OK I have a dragon t-34/76 mod 1941 all but complete, have decided to go the winter scheme, is airbrushing white trying to approx the paint guide realistic or should I try another method. All references (of real t-34s) I could find looked sprayed, but they also looked like modern repaints?
Anyhelp suggestions would be great
You could airbrush it however, that may be difficult to replicate how the stuff wore off. I may be mistaken but, I believe that a white distemper was used. That way, come spring thaw it could be washed off (if it wasn’t already worn off). You wouldn’t want a white tank rolling across a steppe come spring time.
I technique I tried a few years ago was sanding white chalk and mixing it with water. This was painted on the model that already had a base coat on. After this dried I used a stiff brush and brushed off areas of wear. The down side to this is that I should have left more on, as when I applied a flat coat it made some of the white wash disappear. Moral of the story is leave more than what you may want.
Here are a couple of pics. This was my first (and only attempt at this to date)
Cheers
Dave
Thanks for the suggestion dave, its got me wondering what the missus did with the kids chalk[:D]. I should of also mentioned it wont be on a base or diarama, just a shelf display model, still has me thinking, thanks again
Andrew
Andrew,
You are most welcome. I’m sure the kids won’t miss a little bit of white chalk. LOL. Who cares if it’s on a base or not. So as long as you are happy with it.
There may be others chiming in on their techniques. There is a hairspray method that I have not yet tried and am not sure how to do it. I have seen this effect and it is rather nice.
Anybody out there with tips on the hair spray technique?
Cheers
Dave
It depends on the date of your subject, I suppose. If you are modeling a T-34 counter attacking in Dec of 41, the white would be solid and rather well applied. These tanks were brought from the Far East and held in reserve until the moment was right. If you subject is later in the Spring then yes a good portion of the white wash would have been worn off.
Hi, I’ve done winter dressing using a brush and “stippling”(dabbing). It takes a while.
Hope this helps…Kenny
What you want just cries out for the “Hairspray Technique”.
Spray your base color. Then get some hair spray–no kidding!–and spray it with one or two coats, at 10 minutes apart. Then let dry no more than a half hour, and spray over with white in an alternately light-heavy pattern.
Then take a stiff old brush, and dip into water. The hair spray is water-soluble. Attack the whitewash coat with the stiff brush, and as the hair spray beneath dissolves, it will carry away small pieces of the white coat on top. Concentrate on areas of high wear, and you will have the most realistic-looking degraded whitewash finish you could ever have hoped for.
Seal with Flat, drybrush lightly with base coat green, and weather as desired.
Thanks for input peeps. Time period is march '42 so guess much of the wash should of worn off. The hairspray technique? Sounds fun but will wait till the winterwarriorsGB (I’d doing 1/76 tiger, no real issues If I stuff it while practicing, I have a 1/48 tiger for backup [:D] ) So chalk or white dappling sounds best.
Which brings to two more questions
Do it over all external equipment?
Decals? She has wonderful set up winter decals but these have no markings (just camo stuff) Would it be realistic to have normal camo under the whitewash possibly show through the wear? Should I do the normal two tone camo under the white wash as well? So confused [D)]
Andrew
The hairspray is hard to beat for simplicity. Tried it for the first time on this old Tamiya T-34 a couple of months ago.
Not if it’s worn, IMO. You would think that if the finish had time to degrade, the use of the tools would have long since rendered the whitewash gone off the tools?
“Normal camo”? I don’t know what you mean–in decals, yet? [%-)] I can’t really answer that. But I would mask off the area of the decals, or simply not spray the WW over the decals area.
Konigwolf13:No reason to be confused.Just look at some of the other builds here.Seems everyones got there own method of doing a whitewash.When I wash a vehicle(mostly my builds are WW2 german)I tend to use a small brush to replicate the stroke marks in the wash starting with an almost drybrushing technique and just gradually make it whiter in areas of little traffic,and a more worn look in areas that are frequently walked on and used.Heres a couple of mine,and SMJmodeler has one or two excellent examples as wellas others.Check out last years winter warriors group build.
However you decide to try whitewashing take your time and do a little and stand back and see if you like or not.Trust me its not something thats going to be perfect,but then why would a whitewash be perfect.have fun with it thats what its all about man.[tup]
My First White Wash [party]
I went with the chalk method cause I figured it would be the easiest way with the decals (although doing them over over and around the equipment was crap, I’ll do it by hand next time thanks 
).
I layed down the decals first, then did a test on the rear section
After the test I did the whole vehicle
I didnt want to over or under do, I think I arrived at a decent middle ground. Tank is almost complete, need to get some sealent and decide if I’m going to make a small display plaque, and if so what (ie a basic plank or some snow etc) before I think about weathering.