I read an article here a while back out of the Fine Scale Modeler magazine about using white pastel chalk to put on a white wash effect, so I tried it today on an old KV-II I've had sitting around for a year or so after just painting it in an olive drab only, with no weathering.

Now the process is mixing the white patel chalk (not the oil-based stuff). with water to the thinkness of paint and the just 'painting' this on the vehicle's surface. Once it's dry you take a semi-stiff type of brush and just start brushing around on the vehicle, taking off the excess chalk, and you keep brushing on it till you get the amount of wear you want to show. A really simple process that shows a read good effect.

Now I'm kind of curious if, once this white wash is on and then sealed with, say, Testor's Dullcote, if it would be possible to use various oil washes on top of this type of wash to show the dirt and grime build-up in the recesses without damaging this chalk winter wash, or should these oil washes be put on the vehicle before the white washing effect with this chalk is done?

Or would you even use these oil washes here to begin with at all? Just adding various dry-brushings of the base color once the chalk is sealed with the Dullcote?

Just curious if anybody out there had tried anything here.

Thanks and take care. sgrity.

While I will admit that I haven't done a winter whitewash like this, I do use pastels to weather my models. What I do is put down my darkest color, let it dry, brush off excess to your tastes, if necessary, repeat until you are satisfied. After my darkest color, I put on a coat of dullcote. One thing to keep in mind is that when you dullcote the model, the pastel areas will dry a bit darker than what they were before the dullcote.

After this I start adding the lighter colors (light dusts, sand, worn areas). This I DO NOT dullcote, I simply leave it be. The pastels make the finish even flatter than dullcote will, and, IMHO they give a more natural finish.

If you have any specific questions about weather with pastels, feel free to PM me.

Oh, one other real quick thing, don't put down so much of the mix that it starts to 'puddle.' Once dry the edges of this spot will be virtually impossible to remove.

Thanks for the imput guys.

One good thing about this particular method of doing winter white wash, as the article in Fine Scale Modeler did state, is that you can either add another coat of it if you have brushed off too much, or simply by using a brush and some running water, remove a good 99.9% of it and start over, and/or do something different.

So I think that I will remove the chalk and give the model a good wash of raw umber, and maybe some burnt sienna around the areas pone to rusting, and once this is good and dry, try the white white wash with white pastel chalk again.

Since I want this white wash effect to look real grubby and put on with a definite sloopiness to begin with, like with a broom or mop, I'll just brush it off to my liking and if the darker oil washes show up underneath, good enough, and if not, well........ live and learn I guess. I kind of doubt that these vehicles were washed down before this white wash was put on in the first place , esp. if it was a 'hurry up' type of job, so there would have to be oil, dirt and rust stains showing through in various places once the white wash began to wear off.

One thing I did learn by this method of brushing off the excess chalk is to be real sure all your parts are glued down real good. I lost two grab handles and an mg barrel in the process. Luckily the modeling gods were with me and I found them all. Something, I'm sorry to say, does not happen that often around here. Ha, ha!

Take care, sgrity :-)

Im Looking forward to seeing the end result sgirty
Sounds very interesting, and I dont have have much experience with pastels either, but would love to see how it turns out.
If you are interested in a nother easy technique that can be removed if you are no happy with it, see this link here

falconbbs; That winter painting on the KV-1S has to one of the best painted and finished I have seen in a long time. Absolutely brilliant!

I too think the best plan would be to weather the tank first then apply the white chalk. Why not try mixing some charcoal or grey chalk with some white chalk to simulate the dirty snow and sprinkle it on. I've never done a winter, but plan one in the future so anything you learn, I learn. Look forward to pictres and a how to artcile when you finish this puppy

When I can get my son-in-law over here with his digital camera some time I'm going to get him in here on this Infernal Machine and have him show me how to post pictures. I wasn't born in the electonic generation, so I have to plead electonic ignorance with these things. I still think they are more in the realm of a Harry Potter movie that reality. Oh well. He says it is relatively easy so I'm going to have him put his money where his mouth is.

The only other person who has seen any of my models is my better half and all she says is that they are 'Interesting" and gives me the old eye-roll routine. Ha, ha!

Thanks for the information and take care, sgirty.