As mentioned in previous post, the final steps in this project were 'inspired' by the instructional DVD from AK Interactive called 'Weathering in 1 Hour'. It would be therefore a shame to miss the opportunity to give a quick review of this video. In short, it does what is written on the cover and shows a bunch of common weathering techniques on a 1/35 scale German recon car. If you're a beginner or intermediate modeller, you should definitely watch this video at least once. While there is nothing revolutionary in what they show, watching someone who knows exactly what he's doing even when it comes to very basic techniques, is immensely educational and much better than reading about those techniques in a book or a magazine.
Following techniques are shown in detail (I may have forgotten one or two, but these are the important ones):
- Applying enamel washes using Humbrol paints and white spirits
- Chipping effects with Vallejo acrylics
- Streaking effects with AK Interactive products
- Mud effects with AK Interactive products
- Highlights and modulation effects with white oils paint
- Rust streaks and effects with AK Interactive products
As you can see, the video is a bit of a promotion tool for the stuff from AK Interactive, but who can blame them. I'm sure that MiG would also use their own stuff wherever they could if they'd ever do a video of this kind.
So... how did my attempt at following their instructions go? Actually, quite well, but not without mishaps. Weathering with their mixture of Humbrol paints worked very well and I am happy to report that I was able to achieve best results so far in my 'career'. Excellent control over the wash and how it settled. Chipping in 1/72 scale turned out to be an unexpected challenge - it's damn hard to paint these dots small enough for them to look realistic. Streaking and rust effects is another area where practice should pay dividend - in this attempt I managed to wash most of the effects away, mostly because I am a bit of a chicken, afraid I may overdo it. I skipped over mud effects.
Finally, let's deal with what fortunately turned out to be the only major SNAFU - modulation effects with oils paints. In theory, this technique is pretty simple - apply tiny dots of oil paint and 'work it in' onto underlying paint job to create subtle shifts in color hue and satuartion. I've read about this technique on a couple of occasions, but never tried it before. As it turns out, there is a bit of a learning curve. In this particular case, I followed the instructions and worked with white paint to create bleached patches, trying to simulate the effect of exposure to sun and elements. Lesson number one - tiny amount of oils goes a long way. Lesson number two materialized a bit later, after I applied final matte coat on the model - oils take very long time to dry and apparently can pool together also in interaction with acrylic varnishes. If you take closer look at the rear of the turret and left side mud-guard, white patches are clearly visible - that's the white oil paint that pooled together in the medium of acrylic varnish. Annoying as hell, because otherwise I'm very pleased with how this kit turned out, but I'm keeping my mistakes as a remainder for the future.
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