Weathering Tyres.

This is a large photo guide to the work in progress on the GHQ modern tanks.  I am experimenting with dust/mud weathering on the rubber tyres.   

Given the small size of 6mm wheels I am looking for something that looks good in the tiny scale, whilst still being quick to paint.  Just making them all very dark brown would be overkill I think and in the small scale you would end up loosing the amazing detail on these GHQ models. They really do have the correct tyre tread for the vehicles like these Stryker M1129 Mortar Carrier and the Stryker M1134 Anti-Tank missile carriers.

The initial start of just painting the wheels in Lifecolor tyre black was a challenge in brush control and I think you can imagine that around thirty 4 and 8 wheeled models results in some serious wheel painting time.  I did not want to paint directly over the wheel hubs, so it was a careful job of painting the lifecolor paints onto the tyres and not covering up the hubs which had been airbrushed as part of the main paint job. 

I completed a few test trials with different washes and dust filters to try and get it right. The end result uses the Lifecolor Dust type 2 wash over the tyre black but thinned down with about 4/5 parts water. This makes the dust go into the tiny grooves in the tyre tread, rather than coating the full wheel which would cover up the nice rubber base colour.   I used the Smoke-Brown wash from Lifecolor to slightly darken the result like a filter over the dust.    Finally I experimented with the games workshop "Agrax Earthshade" (Which is bit like the old Devlan mud) to add a much deeper and darker wash to the undercarriage and areas of the hull which face the ground and might therefore have had a splash of dust and mud.   I think I will be sparing with the Agrax wash because it almost covers up the dust in the tyre grooves.

So the lesson learnt here really for me is just to have an epic amount of patience for painting the base coat on the tiny wheels.   The longer you spend getting the base tyre colour on the model the better the final result will be.

These miniatures still need work on the stowage, more weathering on the hull and around exhausts and then finally the base needs to be completed. Currently the bases are just the airbrushed colours which overflowed from the miniature during the first airbrushing phase. They will eventually be a desert colour with some reddish brown pigment, static grass and painted gravel rocks.

Here is the large format overview of this last wheel painting stage.

Clicking this photo will give you a larger image where you can see the detail. You may need to hit the magnify button when the image loads in your browser. 

GHQ Vehicles and some Battletech in 6mm scale.

6mm Progress on GHQ 6mm

I have been continuing to build a 6mm force with my friend Jonathan Rogers.  Jonathan is building a set of Brigade Pacfed Grav tanks, whilst I am using various modern models from GHQ.

I now realise how lucky Jonathan is with his grav based army because I have started work on the tracks. These take a lot of time and so far I have only completed half a dozen models with a black base coat.  After completing the tracks on about 30 miniatures I will be able to finish off some further weathering, streaking and scratches to the paint work.

You can see in the photo below that the addition of the black base coat to the tracks has already greatly increased the sweetness factor of the models. A nice contrast that I don't want to completely lose when I dry brush metal and weather the tracks.

My advice and plan for future 6mm tracked models would be to paint the tracks before basing.  I usually always base during the early prep process, adding detail, gravel etc and gluing the model down. In fact the metal base means that I can use magnets on stands to help paint and airbrush the model which you can see in the video below, which is a strong reason to base early. However now I reach the track painting stage it is very difficult to get a brush in onto the track, especially where the tracks are resting into the sand base.  I do complete the painting on the bases last though and static grass is added after the dull coat.  In these models the bases are still not finished and will only be painted in desert colours after the rest of the paintwork and weathering is complete.

I am sure it is going to work out well but will take me more time than expected.

In this video below you can see the APC's and vehicles with wheels are aslo improved when the wheels are painted.  I now wish my entire force had wheels because it would be quicker than painting all the tracks!

In this miniature painting tutorial guide video, you can see these models in progress and at the stage where I dry brushed the hulls to bring out the small 6mm details.