Easy Winter Wash

Intro:

One of the most attractive and popular camouflages in AFV modeling, if done well of course, is the Winter Wash. As in the other areas of the hobby, there are various methods for the winter wash, the results depending on the modeler’s experience and equipment. However, a modeler does not need to be experienced or a professional to achieve an aesthetic and good looking winter washed vehicle. Following the instructions in this article, one can easily get good results. This article will focus on how to paint a good winter wash by first painting our model white over its main color and then weathering it, so that it will look as if the winter wash was worn off heavily. For this article, paints were normally diluted with thinner and they were airbrushed. The application will require some experience in painting, some trial-and-error and some patience, but the results will be close to master grade.

Choosing the Right Kit for the Job:

To apply a proper winter wash, we need a fitting vehicle. As far as realism is concerned, we should pick a vehicle that was/could have been winter washed to be historically accurate. Since I generally build WW2 German vehicles, I prefer the Eastern Front vehicles for winter washing. Also, Russian vehicles from the same era can produce good results in winter wash over their base green color. Of course, since there is no limit on the creativity of a modeler, one could model Allied or modern vehicles or try the limits of fantasy.

For this article, I chose a Tamiya’s Wespe with the box number of 35200. Since the Wespe was used in the Eastern Front extensively, it is a good candidate for a winter wash; moreover there are a  lot of reference photos in the internet that I can make good use of. The method in this article is a little harder to apply on an open topped vehicle such as the Wespe, compared to conventional tanks. Think how easy it can be applied to tanks, even when we can get good results in this vehicle using masks.

Application:

Until the painting stage, the model was built with conventional methods. Starting from the painting stage, we will start the application of our winter wash.

Equipment Necessary for Application:

The most important point in the application is the different chemical characteristics of acrylic and enamel paints, so we should paint attention to this. The main base color of our model must be enamel. I chose Revell’s “Sand” color from its Airbrush Email Color series (#31116) as the main color and airbrushed this onto the model to simulate Dark Yellow. As for the decals, I airbrushed some clear cote to the places where the decals will be applied, applied the decals and waited for them to dry and then airbrushed another clear cote only over the decals to protect them. I should emphasize that since I used enamel colors, I only need to clear cote the decals to protect them and ensure they grip the surface. I don’t need to apply clear cote all over the model.

The following stage is done only because this is an open topped vehicle. We need to protect the interior from the white paint we will use for our winter wash. Therefore, I masked off the fighting compartment and the decals to protect them from the white paint.

Same goes for the gun section of the vehicle. We need to cover all areas that will not be winter washed in the real vehicle.

After the masking stage, it is time to paint the white color that will simulate our winter wash. The most critical stage of the whole application is here. We will airbrush white acrylic paint over our base enamel paint. I will use Tamiya’s XF-2 Flat White and cover the model in white evenly.

We paint the road wheels and gun section in the same manner. Fixing the road wheels on a single platform and painting them all at once will make our job easier.

After we airbrush the white paint, we need 15-20 minutes of drying time. You can get different effects by waiting shorter or longer, but I believe 20 minutes should do well for your first trial. After gaining some experience, feel free to try other time intervals, but remember that the paint should not be wet or completely dried out. When the waiting is over, we remove all masks from the model (except the masks on the decals, keep those on) and place the model in a plastic container with water. Make sure all the white painted surfaces are soaked with water.

Now it is time to chip off the white paint. For this, we will use powdered laundry detergent. The white acrylic color is now fragile as it is wet, detergent will allow us to remove the paint from the places we want. You can use any brand of detergent, it doesn’t make a difference.

At this stage, we will sprinkle some detergent on the places where we will remove the white paint. The success of the whole method relies on the amount of detergent you use, the more you sprinkle on the model, the more paint it will remove. Since I was going for a really worn out look, I used lots of detergent on the Wespe. We will wait for 1-1.5 minutes for the detergent to react with the paint, you can try changing this waiting time to try different effects.

Before we proceed onto the following stage, we remove the masks on the decals. Then we take our model, still with the detergent on and go to the sink, we will wash it. Make sure the water pressure is not very high and the water from the faucet should be as thick as your little finger, not more. If the water pressure is too high or if we hold the model under water for too long, the white paint will be completely removed. Keeping this in mid, we can try to change the amount of water that flows and achieve different effects. The white paint that reacted with the detergent will easily be removed and create a realistic worn effect. If you don’t like the effects, you can always wash the white paint completely and go back to the beginning. If the result is satisfactory, we can try scratching the remaining white places with our sharp knife. Make sure the scratches are at random; this will make it look more realistic.

Now it is time to leave the model to dry completely. After that, depending on the weathering methods you will apply, you can use enamel or acrylic varnish to protect the paint. After final weathering, your model will be complete!

Feel free to contact me for any comments or questions,