PolicyMic-dqscaleworks

Rick is one of those few modelers that need no introduction, but what you maybe didn´t know is that he is perfectly capable of making one of his masterpieces not only with tanks and figures but also with flying machines. As usual Rick uses a high level of inspiration to create his works: 

One evening while surfing the web I stumbled upon a gallery of photos showing abandoned Russian helicopters; parked and left to the elements in what appears to be inner-city parking lots.  The thought of all of that high-tech hardware simply "put out to pasture" is quite mind-boggling if you think about it.  Cold war weapons reduced to discarded carcasses of aluminum and fading paint.  And there is the key, the faded paint!!  The colors and patina exhibited on these forgotten beasts is amazing – yes, in my case irresistible.

In my opinion, this is one of the best weathered models I´ve  ever seen, no doubt. And you?

If you want to see the step by step article along with the rest of Rick´s masterpieces please don´t miss his site: 
Rick Lawler´s Propaganda

Q

The work in the tank is almost finished. There is only some local effects to add like some black stain in the exhaust zone and some darker streaks here and there. It´s time to finish the base:


Weathering some elements of the base. These bigger elements need special attention:

I have decided to paint the tank before completing the base. The 4BO Russian green is painted with the modulation set by AK. I didn´t need a full modulation this time so I only used three shades of the set to get a cenithal effect.

The remains of white paint is made with the hairspray technique. After the chipping with dark brown is time for a black wash to enhance the panel lines and raised elements.

Q

Some pictures of the early composition. Still a lot of elements to add:



Everything is painted with acrylics. The grey blocks got some acrylic washes with brown and grey (Chipping color and Russian 4BO shadow from AK):

Time for some extra bricks for adding complexity to the debris. The thing begin to look better:

Q

Ok, the painting&weathering process is almost finished. Only some weathering in the green areas is needed to fade and stain them.
Now a summer break to make other things... a winter tank maybe.  :)

Q

This is a Panther  Ausf. G early production, a nice kit from Dragon. Assembled almost from the box, I only added the metallic towing wires (and the field camouflage). I applied a soft modulation on the base paint, a medium weathering and a lot of splashes. The idea was to place it in a diorama next to a wet road with other vehicles passing by. A project too huge for such a lazy modeller...
Maybe someday.

Diego Quijano.

Another daring step where faith is necessary! There´re a lot of ways for simulating mud: with plaster, with acrylic resin and pigments, with specific products so on. All methods are good ways to achieve an attractive result with the mud, depending on modellers taste or affinity with the materials involved. My favourite: Tamiya´s texture paint. Why? A big bottle can mix it with sand, pigments or acrylic paint and, most of all, fix strongly with any kind of surface:

Adding some dark brown pigment and paint to the Tamiya´s paint, I achieve approximately a nice colour to start adding the mud. Anyway, the colour is NOT important. Just the texture IS important. Must be in scale and as heterogeneous as possible:

Using a bush, I applied the mix to my taste to the wheels and the lower part of the tank. As can be seen in the pictures, the result is anything but nice! But keep the faith! This is just the beginning!:

Once the texture paint is dry (a day or more, do not be impatient), using a colour mix of paints similar to the AK´s dust used previously, I randomly applied a fine coat of dust over the wheels. Be sure that this paint don´t hide all the elements or you´ll achieve a dull and unattractive surface. As usually, do it as heterogeneous as possible:

Remember that this paint can´t be removed, so be carefully when applying the paint with your airbrush:


And, why not, let´s start with the tracks. Use ALWAYS the same colours for dust in all the parts of the vehicle. Of course you can play a little bit with the mix proportions, but do not use different colours to simulate the same effect: dust and dirt:

Now, the final steps for the mud are a mix of techniques and products that I´ll try to resume at my best:

- Using oils: Naples Yellow, Natural Umber and Black, I made 3 mixes of these colours (like I did with acrylics) and using them as a wash, I applied them randomly on the different wheels with different intensities.

- For splashes, I used acrylic paints slightly diluted projected to the wheels with the help of an old airbrush

- Just in the tracks (where the two previous steps were also applied), I added punctually some pigments (a mix of three colours from Iraqi Sand and Russian earth ) to achieve some textures here and there. Remember that if you use a lot of pigments, you´ll spoil all the previous work as the surfaces where the pigments are used, if you´re not careful, will get dull, bored and will hide all the previous work!:


And then ..... finally, at last .... miracle!!! ........... just painting the tools, towing cables ... et voilá!

Many thanks for your attention!