Panzer IV Ausf. G after winter whitewash....a long, tortured tale

Modeling Subjects Armor
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Well, after a week or so of enjoying the look of my Hasegawa 1/72 Panzer IV, I decided to try weathering it with the chalk paste method I’ve read about on this forum and in FSM. First, this is what I started with:

I started by whittling down a stick of white sidewalk chalk ($2 at Target) and slowly combining the dust with water till I had a paste. Using an old brush, I applied the paste to my model till it looked like this:

So far, so good, right? Well, not quite. When I scrubbed off the chalk, I found I had pretty much brushed off all the chalk effect by being a bit too energetic brushing off the unwanted chalk. Undeterred, I washed off what remained of the chalk (and there wasn’t much!) and tried a much thinner mixture of chalk and water – mix till it’s about the same thickness as skim milk. After painting it on with a brush kinda sorta the same width of the brush/broom used to apply it on the original. Here’s how that looked:

Encouraged with the way this try turned out, I scrubbed the chalk off the places that would receive the most wear and applied a light coat of Acryl dullcoat to keep it from blowing away. If you try this, be sure to apply a heavier coat of chalk than you think you should (that’s helpful, isn’t it? [:)]) to counter the lightening of the chalk that happens when the dullcoat hits the chalk. By the way, spraying a light mist of dullcoat is HARD to do. You can’t see your progress, etc.

After looking closely at the resulting chalk job, I still wasn’t happy with the result. It didn’t show the downward streaking that would happen when rained/snowed on, etc. I looked at many different photos and decided to whip up a thin mixture of flat white paint and go over the model one last time. Looking at reference photos, I scrubbed off the heaver patches of white with a thinner-dipped Q-tip. After another pass with a lighter wash of oils (black only this time), here’s the final result:

Some final scrubbing over the decals brought them to the right state of weathering. I then drybrushed the edges of the turret and roadwheels with pure flat white to add a little contrast. Looking at the finished model with the magnifier on, it has more than its share of flaws. Using the naked eye, however, it looks pretty close to my photo references. You be the judge, please.

Well, this one’s officially finished. The very FIRST kit I’ve taken all the way to conclusion in YEARS! I used this model to try out my new double-action airbrush, using Future as a glosscoat and working with pastels (or chalk) and oil washes as weathering techniques. Not too bad considering all that.! Best of all, I’m finally back on track and building models, not excuses for leaving them unfinished. AMS begone!

Dennis

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hey, looks pretty good! Congrats on completeing it!![:D] the trial and error turned out good!

3

looks great
nice job

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Nice job sticking with it. You have a little gem there, looking forward to some more completed works.

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Nice job. One thing about winterwash is that it was pretty haphazardly applied. You’ve achieved a nice worn look with yours. I’d say it was successful.

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Looks very nice to me. I’ve actually wanted to try this technique. I do believe I read an article about this in an older issue of FSM, a year or two back:
Mix the chalk dust and water so it’s roughly the consistency and opacity of regular milk. THe author experimented with different ratios and I believe that this will yield the best result. Brush on roughly, all over the model. When dry, scrub off parts with high wear and tear. As for the streaks, a sort brush moistened with water should help you replicate this, but you’ll have to work very gently otherwise the effect will be…unpleasant.

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Nice final result. Congrats in getting one all the way finished.

So what is your judgement on chalk techniques? Are you going to try it again?

I know it’s my poor technique, but I’m not a big fan of chalk techniques. To me, It always looks great before the dulcote and then always terrible afterwards. No matter how many times I use them I always go back to standard methods (ie thinned paint washes, oil washes, sludge washes).

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That looks really good. I’m glad all that trial and error paid off. Trying to achieve some degree of randomness is always tough. Whenever I do it, I always seem to notice patterns right away.

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Nice job on a very difficult, and tempermental process. Semper Fi, mike

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I-beam:
If I had it to do again, I’d not use the chalk technique with 1/72 scale. It might, however, work better on 1/35 but that’s yet to be seen (by me, at least). I experienced exactly the same problem you mentioned – looked great till the dullcoat. I really tried my best to mist a light coat but it just didn’t look as nice as the final dose of thinned white acrylic.

I’m thinking that an oil wash using white oils might do the trick. The most important thing for me is that whatever technique I use must be easily repeated. Using dark pastels to bring out dirt, soot, etc., yields some fantastic results but I still need a bit more practice before I reach that level. Right now, I’m lovin’ the effects I get with oil washes. Gotta try the sludge wash on my next armor kit though.

I appreciate the kind words from everybody about this little project. Although I used it to test several new techniques and it matches pretty well with period photos, I’m still not happy with it (but that’s just me…AMS). I’m moving on to a Panzer II that’s been around on my workbench for way too long. Will try pastels on that project too. Maybe they’re better suited to dusty subjects like a DAK tank.

dennis [^]

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Great job man. [bow] Do you do a lot in 1/72? I’d love to see some of your other work. I’m hooked on that small scale stuff. once again: way to go.

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Jaysun,
Actually, this is my first braille scale tank. I usually work with the 1/35th scale models. I kinda like these little kits though and am impressed with the amount of detail that jumps out at you after an oil wash and drybrushing. I’m going to tackle a late model Hasegawa Tiger I next. The zimmerit will be the challenge here. I plan to use liquid glue to soften the plastic and some sort of tool to press the pattern into the plastic. If anyone has done this, please chime in now. [:)]

thanks,
dennis