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Friends have suggesting washing it but I am nervous about it coming out looking dirty or splotchy. Also wondering what other details to pick out.

On something like that, you just need to pin wash the panel lines, around rivets, and any place where armor panels meet. Put a coat of gloss or satin varnish on it, use either an oil wash or ink wash (use clean mineral spirits to clean oil wash excess or isopropyl alcohol to clean an ink wash), and your model will have some much needed depth.

When I painted my IF Prometheus I washed it with seraphim sepia magic ink which is 50/50 seraphim sepia & magic ink (3 pts water: 1 pt future floor finish) which breaks the surface tension & helps it slide down where it needs to go instead of collecting on the surface since it has such flat, slab facings with less details & panel lines than most other SM tanks.

Three things:

1) You're missing a few detail bits like the little lens next to the top hatch. Finish these and it will break it up a bit.

2) Add some subtle edge chipping. Use a piece of foam (the sheet from metal model packages works great) dipped in dark gray paint and wiped off (like you're drybrushing), just press it lightly against the edges (and be careful not to slide it and smear the nice precise chip marks). It's a marine tank and supposed to be well cared for, but even nice shiny tanks will have a little bit of wear on corners. Focus on areas like the front ramp that will receive a lot of abuse.

3) Add some weathering powders on the tracks and along the lower surfaces of the hull. It doesn't have to be layer after layer of mud, but a little bit of dirt will help break up the solid yellow.

I used oil washes on my IF Land Raider Achilles. You can work with it and tweak it because it dries so slowly for an hour if you want.

Then clean up with a q-tip and mineral spirits. My method is just a tube of super cheap brown oil paint (burnt umber) then I mix it with mineral spirits, and weathering powders.

Just BE SURE to give the model a coat of gloss varnish first. This protects the model, and improves the flow of the wash. Give it plenty of time to dry before handling.

Once done hit it with matte varnish. You can mix different pigments for different effects IE soot around exhausts, rust/mud around tracks. A lighter dirt color on the hull around rivets, and to make rain streaks, etc.


Added a picture to show you how much control oil washes give you. You can see how little effect I went for around the rivets, and such. Enough to give them some definition without dirtying the model too much.