RFM Tiger I Late

Michael Osadciw
It looks great, nice work. The weathering on the fenders is particularly amazing.

Neuling
I agree with Michael. You make plastic look like real metal.

Al
Thank you both, I give all credit to the Uschi Dark Iron burnishing powder!

Jay G.
Looks great!!!! Love the work of the paint effects. May I ask how you achieved it??? Getting ready to finish a Afrika corps panzerjager 1 and would like to show the original grey paint under the afrika color.

Al
Of course! I use a piece of packing foam/sponge and tear off little bits to create even more texture. I apply 3 consecutive coats of the following acrylic paints Rust Texture by Vallejo. When dry I apply Dark Chocolate brown (sometimes sold as Mecha chipping brown) and a final coat of Tamiya Dark Iron.

You want to dab this out onto a paper towel, the key is to wok in very light passes; practice on the bottom of your vehicle.

When all is dry I rub on Uschi Dark Iron powder; I use my finger tip and really burnish it in.

I also work in sub-assemblies, in fact when I airbrush, the model is more unassembled than it is assembled. Each wheel, fender, door, hatch and tool is painted, weathered and allowed to dry before final assembly.

Al
For showing exposed undercoat of paint you could use the sponge technique above combined with the hairspray technique (Panzer Grey enamel rattle can followed by hairspray 24 hours later, followed by Afrika sand)
After the hairspray technique you can finalize by sponge dabbing on panzer grey over the Afrika Korps sand color. The desert winds sandblast vehicles a lot but there is little ambient moisture to cause too much rust but you do see some rust, just not like the South Pacific.

The initial Afrika Korps paints were applied in the field much the same as winter white so there should be lots of "holidays" or missed portions.

gorby
That weathering is pretty remarkable.

Al
Thank you; I read that some tank crews were in continuous operations for 29 months without a break and that includes their tank except for field maintenance.

Jay G.
Thanks for the info Al!!!!! I'll give it a go.

Olivier
Nice ! But I doubt that any Tiger had time enough to rust like this one in operation. 29 months of continuous ops w.o. leave or back to training periods seems odd. The German army was well organised until the last few weeks of the war. And most armoured vehicles did not last very long in the field.