Washes save the day, again (Patreon)

My friends, the model is fully "washed" and ready for oil dots and fake shadows/highlights. 

I ended up spending more time with it because I wanted to bring out the cast texture on the hull and turret, especially the casting imperfections which I originally created with a rotary tool following reference pictures of the Somua at Aberdeen museum. The texture was brought out with very diluted Raw Umber and the rest was carried out with Industrial Earth. I didn't use Bitume after all, because it was too dark and actually had a more reddish hue which wouldn't work on this surface. 

Another dry palette is already draining more oil paints, and this time it'll be more colorful - I'll be adding highlights, shadows, discoloration and stains using white, buff, olive green, orange, more industrial earth, etc. 

This type of colorful camouflage is a slightly tricky one - you can either go with a more restrained approach and try to tone it all down, or go the opposite way and make it as vivid as possible. I'm not totally sure which way I'll go, but it's just another case where you'll wiser once you start doing it... if that makes sense! 

Most of the lower hull will be toned down with heavy dust and mud accumulations, so that's also worth keeping in mind... but I'm thinking way ahead now! So let's bring out those vivid oils, time to act like an artist! 😁