Tiger I 1/48 Winter camo "Part 2"

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Welcome again to the second part of this interesting article about how to paint a Tiger I with a winter wash. In the preview chapter I explained how to use the Worn Effect fluid to make a Camo with chipping. Now we will use it again to make the winter wash.

Apply a nice coat of Worn Effects fluid over your vehicle. remeber that it is water based, it is clean, no bad smell and easy to use, just pour it in your airbrush and apply a coat.

After a couple of minutes, apply your white color. tamita will work very well in this case. Note that I applied a soft and random layer of white color. Not too thick.

Now we can start scratching the surface. Apply a little water over it and start moving your brush over the surface until see that the paint come off. It is very easy.

See how random is it. Some areas can be very damaged and others almost new.

Now is time for the washes. The color AK 066 Wash for Africa vehicles will be a good color also for winter vehicles. It is a bit neutral and was designed for light sand colors.

Apply a drop over the lines, joins, details and rivets. Don't worry if you are not accurate. We will clean the excess later. be sure your base is SATIN, and NOT FLAT. this is very important to avoid the expansion by capilarity.

Now using a clean brush and thinner, we will clean the excess of wash. The wash color must be dry. I usually wait for 3 or 5 minutes after apply the wash.

This process is very easy and simple. if we follow the rules (satin surface, controlled application, let it dry and clean the excess) we will obtain always a good result.

Let's go for a funny step: Winter Streaking grime

This technique is very simple. Just draw fine vertical lines in the vertical or inclinated surfaces. Make some of then shorter than others.

After it is dry for a couple of minutes, use a flat clean brush with a little Thinner and stump the lines with vertical motions. Don't try blend the color at once, but in several attemps.

You must get a look like this:

If you reomve to much, just repeat the proces after few minutes.

In the next chapter we will see how to make the metal chips and we will work with oils too.
Thanks for take your time to read this and I hope you like it.

Don't be shy and post your comments or feedback. I am working on this right now, so....your suggestions can help me to be focus in this or that subject or problem.

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PAINTING A CIVIL VEHICLE

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Just today I got an email from a friend (Jon Greenwood) asking me about how to paint a yellow vehicle, because he is making a diorama. He was asking me about my Wheel Loader, the one which I painted a couple years ago for my ex-company Mig productions. I made a nice Step by step of this original vehicle, longer than the one that I show here, but it never was published in any magazine. I expeted to make a cool diorama than Jenny (Aussine famous girl :-) suggested me long time ago. Even she sent me a lot of stuff to make it, but finally....that project was impossible to me. Fortunatly I still storing the pictures, so...I can make a small article for Jon and for all who can be useful, of course.

To paint a civil vehcile is not too different than to paint a tank. Except if the base color is GLOSSY, we can apply the rest of techniques in the same way than in amilitary vehicle. It also works with RED cranes or trucks, blue cars or vans, and much more...specially if the vehicle color is FLAT, like with a faded or very worn look. This is the case of this civil wheel loader.

It supposed to be in Iraq or any Middle east scenary, so I painted like with dry mud:



I painted the base color with HUMBROL ENAMELS, because this kind of paint is stronger than acrylic when you need to cover a big surface with a light color, like white or yellow. But you can use acrylics too. Try to paint the different components and panels with different shades of colors. This is very important!!:

Start the weathering adding some filters with enamels, like a kind of dark brown. Apply 2 or 3 coats of different shaes of brown or even a kind of grey brown to avoid a over-exposure to the brown look.

Now is time for washes. Try to be precise adding pin washes. Use a dark color for it. Clean the excess of wash color with a clean brush with a little turpentine:

Look here how I cleaned the excess of washes. Compare the upper picture with the picture right under this lines:

CHIPPING: Use a fine rbush to paint the frist chips, using an Acrylic light yellow:

Then, add over the preview chips, another ones in dark brown color using the same method:

Paint the ruber wheels with a dark grey color. Add a kind of "ring" around the hub using a light color mix of different tamiya colors as you can see in the picture. Also, paint with the same color some lower areas in your vehicle body. It will be a kind of pre-dust coat.

With a little pigment and FLAT varnish (vallejo model air), we can make some rian marks in a radial way, trying to make soft lines.

To paint the special look of the surface of the tire, we will do something different. Put a little matt varnish in a soft surface, like rubber or polyfoam.

Now, add different colors of pigments over the preview coat of varnish.

Before it is dry, handle the wheel and move it rolling over the foam impregned of pigment and varnish:

It will create a realistic and random effect like in real tires.

Use the same colors to make mud effects, appling directly the pigments or mixing it with varnish and splashing it over the hull. Finally you can add some drops of oil or fuel.

And...this is the final look. Is a very easy process, and not too different than paint tanks.

Of course, write your comments if you wish add more information or you have doubts. I hope you like it.

See you in the next one!!

Mig Jimenez

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