It's gotten muddy!

My friends! The most time-consuming step is done! 

This took me longer than I wanted due to some things, but here we are, the sloppy mud is on. And I didn't enjoy it this much in a while... probably because I haven't done a heavily weathered tank in quite some time - I think the last one with this much mud was the AMX-50B. 

So the main problem here was creating enough contrast between the brown camouflage paint and the dry earth tone. For this reason, I mixed Buff with German Grey as my pre-dusting mixture. Of course, AK textured paste and some real earth + sea grass was applied beforehand for some crunchy texture. 

Then it was about the generous enamel treatment. I made a test section, finishing one side of the hull to test out what works and what doesn't, and then finished the rest of the tank on autopilot mode. The dry tone is Rainmarks Effect, and to add more volume to it towards the rear, I mixed it with VMS pigment texture. This mixture was applied with the speckling method to further enhance the splashed mud on the back. The medium tone was Dark Mud, applied over the dry effect, and covering roughly half of the already muddied area. The final, darkest tone, was Fresh Mud, applied in even smaller amount - roughly one third of the weathering. 

This step also toned down the cartoony tarps - that's one reason why I like to paint them that way. I just enjoy creating contrasts, and the weathering always tones them down to a more reasonable look while still keeping the strong shadows visible. 

Weathering with earth effects always takes time. Especially when the model is covered in them, and you're creating a 3-layer muddy effect. It's also important to not get carried away even if the model is really dirty, because it's easy to completely cover up all the previous effects. In fact, it's a lot of fun to enhance the post-shading with dark mud tones! 

Next up I have to finish the tracks to this same muddy finish and hope they won't fall apart! After that it's about finishing touches, so I think you'll see some pics of the finished model tomorrow! :)