Does anyone know how to do chipped paint??? I'm trying to do some chipped paint on a Tamiya T-34. It doesn't look too bad, but I think it could be better. Any help here would be appreciated....

If you're using acrylic paint, I've heard you can use rubber cement to mask off small areas where you want the base coat to show through. Just paint the metal color that you want to show (be sure to use acrylic!) mask off a little, and then paint the main color over it. And when the paint dries, simply rub the rubber cement off.
Also, In this years Great Scale Modeling: Someone painted an Afrika Korps Sdkfz, with a lot of chipped paint. The builder said he put a little water on the model over the base coat (where he wanted chipped paint), then poured salt over it. After the salt had dried on the model, he then painted the main color. After all paint had dried, the salt was scraped off and wah-lah chipped paint!
Don't know if either of these work (you're thinking 'wonderful') but it's what I know......

YodaMan

Hi David, if your familiar with "Bare Metal Foil " it's in my opinion
the best way to give an illusion of real chipped paint.
You apply the foil ( has a strong ahesive on one side ) after
you have finished the model's construction, and burnish
it down over the bare plastic - then you prime & paint as usual.
After your finished paint has thoroughly dried & cured, you can use a tooth-pick
or your exacto-knife to gently PICK the paint off where it will expose the
"Bare Metal Foil " underneath - The look is authentic, because you
are actually "chipping the paint " off. I've done this on a couple of my
Jet Fighter aircraft - and it works equally well on Armor.
After the chipping - Weather as usual ( Washes & drybrushing )
If you buy "BMF " the instruction's for this technique are included.
If you prefer a simpler way, I also use "Sanford's Mettalic Colored Pencils "
which is self explanatory. These work well, but not as good as the BMF technque.
- ralph

Here's a method I've been playing with (forgot where I saw it so I apologize if I'm stealing someone's thunder...)
After priming, I'll apply small amounts of metalizer (Mr. Metal is my choice) in high-wear areas. Then I'll coast this with Future floor wax and let it cure. Paint the base and camo colors. The final step is to take a low-tack tape (3M Blue) and gently dab this on the areas I want to show chipping. More dabs...more chips.
So far, I have enjoyed the results. :-)

if you read my something cool post, you might get another idea for doing this, but i warm you, it is very hard and very easy to scre up, but the effect is decent, perhaps not as good as some of the other ones here

Thanks for all the help, guys. I tried "painting" the chips with a small brush and although it looks ok from a distance it's not convincing enough. I will paint over it and try it on another model. Going to make it a clean one again

I had a small tragedy trying this using a different method so I thought I would search the boards and see if anyone has asked how to do this already, and here it is. with the above method how long do you wait for the final layer of paint to dry and where do you get blue 3m tape (what type of store) and would I just go in and ask for some blue 3m tape? Also, could you possibly put up a picture showing how large the chips are. I am looking for a method that will do both large and some small chips. thanks for the clearification.

I have used a similar method as mentioned in a number of posts. My material used was slightly different.
I used liquid mask instead of rubber cement. Base paint in metalic color of choice, mask off where you want chips to be. Paint top coat and camo as desired. Pick off mask agent carefully with a toothpick or back of #11 blade. Tips: Be careful and take your time. Make sure you lay the mask down thick enough to be able to pick off. Be sure to let your base coat cure for at least 24 hours and be generous with it.

Andrew,

Any home improvement or hardware store should carry the blue 3M tape. There's no mistaking it.
I'll let the paint dry for at least an hour, but usually overnight. I don't have an image right now; I'll try to shoot one. I'm just satisfied with the randomness of the chips...

Have you seen this site and article.

http://www.missing-lynx.com/rw/chip/chip.htm

thanks for the great link this chipped paint article is really marvelous

Greetz Robert "FAUST" Blokker

For really small worn-metal areas, like the edges of motorcycle fenders in 1/35, I've had good luck using Treasure Gold brand wax-based buffing metals. It is especially good for simulating areas where paint has worn off, as opposed to flaking off. After you paint, just scrape it on using a toothpick, carefully brush away the excess, and then burnish with a clean toothpick or small bit of cloth. It even retains the worn metal look after an light over-wash (too much solvent-based over-wash will erode it away). It also works great for simulating paint wear on 1/35 patterned sheet metal floors. Pewter is the most useful color, followed by silver.

-Neil

I found out that vaseline works quite well to

Because it`s so greasy it takes a while before it dries up and the paint you are spraying over it won`t dry plus the fact that you can just whipe it off and it doesn`t damage your groundlayer


Greetz Robert "FAUST" Blokker :-) :-)

how would u do paint chips using a brush rather than spray paint (using the salt chips version)