Thanks for your kind words guys !
Jay Jay - I would be happy to telI you my method. I brush paint with MM acrylics. Most of the time I will dilute them a bit with a little water so that they are just slightly runnier than straight out of the bottle. I used a slightly lightened olive drab as the base. (OD + abt 5% light aircraft grey). I only brush the paint when the paint is wet. That sounds kinda stupid - but the paint thickens up and starts to dry pretty quickly. As soon as it starts getting a bit more viscous, I just leave it alone so I don't get brush marks. If I have any puddles on the surface, I soak them up with a relatively dry brush. A second coat can be applied about 5 minutes after it is dry. Better to do more coats than try to apply it too heavy and "work" it with the paintbrush - you're sure to get brush marks then.
Then I mixed a small puddle (about the size of a dime - in some really small containers) of the lightened OD with a drop or two of red and another small puddle with a couple more drops of light grey. These very slight variations were diluted with a bit more water and I just painted them on in various places to give either a grimy appearance (red) or a kindof faded appearance (lt grey). They were used sparingly. They were brushed on "in the direction of airflow" as best as I could determine.
For darkening recessed panel lines I used MM "Marine Green" which is a dark shade of green. It was diluted with water to make it a little thinner and runnier, and applied with a very fine brush. I like the way the marine green isn't quite as dark as a black, and overtop the OD, it is even more subtle. If the darker shade goes on a little heavy in spots - I go back later with the base color and "erase" it by simply painting out the parts I don't like.
On the underside, I used the same panel highlighting - but with a dark grey instead of marine green.
Its a kindof slow, pains-taking method - but I guess I'm into pains-taking - I'm a plastic modeller !
Model On !
Chris