Boredom prevailed once again and I bought myself a nicely reduced Revell 1/35 Sherman M4A3 with Calliope rocket launcher. After buying this kit and looking at reviews I was bit worried that it wasn't very good. I don't know how good it is in terms of detail and accuracy as I don't have one in my back yard to compare it to, however after building it really looks the part and certainly wasn't a bad kit at £9.99.
After trying out a few new weathering techniques on it (not at all new actually, just ones i haven't tried before lol) including various washes and streaking effects I had a bit of a taste for it. So I've been online and ordered a cheapo SKIF 1/35 BMD-1P with the intention of doing it up as one of the many abandoned AFVs in and around Chernobyl and Pripyat. I also stumbled upon
this stunning website and really wanted to try out a few of their techniques too.
So, armed with a paintbrush, some pigments, a can of my mum's hairspray, some salt, some olive drap spraypaint and some rust coloured paint, I set about the spare rear hull plate off my Sherman.
I started by spraying it with the olive to get a good basecoat. I then mixed up some black and dark red/brown paint and roughly stippled it all over, varying the colours slightly over the piece. I then applyed some of the pigment in the same way getting a very pleasing rust effect. I then sprayed over it with hairspray, sprinkled some salt on and then gave it another coat of hairspray. Once dried I gave it a final coat of olive drab and left it do thoroughly dry.
Finally I rubbed off the salt and weathered it a bit more with pigments and washes, and this is what I got.
Which I thought looked brilliant. And It was so easy to do too. The salt creates a great pitted texture and the hairspray helps to make it look like the paint is peeling off. The only thing I'm not too happy with is the yellowish streaks, I'll probably not bother with them on the final model. Just can't wait for my BMD now.