Thanks for the comments guys.
MD, the buff filter really helps pull it all together.
Steve, not sure which effect you mean but check my answer to Bob below.
Bob, not a problem.
Starting with fresh 3 color camo, ambush in this case, in acrylic and all subsequent layers are oils or enamels with white spirits and no gloss coat.
• About 4 or 5 light spray coats of buff at 5-95 paint-thinner ratio to start the fading and tone things down a bit.
• A dirty brownish with a bit of an orangey cast to it (hard to describe) again 5/95, applied with a brush not worrying how even it is but making sure it does run or pool.
• Dot filter of white & and tan(ish) with a bit of dark brown. Then a 2nd round with dark brown and tiny bits of dark blue in areas like crevices or anything that would look to be a shadowed areas.
• Streaking is AK Inter’l Streaking Grime applied in small thin lines of varied lengths from the top down. When dry but not cured, these are blended with white spirits.
• All the details get a pin wash. I used AK Dk Brown Wash but raw umber oil thinned with spirits works fine. A clean brush with spirits is used afterwards to clean up any excess.
• Edges and details were dry brushed to help define them. I saw on a You Tube video a way that I tried this time and will use form now on. Instead of a light color and dry brushing the whole thing, each color was selectively brushed. The green was dry brushed with very light base color green. Same to the red brown and the dk yellow.
• The chips/scratches are Vallejo 70.822, German Cam Black Brown thinned with a bit of water if need be. One of the tricks is to use a round brush with a real good point and big enough the paint does not dry out to fast in the brush. I used a #4.
• Small rust streaked added at some of the larger scratches.
• Selectively lighten areas that might have gotten too dark from weathering with some little bits of white oil blended with spirits and the same for too light areas using some raw umber oil. This is only if it is needed.
• Last thing was to take oils, yellowish, red brown and green. Use colors that will complement there respective colors in the camo. Matching the color would be best but close it good enough. Selectively brighten some areas with the color again blending with spirits. The idea being to add more tonal values. You may hear this referred to as “mapping”.
As I said, I don’t gloss coat. There are so few decals I use Future. A small area of gloss lacquer is sprayed. The decal is applied in a little brushed area of Future, positioned and then brushed over with a Future. Blot with a q-tip to get most of it. When it’s really well cured I will wet sand the decal with some 6000 micro mesh. A flat coat will finish it off at the very very end to get rid of any shinies.
That’s it from beginning to end.