Picking up from where I left off last week, I made a few minor adjustments here and there in the previous pin wash work and decided that a little something more was called for. Given the fact that the fighting compartment sides extend right to the edge of the fenders, I decided to add some slight scratching to the previous weathering. To do this, I used the 50-50 dunkelgelb/light gray mix from before and an 18/0 Script brush to add in the marks where desired. I followed this up with a slightly dampened square tip blender brush and carefully worked the scratching into the rest of the finish on both sides.
The next step was to seal everything in with an overall coat of Testors Lusterless Flat lacquer in the spray can. This was left to thoroughly dry for an hour or so before starting in on the pigment weathering.
I mixed up a batch of 50-50 Mig Dark Mud and Europe Dust pigments as a dry powder in an old prescription bottle lid until they were thoroughly combined. Water was added to create a wet mixture and the mixture then applied to the lower hull, running gear, and tracks with a round 0 sable brush and allowed to air dry. After an hour or so, I donned a sanding/dust mask (reminded me of the H1N1 footage on TV!) to avoid inhaling pigment dust and began the fine-tuning process by removing the excess pigment using a square tipped stiff bristled brush.
The next step involved the removal of even more pigment, this time using a Q-tip moistened with water. This allows for a more strategic removal and blending process along with a dry Q-tip end to get a varied look to the pigment application. The Dark Mud is a powerful pigment, capable of staining all by itself and is the main reason I pair it up with the lighter Europe Dust pigment to prevent a too-dark end result. The Q-tip treatment is applied to all the road wheels, sprockets, idlers, and return rollers as well as the track faces themselves.
The final touch was a light dry brushing of Steel to bring out some of the contact points on the guide horns and track faces.
Tomorrow I'll do the walk-around photo inspection to see if there's anything else I missed or need to adjust before this one is marked down as complete.
Total Session Time: 4.25 hours
Total Time to Date: 75.50 hours