Ok, it’s time for me to start learning to weather tanks! I am an admitted noob builder, and all of my builds until now have looked fresh out of the factory. I am not getting into the 'too much weathering" debate, but suffice it to say my goal is well maintained, but driven and trained in vehicles.
I want to start using mig pigments, but there is a HUGE range out there! Without buying a thousand dollars worth of stuff I don’t need, where do I start? On my bench right now is Tamiya’s T-36/76, and my next build will likely be a BMP-1. After that, I have a Leopard 1 coming in the mail that will be converted to a Canadian C1.
Point is, my earth (mud and dust) tones will be all over the place. I could use recommendations on a basic color palate I should aim for. What colors do you guys reach for most often?
Lastly, any good ‘how to’ articles you know of, or sage advice about products such as pigment fixer (necessary or not) would be a huge help.
Thanks once again to all who share their knowledge!
The doog had an excellent article on the use of the pigments- I shall find it for you.
In my limeted pallette of Mig pigments I have: Beach sand- good for desert vehivles and dust, Dark mud- good for, well, mud, Europe dust- good for dust and dried mud, Russian earth- Very dark brown (almost black) pigment good for fresh mud, and rubble dust- another dark brown good for dirt, mud, etc. As always you can mix colors to get the effect you want.
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These videos might help you on how to weather a vehicle- and the use of pigments.
I use the thinner for washes to fix the pigments,it works good,I have not used the fixer,but when you think about it,how much are you going to handle your model,just pick it up gingerly,they don’t come off that easily.
You already got great advice on this^above^. I’d just like to add that pigment powders can be used in ANY medium(thus how paints are made) so you can use near any kind of thinner,water,ect(some variation in effects/ results will follow-experiment with them), not to mention mixing them with paints, the Mig Acrylic Resin(or acrylic gel medium) and DIY wall filler(spackle)like I did to make the mud on my T-34, here :
Also notice the dried mud sitting inside the track tread details, done in a totally different way. Here a heavy wash was made with alcohol, so the color would flow off the tread edge and stay in the hollows. A different color mix(darker) had to be made for this as these washes tend to dry alot lighter, but knowing things like that will allow you to make the most of different techniques( see more about the pigment powder wash on my current thread in [Diorama] called : “Rudolf’s Roadside Rant”.)
One last thing ~ The Mig Production Pigments are fantastic and come in very useful colors, but a great way to start(and still one of my favorites) is a {12 color set called Doc O’brian’s Weathering Powders for under $20 !!} you can get them from www.micromark.com
The others have offered some great advice on using our pigments. As for the Fixer I have been using it since its’ release and find it very effective for doing exactly what it is supposed to do…keep the pigments in place!
I recommend applying the Fixer either by touching a brush NEAR the pigment area and allowing the liquid to flow into the space, or it may be applied with localized airbrushing.
I hope this helps a little…please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
