The final chapter… adding the final bits and weathering..
I gotta apologize up front.. I didn’t take pictures as I went during this phase of my build, only at the end.. I guess I was pretty focused on completing my beastie.. Anyway, I used some of the techniques found in Mig Productions book, F.A.Q., to do the weathering, along with a bunch of their weathering products. One important thing that I did along the way was to try out every step on a test panel to make sure I was satisfied with the result, before applying it to the tank.
The very first step was to apply some paint chips. To do this, I used Testors Model Master Acryl Antifouling Red (the same as what I used for primer) thinned slightly with Tamiya Thinner. This was selectively applied to various edges, grab handles, near battle damage and on hatches. I tried not to go overboard with the chipping; a lot of times I see it overdone for my tastes. It was at this step that I finished painting the various tools mounted on the deck.
Starting off, I applied a filter to the Tiger; I used 5 applications of Mig’s brown filter. This added a nice brownish cast to the dunkelgelb and the exposed primer and lessened the contrast with the olivgrun slightly. I then applied a pin wash using Mig’s Dark Wash. This was applied to various crevices, weld beads and other details that looked like they needed some contrast.
Next, I applied a coat of Future to provide a glossy base for the application of the decals. Speaking of decals, I used the ones that came with the kit. I did have one issue with them; they were amazingly unresponsive to the use of decal setting solutions. I had to apply (and keep reapplying) Micro-sol to them for 20 minutes or more to get them to snuggle down satisfactorily. Eventually, I got the decals on and sealed them in with a coat of Testor’s Dullcoat. Before applying the Dullcoat, I gave some of the chipped areas, grab handles and battle damage a metallic sheen using a soft graphite pencil.
Once the Dullcoat was dry, I added the spare tracks and the jack block. The spare tracks were finished the same way as the rest of the tracks, using the Aluminum Black, followed by the application of 2 coats of Rustall. The jack block is real wood; I used a piece of basswood cut to size, with details added from the Aber set. I stained the wood using a brown sharpie, which I then evened out by wiping with a cloth and a little alcohol.
The next step was the application of a dust coat. This was where I really hoped to tone down the difference between the dunkelgelb and olivgrun. To do this, I mixed up a mixture of Tamiya’s Buff, Medium Grey and White, until I got a nice dusty looking color and thinned it down about 10:1 with Tamiya thinner. This was lightly airbrushed all over, with emphasis on the lower hull, where you would expect it to be dustier. This gave a nice dusty appearance and succeeded in muting the difference between the dunkelgelb and olivgrun.
Next, I applied various Mig pigments to simulate rain streaks, tracked on dirt, etc. I mixed some of Mig’s Russian Earth, Light Dust, Dry Mud and Europe Dust pigments to get a mixture that had just the right amount of subtlety. I also used the Light Rust pigment on and around the various bits of battle damage.
I then added the track cable to the left hand side.The cable was made from a suitable length of galvanized picture hanging wire on to which the ends from the kit cable were grafted (I tried to make my own, but wasn’t satisfied with the results, so I used bits from the kit). The cable got a wash with the dark wash before mounting.
I decided to add some mud to my Tiger – after all, some of Tiger 332’s most famous pictures are of it stuck in the mud.
I mixed up a number of test batches of mud using the recipe in Mig’s F.A.Q. I made some changes to the recipe (Mig pigments, acrylic binder, replacing the plaster with talcum powder or Rustall Dust, depending on the texture I wanted), varying the choice of pigments until I got a color I was happy with. I applied the mud to the lower hull, running gear and fenders by stippling it on with an old paint brush.
The last pieces I added were the gun cleaning rods (which I made from 1/8 inch dowels), Schumo tow shackles and tow cables. I weathered the tow cables by first spraying them with Tamiya grey primer, followed by the application of a dark wash and 1 coat of Rustall.
The first picture shows the Tiger prior to starting the weathering; The rest of the pictures show the finished product (well almost… I wasn’t completely satisfied with the color of the mud when I took the tank out in the bright sun, so I applied some of my dust color mix over the mud - I’m liking it much better). Note that I haven’t done any further weathering to the tracks, they’ll get that with use (one can reason that the real tank probably had a new set of tracks installed at some point – these are them…
).