Thanks Jester and kenny, much appreciated!
Started off the final round this morning by giving the entire model a coat of Model Master Lusterless dullcoat in the rattlecan. I allowed this to sit for a couple of hours and cure up before beginning with the Mig powders.
I gave some thought to which combination of powders I would use for this one and finally settled on a two-tone approach using Dark Mud and Europe Dust. My reasoning was straightforward, France in late spring 1940 would likely have had both muddy and dusty conditions and the reference photos of different Chars seems to bear this out. I started out by applying the Dark Mud wet by brush all over the areas between the fenders and the sponsons, around the drive sprocket and mud scraper areas, and around the idler. Once this had air dried, I came back over the same areas with a smaller brush and spot applied the Dust over it so it would have a two tone-appearance vs. mixing them together and applying as one application.
Once all that was dried, I took a round stiff bristled brush and worked the two colors together while removing excess pigment at the same time.
As a last step, I took a q-tip and mositened one end and alternated with the dry end, blended and worked the effect more around the bolt heads and to create some streaks/runs from where mud/dust would have been scraped off and run down the sides. A side effect of using the q-tip is that it also buffs/fixes the pigments into the finish, a combination I think of the fine pigment powder and the "tooth" of the dullcoat finish, but the end result is it can be handled, with care, without any additinal fixative needed.
This process was repeated on the other side and the hull front and rear. I wasn't too sure how best to go about handling the hull top and turret, it kept bothering me especially in contrast to the weathered hull sides. The green in particular seemed too clean vs. the rest of the vehicle, so I opted to apply a thinned down water-based wash of the Europe Dust and let it air dry to create a thin film of dust. Once dried, it was also adjusted with the stiff bristled brushes and q-tip where needed.
In the course of all this, I'd also applied a wet coat of Europe Dust to both tracks and allowed them to airdry so it was now time to install them. This was a bit of a puzzle at first, since both the vehicle and the tracks were weathered, I wasn't quite sure how best to handle them for installation. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts with tweezers, I opted to remove the sprockets and use the old "rubberband" track method. The tracks were connected at the ends and looped over the idler, adjusted into place over the top skids and the roadwheels, then the sprocket set in the end of the tracks and carefully maneuvered back onto its mount post. The tracks runs are a tight fit, but the Tamiya grommet design for the sprockets made this the best option for installation. I also installed the clear lens for the auxiliary headlamp that was converted from a Pzkpw I-B leftover set in the spares bin.
One final adjustment was made in the form of some light drybrushing of Steel to the track faces and work was done.
Then it was off to the photo booth for the finished shots.
