Armortek

Continuing with the weathering. Three screenshots from a video I'm putting together:



First oils go onto card and left for an hour or so to soak out the linseed oil. This speeds drying time and increases the coverage.


Stage 1 - Rendering. This is about picking out detail, creating light and shade. It will look a bit stark and exaggerated but this will disappear with later stages. Oils are so easy to work with, you can vary the intensity (translucence) with thinning medium and you can always wipe it and re-do. I apply the oils with fine 000 brushes, one for light, one for dark and use corresponding chisel brushes to blend and disperse.



Before rendering:


After:


Stage 2 - applying operational effects. Nothing magic here, just clues to suggest where and how the vehicle was used. Was it new or well used? Mud and or dust? Wet or dry? Oily, clean? Damaged by vegetation and combat? This is where the vehicle tells its story, whether imaginary or based on solid references. Here, I'm looking at photos of 064 in mid summer 1969, in Phuoc Tuy province, Vietnam. The weather is wet and humid, so lots of mud and dust, coloured by the typical red laterite soils.

Some effects can be done with oils, scratching, chipping, oil and fuel stains, wear. The hairspray technique is great for the latter but since 064 was a new vehicle, I've not used it here.

First some oil-only effects:


The other medium which is great for terrain and weather effects, is pigments. I mix up three small pots from a selection of colours, dark, medium and light. This make life simpler. It also makes it easier to avoid over-doing one colour. The pigments are applied with a small chisel brush and set with a pigment fixer. I drip this on the edges and allow it to disperse by capillary action. It can be left to dry or you can use a hair dryer to speed things up.


Now comes the last stage, a layer of dust and/or dry mud, without which no AFV seems complete. Come rain or shine, tracked vehicles generate dust, which covers everything, including the crew. Up to now, the weathering may still all seem a bit stark but this final stage will blend everything together and tone it all down. This is a dusting (bad pun) by airbrush of a very light colour. I prefer Tamiya XF57 Buff varnish mixed with XF55 Deck Tan. I thin heavily, use 10psi and keep the airbrush at least 15 cms away. It's very easy to overdo this stage, so it pays to test the mix first, apply small amounts and stand back. It's also important to have good light because the build up of colour is hard to see.


I find doing a small section at a time much more relaxing than going over the whole vehicle with one technique at a time. It's too easy that way to become bored and repetitive, especially so on a one sixth scale model, which is a very large canvas.

Hi,
Awesome weathering.
How do you make this nice welding?!

Florian

Florian, thanks. I use 3D fabric paint, applied with a fine syringe. If you search this thread on "fabric paint" you'll see a number of posts where I show how I use it. It will produce very fine weld seams and is really quick and easy to use. I've now found another product, 3D outliner for glass, which I'm going to try. Although fabric paint is fine, it is a bit delicate and can get knocked off in exposed places. I'm hoping something designed to go onto glass will be even more suitable.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/152011896132?c ... 1208181088

I got fed up with Milliput. It's very fragile once set, it's messy, hard work and you get a relatively short working time and above all, I couldn't get a refined, scale look. Although I could do bead welding with a half round tool, I couldn't find a way to replicate spot tack welds adequately. Fabrice le Roux came up with the idea of using 3D fabric paint and, never shy about stealing other people's good ideas, I've used it since.

Stephen

Oh thank you for your interesting input...
With the Miliput I'm also not exited...

One more question please.
I read that you must take it in an oven.... At my Model are parts bigger as my oven
Did you try it bevore without heating in an oven?

Florian

Florian, no, I'm not intending to fire it in an oven. I'll use a heat gun. As I say, I've not tried this glass outliner yet, a tube is on its way. I've successfully used 3D fabric paint up to now. It's easy to find and cheap.

Hi Stehpen,

I understand that you try it again. Hot air is maybe too hot? - I would then use a laser thermostat as security. I'm looking forward to your result.

A few outdoor shots from the Yeovil Show yesterday. Good to be able to fire the barrel smoker again in the open air. Must be Spring.


Stephen

Weathering can take as long as you like. Unless I do small sections at a time, I either suffer from terminal boredom or I start to repeat patterns, neither of which makes for relaxing modelling. So here are the next two bits, the front mudguards.

First to establish what they should look like for my particular vehicle:


On the right, the mudguard has just had a first rendering. The left one has had rendering and operational effects but no chips or scratches.


Both complete:


Starting with a blank canvas, I've used oils to render the detail. This involves a very small application of shades lighter and darker than the Olive Drab Lustreless base coat, in the same hue. You can vary the intensity by using a chisel brush to disperse the oil, which I do dry. If you want to reduce the intensity or increase the translucence, a brush damped in turpentine works but unless you use an almost dry brush, it just pushes the oil around without adhering. This stage will look artificial and over-done but subsequent applications will tone it down.


Once the rendering has brought out the detail, I start on adding operational effects, which are a combination of use, environment, wear, combat effects, all the things which distinguish a vehicle in operational use from a factory paint scheme. With this stage you have to be guided by your references. What can go wrong? Well, here are some pitfalls:

- Trying to fill the whole surface - looks overdone
- Creating regular or repeat patterns, which looks unnatural
- Detail in the wrong scale, ie too big. Just looks like a model.
- Specific problems with technique - I'll illustrate below a new one I discovered. Using a pipette to apply pigment fixer left distinct pooling. It can't be removed easily and I had to camouflage it.

Most of the problems above stem from losing concentration, which is why it's best to do small sections at a time. Here are some techniques using only oils and pigments.

Shading and fading of the colours:

1st and 2nd colours:


3rd colour:


Covering with dust and dirt - first application of pigments:


I usually apply the pigments with a very small chisel brush, tapping and brushing it on. I then usually use a point brush to apply fixer to the edges and let capillary action disperse it. Impatient, I tried dropping it on with a pipette. Great result except that it left large and unrealistic pools when it dried.


I was able to camouflage it later but it's an example of getting carried away and using too much medium. It's a good principle of weathering to apply as little medium as possible. The effects are then restrained and realistic.


I'm not a fan of "chipping", which you often see done to excess, particularly on plastic models of German panzers. Tanks don't "chip", they do show wear but paint general remains intact (although some of the wartime German paint was admittedly applied in the field and probably didn't meet military specs). Some very restrained scratching and the odd blemish are good to apply, as long as you can get right down in scale. I use an OO brush and a pair of high magnification glasses and I still find it difficult to keep in scale. You have to keep thinking "what would this look like six times larger". Using two colours is an effective way of representing a ding which has broken the top layer of paint.


I had to use this techique to camouflage the pigment fixer pools, so to my taste is a bit overdone:


Knowing when to stop is a skill. I find there's always a moment when you step back and think it's OK. But then doubt creeps in and you go back and add more and suddenly the whole thing looks overdone. Less is certainly more.

For this Vietnam Centurion, the last step is to add a fine coat of dry dust, which I do using a very diluted mix of Tamiya paints, misted on with an airbrush held away from the model and at very low air pressure.


On to the next bit. Sometime.

Next bit, the top front hull plates and driver's hatch area:


Sorted the problem with the pigment fixer, looks a lot better. The final dusting has more XF-60 Dark Yellow (which is actually a yellowish buff), mixed with XF-55 Deck Tan, the traditional colour to add dust. The intensity of weathering reduces as you get higher on the vehicle. I want to see how this looks in daylight because under a cool LED light, it still looks overdone. If so, I'll go over it again with the final dusting coat to tone down the pigments and shading. This sort of weathering does naturally blend and reduce in intensity with time, particularly after a bit of UK wind and rain. The glacis was done ages ago and it has settled down well.

That Brain of yours has been working overtime, very nice, regards simon.

Trying to run one project at a time seems a good idea but at the moment I've got Chieftain research, a Comet half built and a Centurion which needs to be done by TankFest. So on with the weathering. At this scale, it's tempting to use a big brush and rush it. It's too easy to ruin the scale effect by doing something which isn't in scale. The principles are to do a small section at a time, use as little weathering material as possible and don't rush it. I also like to build up layers but on the positive side, with oils it's easy to speed up the drying with a hot air gun. I'm now tackling the track guards and track bins, a long expanse which is a bit repetitive. The trick is not to be lulled into repeating patterns so I do a small bit at a time and complete it.

First the rendering, light and dark shades to bring out the detail:


Then application of operational effects with oils and pigments, the latter fixed by a very low pressure airbrush dusting:


At this stage, it all looks a bit stark. Using very little medium and trying to keep everything in scale, including a (very) few chips and scratches:


Now the final layer, a very translucent and patchy dusting of a couple of Lifecolor acrylic hues mixed to match the dust covering seen on the reference photos. I then use a cotton bud dipped in acrylic thinner to wear it and remove it in places which would be subject to more use:


This section is pretty much done:

I'm working with reference photos which are fifty years old and not the highest resolution. I sometimes wonder about the accuracy of something as subjective as weathering. Have I got it right? Well, only a veteran could really tell and memories aren't always accurate. I'm also very wary of using contemporary sources, where long term preservation issues can distort the appearance of a tank. Yesterday however, a new album of Centurion photos was posted on Facebook and a few really caught my eye:


This will be useful when I get to the engine decks:


The album is here (less one or two of the photos above......

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id ... 087&type=3

Cracked on with the engine decks, oils, pigments and an overspray of acrylics for dust.

That looks better Stephen, maybe a little more dust?