissatisfied with the results, so I promptly broke the model back down, repainted it, and put a basic generic camo on it quick and dirty for practice now.

I have some other kits I want to take a lot more time with them. I just want to do something 'basic' to make some detail stick out, maybe a wash and some dry brushing, and not go crazy again. The tracks are just black, with airbrushed rust variation and steel drybrushing, so they are pretty much good to go. I am definately going to re-rust the exhaust stacks with the mig's because I liked the way that looked and was easy to control(I made a muddy 'mix' of it). Basically, whats a 'safe' way to start weathering these things? I really don't want to put it in an evironment with mud or anything. Just something to play with before moving on.



I have all the tools and what not that I was going to add later.

oh, and this is what the tracks look like(pic way before I screwed everything up the first time around)... I camo'd the wheels this time too 'cause I like the way it looks. I do ship models so this one is now a nice generic break from 100% accuracy so I want to use this as the frankentiger now. I'm not even that big a fan of the tank to start with. I REALLY want to do the M4A3E8 Thunderbolt , the Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. E, and the initial Tiger 1... This kit is great, but not one of my preferred subjects.

practce on old models

BTW hwat kind of airbrush do you have?

andd do you need a dual action to piant camo?

im staring my panther soon

I have a Badger anthem. Its dual action. Years ago I used to do camo with a single action, but you are trapped with one spray pattern. It can be done with practice, and with single action, you don't have an accidental twitch of a finger do serious damage as easilly, so its by no means impossible to get good results for most camo patterns. Mainly the very small, thin patterns are dual action only territory. You just set up a single action's flow and air pressure and it will give you the same pattern every time when you pull the trigger. The dual action's main advantage is being able to start in the middle of the model very easilly. The pattern here that goes off the side of the model could be done with single action.

This is my first tank, but I used to do lots of aircraft. The first pattern was gorgeous with a very tight pattern(the decals are for that version ) before I overweathered it, this one I did pretty quickly after getting a little frustrated. The more I see a lot of the refferences for tanks though, it looks like a lot more should be hard-masked then freehand to be scale(like they were brush painted in reality). If it is hard masked you can do that with any airbrush.

If you painted it with acrylics, you might want to try an oil paint wash.

Without details of your basic finish, it's difficult to give any advice.

Inital base coat of dark yellow tamiya spray laquer, green and red-brown are model masters enamels. One mist/blend coat of MM dark yellow. One coat of dullcote so far. Tracks are the same sequence, Tamiya flat black spray base, mm rust overspray and mm steel drybrush.

your basic camo pattern looks good.
Jerry

If I coat it with future will it nutralize the finish from the wash materials? And if I use artists oils, what should I thin it with? I was thinking some sort of darker wash in the tracks as I dont want them to look that rusty on this particular model. I really want the wheel detail to pop out too without them swimming in grime.

depends on the oils, i use linseed oil.and future shouldn't take out the wash. never has on my stuff.Dry brush the road wheels with a lighter color that will make pop out. on the treads they wee steel, use lamp black with some silver paint and dry brush them this will give them a steel look

Jerry

I'll have to hit an art store this weekend because I hear a lot about oils. I used to use thinner/paint washes years ago but this can cause more problems then its worth too-not to mention the smell in the house . Is there any particular brands that are better then others? And what's a good standard color 'pack' to get, i.e. black/burnt umber, etc....? I have a bunch of extra road wheels and the original turret I can put a base color coat on to practice with too.

Hi, first off after painting add clearcoat then decals followed by a oil wash of burnt sienna and raw umber with a bit of black, let this dry then add flatcoat, when this is dry drybrush model with lightened base colour, then last off use some mig pigments loaded on a brush and gently rub in around running gear and anywhere else that you want some dirt on the tank, this is a basic weathering system that i use and find it gives good results, cheers Bob.

Windsor/Newtons are the best. They're the most expensive but they will last you for years if you keep the tubes closed tight. about all you'll ever need to replace is black and white. I've had my set for years. Thy're a very fine grain oil paint so they dry brush very well. I use them on figures to.
Jerry

That sounds pretty safe. Last time I built models with weathering nobody pre shaded nor were there custom pigment sets. It was thinner washes and pastels for smokes and good old silver paint chips and dry brushing, etc... The only models I have built during a 15 year R/C aircraft kick are all large multimedia cars in perfect condition, and 'museum' finish(i.e. perfectly clean) ships. Now its overwhelming all the variations people have developed. Not to mention the ammount of money I am willing to dump into a project with no practice first I really don't have any old kits anymore to play with, everything I have now is part of my newer 'adult' generation more expensive projects....

So maybe burnt sienna, raw umber, black, maybe a white, a sand/tan, and a grey would be a good start of oils?

yup. winsor and newton make a great line of paints. they also have water mixable oil paints. yes they’re oil paints but they can be thinned using just water. isn’t that great? no smell of turpentine to make the wife go ballistic! plus since you’e not using turp, you can just wash the brushes with soap and water--another big plus. winsor and newton also make great brushes. particularly, their series 7 kolinsky red sable brushes--if you’re going into figure painting, this is usually what the “experts” recommend. both their paints and brushes are more expensive but they will give great results and will keep you company for a long time. hope that helps.

If the oils work just as well in water soluable form I will definately get those!

oil colors... perfect material to paint anithing...

i use the acrylic water base paints ( tamiya but now discover the model master acryl and all my old stock will be changed ) to do all the color scheme basic

then dry transfers to receive the same wash or damage than paint

oils to do the damage to the paint, mainly titanium white with a small yellow to do an ivory
dry brush non geometric ( the nature of the chaos is that... dont follow a pattern ) random brushes and with patern in edges

then the wash with natural oxides in water, and a final oils to eliminate variations in paterns.

the oils from grumbacher or Winsor & newton, london oils i feel better avoiding the oil paint if shows the solid liquid separation, because is not possible a dirty paterns only clouds and is not the target.

these are samples with oils...







the solvent for oil washes if you use thiner is less oil the turpetine is more oil aspect i prefer the washes with oxides and weathering with direct oils as a dry brush

I ordered some W&N oils from misterart. I got burnt sienna/raw umber/lamp black/mixing white/flesh/paynes grey and lemon yellow. Should be able to do something destructive with those