Dust devil...Weathering test

Before I start weathering my 1/72 Finnish armoured cars I thought I would test out the techniques I intend to use on a spare model I had laying around.

The first stage of my planned weathering process is to apply a light dusting of...Er...'Dust'!

Here's my guinea pig...A 1/100 Zvesda T-34/41, which had a base coat of Flames of War 'Soviet Armour Green' over which a light satin acrylic varnish was applied. As you can see there's a misting of very light grayish 'dust' which has been airbrushed on gently from top to bottom, concentrating on the lower surfaces.

STREAKING: I used AK Interactive's AK 015 Dust Effects rather than a simple acrylic gray paint. The reason for this is that is that this medium is an enamel based paint, so when it dries you can run a wide flat brush dipped in thinners down the surfaces and this creates a streaky effect. Hence what you see above.

I *think* this was quite successful - but you have to be very gentle with your brushing - less is more in this case!

The key to this is to dry/wipe most of the white spirit off your brush, so it's only just moist - not damp. Also, check out a few reference photos before you start.

NEXT: I will give this another light spray of satin varnish to seal the dust - and then it's onto the pin wash (I did the dust first because - or course - if I pin washed first the dust spray would obliterate some of the panel line detail done during the pin wash).