Rusted Tracks?

[Adrian Harris]

Excellent job David

Adrian.

[Fabrice Le Roux]

Hi,

Nice tracks, David.

Just a personal observation. I have felt for some time that the "Spanish School" of extreme weathering effects, facilitated by a plethora of after-market weathering powders, ready mixed washes and filters (whatever!) looks a bit OTT on our larger scale models. Even in 1/35th it can scream at bit.

Equally, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone should be free to finish their models any way they want.

The large scale of the Armortek models makes textural details far more obvious and experimenting with ways to create a unified material "look" to simulate rough painted steel plate trumps extreme weathering IMO.

Kent also pointed out that the welds would not be rusty. This is true of the structural welds to armour plate which was welded with a stainless steel alloy. This can be seen in many otherwise rusted hulks today where the welds remain silvery in appearance. Other mild steel weld would be prone to rusting. As usual the answer lies in looking at real vehicles, photos of real vehicles back then, and a bit of artistic experimentation.

For me, Tim's "less is more" approach looks just spot on for that specific vehicle at that point in its history. And that is weathering in a nutshell; it is the story of everything that has happened to the vehicle since it left the factory.

Off to W&P tomorrow, an unexpected treat, hope to reaquaint myself with some of you hereabouts before we convene in September.

Cheers all, hope you are enjoying the sunshine.
Fabrice

[David Da Costa]

Thanks Fabrice.

I think you are right that the weathering of smaller scale models may look a bit extreme on the 1/6 scale. However, at the same time I want to portray my PIII as if it has actually seen action rather than fresh of the factory floor. However trying to give it a realistic "patina" without over doing it is the challenge. If there were more good color photographs of the tanks in action (rather than of museum tanks) it would be a lot easier to copy how they weather, wear and take battle damage especially DAK.

When I try to weather or wear certain parts I try to think of the story behind how it would wear and weather in real life.

I agree rust is often over done and not appropriate.

At the end of the day, as you and others have said, it is really a matter of personal taste.

In terms of the "Spanish School" of weathering I assume you a referring to the likes of Mig Jimenez, and I have to be honest, I kind of like the effects he achieve on the smaller scale models.

This is his 1/16 scale King Tiger




David

[simon_manning]

i think the track links look good david,there is always a debate about weathering and rust, i would have said there was not one rusty kingtiger back then as they were factory fresh and only lasted a short time before braking down or being abandoned, but i do use it to some degree in my builds it seems to lend some realism to the model even though it never had any,if it looks right, it must be right even though it is'nt, interesting topic! simon manning

[Fabrice Le Roux]

Hi,

Having spent a very enjoyable day at a very dusty Hop Farm, it was interesting to see how uniformly the light brown dust of the site had covered everything, vehicles, kit, uniforms, people, *everything*. There is going to be a lot of cleaning going on for the next few days.

My point is that when weathering it is worth treating the stowage and figures as part of the tank. I certainly will be giving this a bit more thought when I get there.

Seeing the Centurion ARV in action recovering the Comet made my day. The vehicle owed a lot to the lessons learned from the captured BergePanther tested at the end of the war.

cheers, Fabrice

[David Makaras]

Thanks Fabrice.

At the end of the day, as you and others have said, it is really a matter of personal taste.


David

Hi David,

I come from a graphic design background which may have influenced my preferences regarding the look of scale models. From a commercial arts perspective, the visual effect was often more important than absolute realism.

To me these models are a form of artistic expression. Nice to have both tho...

To each their own...

[Roland Wallick]

Hi Richard

One often sees models of Panzers with its spare track links having a heavy coat of rust.
This is sadly not historically correct!

Kent

This was music to my eyes Kent, I can't say how fake it looks, to see how so many modelers weather their models no matter what the scale.