In the spirit (if not the skill of ) Streetsquid’s work and posting, I have attempted the weathering of my Pershing. I have highlighted, chipped and dirtied all my hard work on my beloved WWII M26….

And I LOVE IT!

I know it is not very well done, and I know far more on how to than I did when I start and could do better now than when I started, but I think it looks freaking kewl! Thank you so much for your step-by-step Streetsquid, it allowed me to attempt what you make look so easy and sooooo realistic. My Panzer IV will be better than this, but I think this will still be my favorite customizing job.

What I’ve learned:
1. Wash the body after painting before putting on the watercolor highlight paint. Some paint like the one I used (Model Master) tends to bead water, making it difficult to spread out smoothly.
2. Go slow, and always use a smaller brush than you have. Nothing worse than blobbing paint when you wanted a fine touch. Better too dry of a paintbrush than too wet.
3. Turn the darn ceiling fan off before doing any paint. Even on low, the paint dries far too fast otherwise.
4. Play some music in the background. It relaxes you, and you want to be loose and free for most of this.
5. Don’t try to show your wife what you just spent the entire evening doing. She will not understand why you are doing such detail, and she will think you foolish for “wasting” the evening.
6. Don’t sweat minor imperfections. You can always strap a box or tarp over it, or spray more dirt there! ;o) It’s a tank, and they didn’t have showroom paintjobs!
7. Post pics on this forum and do it often! More than once I was told of a detail or mistake several times, allowing me to do a better job and before having to redo the entire tank. Besides, pics rock, and everyone loves seeing them.

So, I am posting a series of pics for your perusal before I shoot my sealing dullcoat. Before anyone asks what I used to texture my rusted cast iron exhaust, I used rust! I have a metal shelf in my shop, so I took a razor blade and scraped. I mixed up a color that looked the right color,then dumped the rust powder in and stirred. In person it looks very authentic for rusted cast, but a bit too shiny. Also, some of the paint I mixed for my chips were gloss resulting in shiny chips. I’ll get rid of that with brushing on some dullcoat, then sealing the entire tank with an aerosol dullcoat spray.

So, anyone have any suggestions on my tank before I finish it?