The Weathering Magazine Issue 04

The entire production run of the King Tiger only lasted a total of 14 months with the Serienturm versions only entering service in June 1944. This means that even a veteran vehicle surviving to the end of hostilities would perhaps be nine or ten months old and for the majority their combat life would be a matter of a few months at the most. When modelling the Maybach HL 230 P30 engine for my Trumpeter 1:16 scale King Tiger this was at the forefront of my vision for the look of my engine. Tempting as it is to model a chipped and corroded engine with leaking oil running down the sides and big greasy stains I just dont think this would be realistic for a relatively new high performance German engine. A leaky engine would be replaced and indeed the vehicle that I decided to model is shown in a series of photos having an engine changed within weeks of being delivered to Pz.Abt.505.

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The Weathering Magazine Issue 03

Masking fluids such as those produced by popular paint manufacturers Humbrol, Winsor & Newton and Daler-Rowney for example have been around for a longtime and are basically liquid latex that dries in contact with air. Some dry to a transparent finish, while others, such as the Humbrol Maskol dry with a purple tint, which makes them easier to see when it is being used for masking clear glazing on aircraft canopies for example. For our use this is irrelevant other than the fact is does stand out in the photo a little better. Applying the masking fluid with the help of a piece of sponge or Scotch-Brite is a great way of creating controlled chipping effects on specific areas of a model and works very well when combined with hand painting tiny chips and scratches with a fine-tipped artist's paintbrush. To remove the masking fluid once the top layer of paint has dried is best done using a cotton bud that has been dipped in masking fluid and allowed to dry. It is then simply a case of rubbing the cotton bud over the paint's surface and it will quickly peal the off masking fluid to reveal a nice random chipping effect.

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The Weathering Magazine Issue 02

Dust generally isn't a weathering technique associated with aircraft, but with so many of the recent conflicts taking place in hot and dry countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan it is inevitable that all the military equipment deployed in these areas will get covered in dust, and that includes the aircraft! Having experienced these conditions first hand, I have been waiting for an opportunity to add these extreme dust effects to an aircraft of some kind and I felt a Special Forces helicopter would be the ideal canvas. So for this article I have chosen an Academy 1/48th MH-60L from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) of the United States Army, known as the 'Night Stalkers'. These were guys featured in the Black Hawk Down movie! In this article, we will be using acrylic paints and enamel washes to create a well used aircraft operating in very dusty conditions.

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The Weathering Magazine Issue 01

In our first article we want to show how to create a number of rust effects that would not only be seen on a tank or armoured vehicle, but would also be seen on huge variety of vehicles, machines, and equipment made from iron or steel. To demonstrate these techniques we will be using a vk 4502 (p), pan-zerkampfwagen "tiger" p2, which was never actually put into production and is commonly known as a 'paper panzer". For us this is perfect because we can be creative with both the camouflage and weathering as this vehicle never actually existed! Our idea is to depict the vehicle after test and evaluation and the vehicle now sits abandoned and neglected in the backyard of the Porsche factory. In very little time, the condition of the paintwork would start to deteriorate and rusting would soon take place. Here we offer a comprehensive guide to creating these effects.

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