discussion Tank weathering advice

[DaddyBuck]

Hi everyone I need some advice please. Although I used to make lots of the plastic Models as many years ago when I was a kid and also as my son was growing up, I haven’t done anything for many years. As a new hobby and my grandson, my son and myself have acquired 1/16 scale RC tanks from the Heng Long range. Mine is the Pershing M 26 upgraded version with all the steel bits. My son has a tiger and King tiger and my grandson has the Sherman.

I haven’t used modern paints and I want to do some weathering on mine before we attempt the others. JOHN at scale modelling suggested I joined this group to get advice and guidance on which exact paints and brushes to buy. I’m not going for airbrushing at this moment as it’s all new to us but I do want to highlight some of the areas on the tank so it looks used. I know it was predominantly used in Vietnam so I’m presuming in the damp climate there will be areas of rust as well as dust. John recommended the following colours but also to check with the experts in armour online. These are the colours that were suggested
Dark brown wash, streaking grime, track wash, odourless brush on Matt varnish , rust and dust pigment paint, under a set of weathering or dry brushes.

There were so many colours on their website. I really not sure where to start so if someone or a number of you would be willing to give me a list of a complete kit to buy I can get on with doing this for my Tank and once I see the results we can then get the relevant colours for the other three thanks thanks in advance Steve

 

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Steve. Welcome to the site.
That question is a bit like “how long is a piece of string” . Best advice I can give for this is as follows: Find a picture of the tank you have in the condition you want to replicate. After that, watch a few vids on YouTube that show weathering being done to get the feel for the effects you like. Once you have got a process you like, use the recommendations from that vid for your shopping list, and copy what you see in the picture of the actual tank. Don’t try to make things up on the fly until you have some experience. That way results are often disappointing and just don’t look right. Weathering is something that we all develop our own feel for, and gradually acquire our own kit and techniques. Have a good look around on here as well. Some of the guys are extremely good at this, and are a pretty helpful bunch. Mostly though, don’t expect perfection after your first attempt, and enjoy yourself

 

[Jim R]

Very sound advice from Tim. Although I have not worked at such a large scale as 1/16 I imagine weathering is similar at all scales. I reckon almost all effects, dust, rain streaks, oil stains, wet and dry mud etc can be achieved with oils and pigments. One YouTube video I can recommend is Steve Jones modelling.

 

[scottie3158]

Good advice from the guys. The only thing I would say before you go spending a fortune on after market products a set of good oil paints and odourless thinners are a better investment as you can achieve many effects you are after. Plus they can be mixed and thinned to achieve the colours and thicknesses you want.

 

[Tim Marlow]

I would say some artists pastels are useful as well, but it does depend on how happy you are at mixing colours, so do make up your own mind.

 

[pjgtech]

Relatively newly back to (plastic) scale modelling here, not sure if the plastics used on RC tanks will be the same as on "regular" scale models and therefore subject to the same techniques? I know some RC cars have very thin plastic shells....
All good advice above, and I would echo the point that there is no one right answer, some people do it one way, (maybe just using acrylic paints), and some do it another way (maybe using oil paints), and some more will use yet another method, (maybe using enamels and pigments). Some will use all methods!
So watch some YouTube vids, there's loads out there with some very talented people.
Maybe also search through some of tank / armoured builds on here too, there's often lots of comments and photos.

Reference photos are also a great resource, so just google and find some...
Once you've digested a few techniques, then decide what sort of look/finish you want.

Maybe get some scrap bits of plastic and experiment to see what works for you?

Good luck with it and pics progress reports on here would be good too....

One small tip I would say is don't go too overboard with the rust, generally, as tanks have thick metal shells / armour, so it would actually take years for some panels to rust right through, but obviously surface rust would be present.

Cheers