Part II Weathering

5 /18 /10 Up Date

The second part to the painting of the model deals with what I refer to as the rust weathering or rusting. This is were the actual rusting of the chipped areas and metal parts get the rust effects. There are different ways of simulating rust, from using real rust powders, oil paint, rust effects from MIG Productions and colored pigments. One type of rust weathering is the rust staining that occurs when rain washes fresh bright rust on to the paint, or what is left of the paint. This can vary from simple perimeter staining around a rusted spot, to rust streaks.


For the lower hull of this Sherman I decided to simulate the rust staining and streaking with oil paints, and also Standard Rust Effects from MIG Productions. There are other companies that produce similar rust colored paints, pigments and washes but at this time I only have the MIG products.

I will use the turret of this Sherman to demonstrate how I achieved the stained rust effects, but for now here are the pics of the hull with staining.















The following two pics show the roadwheels painted and attached to the model. The wheels were done the same way as the hull, and how the turret armor plates will be painted.






For the bow plates I decided to add some rust drips from the gun barrel. This seems logical since the rust would run down off the barrel and dripping onto what is below it, in this case the bow, or glacis plate.
The rust drips is the rust line going down the center of the bow.





The tanks tracks are also being worked on, and will then be painted/weathered and added to the model. The rusting of the turret will be added soon. this will also be included on the techniques page. More to come.



6 / 1 /10

Work on the Sherman progressed slower than planned due to the re-painting of the armor plates on the turret. While experimenting with some oils, and forgetting to seal them with clear flat, I was unhappy with the way they looked so I removed what I could and repainted them in the same manner as the lower hull.
I used the salt technique for the chipping followed by some rust staining, then a coat of clear flat from Testors.



For the rust staining I used some 502 Abteilung oil paints from MIG Productions. The pic below shows the oils used, and mixed to different shades of rust from a light reddish rust to a darker brown rust. The second attempt using these oils to simulate the rust staining came out much better. A tip from a friend ( thanks Rick Lawler ) was most helpful. Dabs of each color were placed on card board which absorbed the linseed oil which gave the oils a flat finish when applied to the plates. What a huge difference in  the end result, and something I will be doing from now on.



Now that the turret was done except for some final weathering that will come later when the model is mounted to the base, it was time to do the tracks. The kit supplied indy tracks looked ok but did require some cleaning up since they are the older tracks and not the magic tracks that are common in the Dragon kits.
Everything went ok until it was time to run the tracks on the sprockets, the teeth did not fit properly into the tracks so some modifying was needed. I decided to leave one of the tracks hanging off the sprocket for a visual effect to show that work on this tank was being performed at one time, such as the removal of the  roadwheels. The tracks were painted the same way as the rest of the model starting with a dark rust color of mixed Tamiya paints followed by some rust colored washes, and finally some dry rust pigments from MIG.
The center boggie that has all it's wheels removed was then covered in a blue tarp, just to add some color and eye candy for the viewer.




The next thing to do is start on a small base with some simple ground work, then the model can be mounted and the final weathering and finish work can be done.


6 /17/10

After debating on how to display this model on a base, I decided to have it sitting on concrete with a fence behind it. The idea being that is sitting on a museum back lot, or similar.
The fence came from a cutout section of window screen with the posts made from 12 gauge copper wire. The ground work is a mix of MIG acrylic resin, plaster, earth tone MIG pigments and some garden soil.




The resin tree stump is an item I picked up at a local model show. The earthen area was painted in earth colors along with some earth tone Pigments from MIG Productions. The fence was primed in gray, then painted a light gray. Some chips were added to the fence using Tamiya acrylics and a sponge.




Vegetation was added in the fence area to add some color, and is where grass and weeds would naturally grow.




There is still more weathering to be done before it is finally done.

07/01/10


Here are the final pics of this Sherman project. Some weathering as done to the hard top and a bit to the Sherman itself. I chose not to add too many extras on the base as not to distract from the model. I debated on adding some misc tank parts or rusted metal objects as was done on the T55 base. This would have cluttered the base too much considering the size of the base.





Thank you all for taking interest in this project and following along the slow updates. I learned a few new techniques while doing the Sherman and have used them on other models I am currently working on.

Rob


I am quite happy the way the model turned out. The Sherman placed well at the AMPSEast model show in Danbury Conn. in September 2010.