Loracs

I have some Chip and nick in white, that could be mixed with fine pigment color (cheap way is using soft pastel sticks). I'm hoping to create a solution that will be a light version of Olive drab to try a two or three tone chipping without changing the paint property. Any acrylic liquid paint and/or thinner I have tried as "add-on" so far alters the chipping property. Solid pigment should do the trick. I'm hoping for: Light green for color discoloration (spot and light scratches), another for primer (oxide red) and finally brown/rust for rust metal. Seen a lot of work but everything will be far more localize in the upper parts. Have not tried yet.... we will see.

Heavily Chipped Paint: Looking at doing some paint chipping. Work on the underside, since it is forgiving (mud will be added later). I'm using VMS Chip and Nick Paint. After application and a few minutes dry time, you can reactivate the paint to either remove it or chip it further. Quite nice, in fact.

Indeed... here is the result. A little bit more visible, better when looking at a normal distance. The details just stand out more. Time to try chipping now.

The pin wash was a little bit too subtle... Making another stock solution and will see later. This is the problem with making your own paint and washes. But hey, just a small drawback to pay to be independent of any brand of reagents (as much as possible).

Complete painting of the figures. Not much to say. Will start chipping paint and steel burnishing on the tank later next week. Figure base is temporary until I start working on sand/dirt (vietnam red/brown) with pigments.

very well done... those are trickier than it looks. The wood can easily split apart in the process.

Pin Wash: Applied an oil pin wash, a mixture of 50% Raw amber / Ivory black, to enhance the details and add shadow. The effect is subtle but clearly apparent, especially on the wheels.

Color Modulation using Oil dot filter: I did more experimentation... I'm a beginner with the method and this comment is my own experience, NOT a reflection of the technique. At first sight, you think that this would be a great way to add subtle color "texture" to a model. The brown above using mainly brown/earth red is a bad example in fact. With a dot filter you HAVE to take into account the end result of mixing pigments. Each Oil Tube color is either single pigment or multiple, more often multiple with student grade oils. This means that mixing multiple "random" colors on the model (or test parts) will result NOT in multiple subtle hues but a muddy brown/grey tint. So, in conclusion, test and choose color carefully. This may be obvious to most... but I did not quite realize it until I tried. Second, the carrier (mineral spirits or other) will initially bring transparency and glossiness. So don't judge the result at application but wait until dry. Third, creating gradient is far more difficult than it may appear. Mineral spirit "solubilizes" really fast and creating gradient is tricky at best. Not the strength of this approach. The strength is in bringing a general TINT, no more and no less. For me, that time spent in choosing and mixing my basecoat... this does not help me at all. The final strength is in creating streaking (water run and sand). However, I think using dry pigment may be better (will try later, no experience here too) Overall, this approach has strengths but, right now, is too unpredictable for me as beginner. Will need to do far more testing before going to the more visible area that I was planning initially. Will shelve it for now. For color modulation, I'm far more likely heading the route of fine airbrush panels in multiple coats (base coat, mid-range color, highlights and shadow). Oil dot filters won't really replace. It is amazing, as beginner, how you build expectations from a method that are way out of proportion to reality. If you have more experience, please reply and comment on how you use it on a model.

Color modulation (dots filter): This is the first time I'm using this approach. I did not really know what to expect. The change is quite light. Maybe I'm working the paint too much. The real advantage of working with oils for shading is the long open time. You can work on it for a few hours. Even though I pulled a number of colors, I mainly worked with Raw Umber and Burnt Siena. BTW The acrylic paint was coated with acrylic satin varnish to protect it from the solvent-based oils. The last picture compares the color of the treated section of the tank (base) with the untreated (turret). There is clearly an "earthlier" tone. I'm using VMS oil expert medium & weathering carrier, which is designed to reduce drying time.

Figures (feedback very welcome): I have not talked much about the figures. The difficulty with a single color uniform is that it lacks contrast and tone variation. I have tried to address this as many do... using a wash (sepia) for the shadow and a dry brush (titanium white) for the highlight. Skin color: This is the one I have the most problems getting right. It is a subtle tone difficult to mix from scratch. I'm including 5 variations, each on individual figures. Note: details not painted yet, I'm targeting the largest area which is the uniform for now.

Decals application: This was quite simple and straightforward. The number and size of the graffiti is a little bit on the high side of things... but ok on this first model. I'm mostly curious what it will look like complete and weathered.

@Dave_E, Thank you for the comment. I unfortunately never seen a real one... so your Feeback help a lot.

Second Base coat: A second base coat was applied using Olive Drab, the lighter tone. I tried to focus on the inside panels, but due to the paint's opacity the color variation with the dark undertone was very subtle. Will try color modulation and pin washes later next week to bring more changes. Notes: You can see (hatch door, second picture) that to get the color variation this way, I need to get very close with the airbrush. Even then, I'm not sure of the end results on a larger area. The kit comes with a small battalion of figurines. I started on those as well.

This brings me to the solution. I had to either strip the paint off or try to fix it. The last option cost me nothing so why not. I carefully removed the paint/primer from the underside using IPA, as well as the transition edge down to the plastic. This was followed by sanding the dry paint above the edge 2-5mm down to the primer to almost plastic. The point is that the no-peel primer behaved perfectly, feathering to a smooth transition from the paint to the plastic nicely. I then slowly re-applied primer and a coat of paint. You can see the result below. No sign of the mishap or barely.

This is when a small disaster struck. I had to walk away from painting for a few minutes. I still respect the golden rule of airbrushing: never leave paint in the airbrush and walk away... it is likely to start drying and create all sorts of issues. So ok then, remove the paint from the cup and rinse well with thinner... I realized later that I grabbed the wrong bottle and in fact added cleaner instead. When back, I simply dumped the excess and added paint. Of course, the cleaning solution was still present in the body of the airbrush, which started to mix with the paint. The result was catastrophic to put it simply. When I started brushing the underside of the turret... everything started running badly. I was there, not quite realizing my mistake, trying to dry the paint with just air to fix that. It just made everything worse, it started running to the edge and affecting the upper part of the already painted turret. A real mess, I should have taken a picture... but hey! I did not. To be continued in the next post... I'm getting some sleep.