How to weather oil drums

Dust and Mud

By Jamie Haggo

Target project: Tamiya Opel Blitz German lorry, 1:35 scale
This model is currently in Build Now (Jan 2013) and will move to Finished Now when complete in the next couple of weeks, so you can follow Jamie’s full build now in BN and keep an eye out for the completed project in Finished Now.

Introduction

Oil drums are disposable pieces of equipment that really get bashed about and as such are a great canvass for weathering. In this example I’ll show you how to reproduce a German oil drum which has seen better days. The oil drums are the ones included in the 1:35 Opel Blitz kit from Tamiya but I understand they are available separately.

Base coat

As the oil drums are made of pressed steel and are bashed about somewhat, they will get dented and the paint will wear off after a short time. The dents are moulded by Tamiya which is a nice touch so we can concentrate on the chipping.

The first step is the red brown base coat, for this I used Tamiya Flat Red Brown which was then sealed with Vallejo Matt Varnish.

This is then coated with a generous coat of hairspray although AK Interactive’s chipping fluids (Worn Effects or Heavy Chipping) are a better alternative as their performance is consistent. When dry (a hairdryer will speed things up considerably) the top coat is sprayed on. In this case Tamiya German Grey.

Read on…