Now that the base colors are done and decals are on its time to do some weathering. I use a fairly simple weathering process on Russian tanks that does not take terribly long and achieves some pretty fantastic tabletop results.

  1. Rust wash using Vallejo rush wash, I only apply this to the pipework as a filter (meaning, go over the whole base color). Everywhere else I just do splotches, conentrating especially on the decals (rust staining on white decals looks absolutely ace).
  2. Streaking effect using Agrax Earthshade. For this I simply got a good bit of wash on a fine pointed small brush, allowed the wash to “pool” a bit on the model, and gently dragged it down to create the streak. I like to do the “pools” on rivets and run the streak down from there. This effect is concentrated mostly on the tops of plates/panels.
  3. Mud! My mud mixture is a gloopy mess of fine grand play sand, PVA, water, and cheap acrylic dark brown paint. I mix the glop up in a red solo cup and apply liberally to the tracks. I try to drag some up over the sideboards and up onto the front/rear of the vehicle to really emphasize the “this is a piece of field kit” effect.
  4. Pigments, I will confess another secret here - I do this wrong. I just use straight PVA to fix the pigment - no crazy pigment fixers/seal the model/ fix it again/ complete a twelve step ritual. I laid down white PVA on the barrel of the gun and where I wanted rust pigment to go and added the appropriate color on top with a garbage brush.

Thats it for weathering, I must say I’m extremely pleased with the model so far.

su_76_painted
su_76_painted su_76_painted su_76_painted

Now for the crew. Frustratingly, the file I purchased ended up having mesh hole issues I needed to fix in meshmixer which ended up taking more time than I expected (not to actually do - the repair itself was simple, but setting up all the tooling was annoying). Out of the three crew only one from my first print was useable - one failed to adhere to the build plate (nobody’s fault - just one of those things that happens with resin printing sometimes, the other I failed to properly support and got a severely deformed leg). Oh well, I guess my evening will be spent cleaning out the printer and re-printing the two fails.