Barrels and other protruding parts of a tank quickly show signs of wear.
The final step in building a model tank is giving it a great paint job. Attention to detail is what separates a good paint job from a truly great one. Tanks are hard-working vehicles; they suffer damage from enemy fire as well as from dust, dirt and rain. As a result, tank armor is often worn and scratched. One of the most common locations for this type of wear is the barrel. Incorporating this wear into your paint job will give your model an added touch of realism.
Instructions
1. Paint your tank as normal. Weathering on the tank will be the last stage of the painting process.
2. Identify areas of the barrel most likely to become worn. The main areas of wear will be on the muzzle and at the point where the barrel connects to the turret, but scratches and chips can occur anywhere. Edges and corners are more prone to wear than smooth surfaces.
3. Apply small patches of paint to these locations using a fine brush or a piece of foam. Use rust-colored paint to represent areas where the tank's barrel has begun to rust after exposure to the elements, or a contrasting color to show where wear has exposed an earlier coat of paint.
4. Paint small areas in the center of your chips with a contrasting color to represent successive layers of paint being worn away. For example, tanks in desert combat often receive desert paint schemes over their original green. You might paint green chips on such a tank's barrel, with a small metal or rust area in the center of the green chip to represent bare metal exposed by recent wear.
5. Dilute black paint with water to make a wash, which is the consistency of ink. Apply the wash to the barrel, particularly the areas around joints and where the muzzle and barrel meet. The black wash will pool in the recesses of the model, dulling the paint and providing contrast. Allow this to dry, then mix a similar rust-colored wash and apply it to areas where the barrel might have been exposed to moisture, especially around rivets and other features that trap water.
6. Apply weathering powder. These light colored powders represent dirt and dust. Dirt is most likely to accumulate on the barrel's muzzle since this points forward as the tank moves.
7. Seal your model with a coat of varnish to prevent the weathering powder from flaking off. Matte varnish provides the most realistic appearance.
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