This model looks amazing! Great job.
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RougePilot! Thank you!
Yes, I just needed a distraction from working on the SU-85.
I will finish the T-34 and immediately return to the Su-85!
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I’ve got a Pak-40 sitting primed in my box. It may become a model to paint when I return home for visit from college. I’m already taking 3 models overseas…
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154 hours of work.
Spent 9 hours painting the chips with a brush. I used Vallejo paints and thinners. And a very thin synthetic brush.
Well, what can I say? I am not satisfied with the result. And everything is not so clear-cut here.
When viewed from the usual working distance, everything seems to be relatively good. And from afar, too, it seems to be not bad.
But as soon as I start to look at the photo in a larger plan, I see that some kind of bullshit has turned out. It doesn’t look like chips. It looks like it should look like - like brush strokes. There should be sharp, torn edges. There should be no rounded strokes or rounded dots. And there should be no smeared porridge. I also didn’t like how the long scratches turned out.
Perhaps a sponge would be a more appropriate tool for “creating” some types of chips.
In general, friends, it turned out somehow like this.
The next stage in drawing chips is painting over light areas with black-gray and brown paints. As I work, I will think. It is possible that some of the light chips will have to be corrected, and something to be removed altogether.
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Vlad, I think the T-34 is looking very good and coming along well.
As the builder you’ll notice little annoyances no one else would see. Please don’t beat yourself up over a dot or streak, especially given the model is still in process as it sounds like you’re planning some black, brown & gray chip work.
These are 
chips are my limits with chipping work usually with red (ketchup)…wink!
I like the model and think the work is first class. Wishing you the best.
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Thank you very much, Wade!
I am accustomed to evaluating all my work from a critical point of view. And if something, in my opinion, goes wrong, then I start thinking, and analyzing. What’s the reason? What am I doing wrong?
Well, and, the notorious perfectionism … He does not give rest … 
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To add to what Wade said, show me a model-maker who says they never over-think their work and I’ll show you a liar. We all do it to varying degrees.
When it comes to weathering & and looking at reference photos I sometimes wonder how the vehicle got to look like that, but it obviously did. The same thing happens looking at other model-makers’ vehicles, so I usually accept almost anything as being OK. Besides, how can anyone say “Oh that’s wrong it looks like porridge” anyway - they obviously never crewed a tank.
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Tim! Certainly, everyone thinks about their work. Simply, this self-criticism of mine has acquired some kind of completely hypertrophied form. 
I’m already ready to climb into every crack with a microscope! 
That is why I reacted to the result in such a way.
And as for the “smeared porridge”, here I did not mean weathering as such, but the result itself, the quality of the work I did. In my opinion, it turned out somehow smeared, blurry. I wanted it to be clearly visible.
And I already figured out why it happened.
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Vlad, “smeared porridge” is such a vivid description of heavy handed dry brushing that it makes me think of one of my old T-34’s from ~30 years ago!
In 1993, I painted this poor “Leningrad” T-34 white and tried to dry brush Tamiya’s Russian Green on top! It’s the definition of smeared porridge. This porridge is smeared so bad Goldie Locks herself from The Three Bears fairytale wouldn’t sample it.
thought you’d see some humor in my dry brushing attempt!
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Wade! I appreciated your humor
And if without jokes, then I note that for 1993 it was a super cool job! 
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I have a feeling that I’ve seen it somewhere before. In some magazine?
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that’s too kind an very funny!
No magazines! Posted a picture of that T-34 a few weeks back after going to a model club meeting and taking it and Pz IV for show & tell.
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Just a very, very similar model I saw in one of the old magazines. There were improvements, there were “a million” photo-etched parts. In white camouflage. I’ll try to find.
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Very light and subtle chips, very much different from my heavy chipping (Night Shift’s style definitely rubbed off on me). Good results so far!
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166 hours of work.
Another completed stage. 12 hours of work.
The light base was painted over with dark colors.
Black gray was applied to “thick metal” (armor plates, etc.).
Black brown was applied to “thin metal” (fenders, fuel tanks, boxes, etc.).
Dry brush applied black gray to some areas on the turret of the tank. I tried to imitate paint scuffs to metal.
I also decided to try with a dry brush to apply black gray paint to the spare tracks. It was interesting - what happens.
Chips of paint on the mesh did not work. Doesn’t look quite natural. Why? Because the mesh is nearly flat. Even those “pimples” that are present there in order to give volume, do not save the situation in any way.
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Hello Vladyslav,
That looks fantastic! Now to insure you don’t over-chip, it’s time to step away from the model and the bright lights. Come back later with fresh eyes. … Depends on how far you wish to take it, of course. …
IMHO.
—mike
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Thank you, Mike!
Yes, I will stop there. Perhaps, in the future, I will add something, considering that at least half of these chips will be hidden by further weathering. But, in any case, it will be in the minimum quantity. Perhaps some microscopic stripes, scratches, scuffs, or something like that.
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Analysis of the stage “Chipping”
- I figured out the problem of “smeared porridge”.
Everything is simple.
The paint was very liquid. In the process of work, I added microscopic doses of water and did not notice how I diluted the paint to such a state that it lost its covering power.
Another point. If the paint is too liquid, the surface tension force decreases, because of which it begins to spread more strongly over the surface. This is clearly visible on the stripes-scratches. I made them very thin. While they were drying, the paint spread a little, and eventually, they became wider.
Therefore, we got a pale look, fuzzy borders, and thick stripes instead of thin ones.
Conclusion!
The paint should not be thick (thick is hard to work with) and should not be too thin. In the process of work, it is necessary to constantly monitor the consistency of the paint. Has water been added? Paint has also been added.
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167 hours of work.
The entire model, except for the chassis, was rubbed with graphite powder
Graphite added life. Moreover, the light base of the chips almost disappeared, and the dark chips became even darker.
Paint scuffs down to the metal also began to look somewhat more realistic.
I also liked the experiment with a gray base for metallic (on spare tracks).
One of the main features of graphite is that it can be washed off with water. This is both an advantage (excess can always be removed without damaging the base layer), and a disadvantage at the same time (with further weathering, it will disappear, and where necessary, it will have to be added).
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