Mirrors?

[Biggles50]

Use the mylar method then dust with weathering pigments. That will look realistic.

[18bravo]

That would greatly depend on the time period that
you’re modeling. In the days of the Long Range Desert Group, there probably we weren’t too many civilian cars tooling around the desert. Even so much of what I’m about to say about modern day, desert patrolling would still apply:
We were very fanatic about keeping our windows and mirrors clean on our gun trucks. I’ve said this many times in the past and photos of our gun trucks bare this out. Every time we came to security hall, we would at least wash the windscreen soft with water. Situational awareness is everything. Seeing a glinty object in the Jazeera Desert from 10 miles away didn’t necessarily mean it was one of our gun trucks. There were all manner of pick up trucks and even Corollas driving through the desert. And it didn’t really matter anyway because we didn’t try to hide the fact that we were patrolling. It’s one of the things that deterred foreign fighter infiltration across the Syrian border.
Let’s imagine our mirrors were reflecting in the sun from a great distance away. Whoever saw that was going to be behind us. Which means we probably drove past them at some point, and they could most certainly see our tracks.
Which brings me to another myth I’d like to dispel. It was noted several times on the old archived Armorama that a lot of our gun trucks had their tires mounted backwards. There was some erroneous speculation going on that was to confuse the enemy so that they couldn’t tell which direction we were traveling. If you know how to look at tire tracks, you can tell which way the vehicle was going. The reason we switched the tires was simple: Generally, one of the front tires would be reversed and then its opposite side on the rear would be reversed. That was : generally, one of the front tires would be reversed, and then its opposite side on the rear would be reversed. That was simply so that no matter which direction you were going you had at least two tires, one on each side, and one in the front and one in the rear with tread going the right way. I can’t vouch for how effective that was because we rarely drove backwards.
Another good way to tell someone was out there in the desert, perhaps masked by a terrain feature - the huge dust plume. Gives you away every time.

[DAKjunkie]

I agree, this is real

[smolensk]

I use the internal of cans or breakfast laminated package

[BootsDMS]

I use adhesive chrome tape cut or punched to shape; don’t forget how useful mirrors are when undergoing one’s ablutions in the field, which I hinted at some time ago on my Land Rover dio:

Note mirror angled towards wash bowl - which is what we did!

[SSGToms]

We always took our mirrors OFF when we went on FTX. Many reasons - they didn’t get broken or torn off in the woods or brush. We could put them back on when we got back to motor pool and not be charged for them. Tactical - if they were in the vehicle, they wouldn’t gleam in the sun. Convenience - they were much easier to use as shaving and camo mirrors if you could prop them up in front of you. Plus you never needed to see what was behind you - you always had a ground guide anyway.

[BootsDMS]

Well, the Land Rover, consisting mostly of flat surfaces, together with the position of the mirror, was ready-made as a washing/ablution area! The mirror, in its mount, could easily be twisted every which way, so we were lucky; mind you, working in a Formation HQ the clerical component had to present as smart and smooth-skinned(!) No stubbly chins or inky fingers please.