Armor Forums?

[Fishwelding]

I'd like to see an example of what your talking about...I've been building armor since 1988 don't recall this phase that your talking about.

I think the "weathering pigments" that have been produced by several manufacturers for models really took off among armor modelers. I think like anything else, they have their uses, but some folks might have gotten overzealous with them.

Generally, I've been a little skeptical of the degree of weathering on armor models. I've repeatedly seen "needs more weathering" in some or another variation as a suggestion for finished models. Sure, there's plenty of pics of armored vehicles beat up and dusty, but given the short life expectancy of armored vehicles during World War II, it seems that no modeler is by any means "inaccurate" if they lightly weather their tank. Especially all that Nazi stuff. How much of that stuff, almost fresh from factories, did the fleeing Germans lose or leave behind on both fronts, in repeated losing battles against allied forces? Meanwhile (and despite the enormous quantity of new books on the subject), the Normandy-to-VE Day campaign in the West was less than a single year's length.

But I'd extend that comment to airplanes, too. There were plenty of beat up planes, and a few famous cases like the Cactus Air Force. But then again, at least the western allies seem to have replaced airplanes fairly quickly, condemned airplanes as war-weary, and so forth.

Again, none of the above is serious criticism, but more just musing about the quirks of modelers.