Fading tank paint colour

[AlanG]

Thinking of building my King Tiger and would like to make a little more effort on this tank. Yes i was pleased with my first armour build in the STuG GB but i'd like to progress a little now.

How would i go about fading the tank paint so it doesn't look new? Bit like this on the Dragon box art.

[Ian M]

A quick and easy way (aka cheap and nasty), I use is a simple dusting coat with a pale sandy colour.
Mixed thin and sprayed from a distance that is enough for the paint to mist out but not so far that it dries befor landing.
Another one I have used is dry pigments very lightly dusted over the model then sealed with an appropriate fixer.

[Tim Marlow]

Dunklegelb fades very nicely if dry brushed with Naples yellow light oil paint. Because the paint coating is so light it will dry overnight with no issues.

[AlanG]

Cheers Tim. But what about tri-colour tanks like above?

[langy71]

Hope this helps Alan.. granted it's on a F-4 Phantom, but the sequences are basically the same..

https://vvsmodelling.com/2013/03/02/oil-dot-weathering/

[Tim Marlow]

I’ve always faded them during the airbrushing stage. I painted the cam colour and then used buff to lighten the base colour and lightly sprayed inside the edges of the cam.

[langy71]

I’ve always faded them during the airbrushing stage. I painted the cam colour and then used buff to lighten the base colour and lightly sprayed inside the edges of the cam.

That's the same way I do it Tim..

[AlanG]

I used an oil filter of Burnt Sienna and Titanium White heavily thinned down on the STuG and it sort of faded the paint. But in some ways it just didn't look right.

[Tim Marlow]

Titanium white is pretty opaque, so it is very hard to get it even when used as a filter, that’s why I recommended the Naples yellow. It allows the underlying paint to grin through so reads as a more even paint colour. Another colour that is great at fading paint tones is a light flesh. It is a very warm white so doesn’t kill the tint.

[langy71]

Just found a video that might help, it gives a few basic tips for weathering armour, and gives a good explanation of the oil dot filter technique ... (09:25)

[AlanG]

Cheers guys. That dot filter looks rather labour intensive.

[Mini Me]

Andy the "Paint Guy" gave me a tip awhile back on an aerial recognition flag I was doing for the hood of a captured truck....the flag of course was German and that bright red was hurting my eyes. He suggested a wash of thinned Neutral Grey.........Toned it right down and gave it a nice sun faded look. Rick H.

[Guest]

Thanks for the shout out Rick :thumb2:

When this first came up I did have a similar idea, but since I've only tried it (so far) on small items I didn't know how well it would go on a full vehicle. That is, desaturating the colours with a bit of neutral grey before applying.

In my mind it should help to avoid the toy-like look of really strong colours without too much additional effort, but as I say, I've never tried it on a large scale so maybe somebody, perhaps Tim, could give an opinion on whether the theory might work in practice.

Lightly applying the colours over a grey background ought to work in a similar way, but requires much more precision.

[PaulTRose]

. He suggested a wash of thinned Neutral Grey.........Toned it right down and gave it a nice sun faded look. Rick H.

what brand of paint and thinner? id like to try this

[Guest]

The pictures are here Paul to give you an idea of how it worked