DIY: Weathering - Mud

[Kage]

I'm not sure about fantasy miniatures, but weathering always makes wwii miniatures look way more realistic.  Unless you are going for the right out of the factory look.

I found an ingenious little weathering stick a while back, made by Tamiya.



What i'll do is use a reaper paint called Muddy Brown and drying brush in the direction that mud would splatter if the tanks tracks were moving.
So from the bottom of the tank in a diaginal direction towards the from of the tank.  The top of the tack moves foward, and the bottom of the track moves backward.  And then on the front and back of the tanks I brush from the bottom up.  This will catch parts of the tank but not directly on top.

This with this mud stick you do the same thing.  it gets a nice build up on the edges of the tank.  makes it really look like a mud build up.  and the reaper muddy brown is a bit darker so gives a nice 2 tone mud with out more dry brushing after its dry.

you can even jam the stick into nooks and crannies to build it up even more.  

here are some IS-2's I just completed.  These were also the first tanks I used an airbrush and a wash on.
the first one I did just enough mud to give it some weathering.  the others I caked it on.  

while we are on the topic of weathering.  I tried something new with these.  You should be able to see a little bit of black on the fuel tanks.
These are oil stains.  After all the weathering, I did a small wash of black, and the did a quick stroke downward with a stiff brush.

Lets see Hasbro make their tanks look like that. 









These sticks are pretty expensive.  About $7 a stick. but I'm too lazy to make my own.  And I've had  great success with them, that i'm not going to try something new now.

They also have snow sticks, which i'll be trying soon.

[Dean Dodge]

Great looking tanks. The extra attention to detail is a big difference maker from good to great models.

[Kage]

Great looking tanks. The extra attention to detail is a big difference maker from good to great models.

I agree.  Weathering is big.  I used to never weather my tanks.  but it sure makes them look sharp.

I've been playing around with artist chalk to create dust, and the look fantastic....except when you go to varnish them.   :confused

But i do have a dilemma.  I'll have to post it here when i'm done but...
I'm almost completed a panzer grey tiger.  There is a lot of questions as to whether or not any tigers were panzer grey.  In my research I discovered that the first tigers went to Army group North (502 sPzAbt) in the attack on Leningrad, and at least 4 of them in August '42 were panzer grey.

The dilemma is the tiger is turning out so nice, I'm not sure I want to add the mud or dust...maybe its fresh off the train? 
I'll post pictures when its done (hopefully tonight) and people can give me their thoughts, since everyone has seen the mud now.