How to make US Army wooden crates quickly

Whatever it is for a diorama or storage on a vehicle, crates are always welcome. 

Like this one:

I used balsa wood to create them.

Model 1:

Out balsa strip of 10 mm X 2 mm we will create the box itself. 
Out of 4 mm X 1 mm we will create the lid and bottom.

   
You need to cut first 2 boards of 35 mm length and 2 of 16 mm.

Once done, glue them with cyanoacrylate glue (super glue)

Take great care to get the corners squared as well as getting it flat.

While it is drying, we can now work on the lid and bottom of our boxes.

For this, out of the thin balsa you must cut 4 boards of 35 mm length x 4 mm. Sometimes it is hard to get 4 mm strips, so you can use wider ones and cut them to 4 mm.

I'm using a piece of 1 mm/1 mm to get the lid centred allowing me to set the crate in open or closed position.

For the bottom it is better to glue them directly. 

ET VOILA!

It took me between 4 and 5 minutes to do one, so that’s why I’m saying it is quick.

Of course now you can weather or paint them and get a result like this.

So what I’m doing is, when I have some minutes left in a day, I’m making one or two of them.

Weathering Tutorial Part 4: Streaking (Grime, rain marks and oils)

These streaks on the colour are due to grime, dust, mud, liquid leaks, rust, rain etc. Streaks are only applied on vertical or sloped surfaces. For flat surfaces we will use another technique describe on the dust effect chapter.

Colours I used for this are enamels:

Humbrol: 
Khaki Matt 26
Radome Tan Matt 148
White Matt 34
Black Matt 33

Model Master: 
Burnt Umber
Burnt Sienna

Vallejo rust streaks AK 013
Vallejo Dark Streaking Grime AK024


Tools: 

Thin brush N°1
Flat brush N°3
Enamel thinner

Streaks:

With a thin brush I'm taking some grime I made with Burnt Umber (dilution ratio of 60% paint and 40% Thinner), you can also use  products like AK or Ammo streaking grime. 

The most important is to use an enamel based product as we already applied enamels (or oils) on our model, any water based product won't react properly.

I'm drawing thin lines on the sides on the model, from top to bottom. The lines must have different size and length.

After 2 or 3 minutes, with a flat brush wetted in thinner for enamel I'm stumping the lines with vertical movements from top to bottom.
Don't overdo it or you will remove it completely.

You can repeat it various time or also vary the colours used until you are satisfied.

Like here in some areas I added some lines of khaki. 

Here is the result, it have to be subtle.

We are not looking to get a Tiger stipes look!

 

Let it dry completely before going to the next step: Rain marks.

Rain marks:

Rain marks are due to the water or rain flowing down over the dust and mud.

I'm mixing light grey with buff (Radome tan works too) diluted with thinner.

Rain marks have to be drawn from bottom to top. 

After few minutes, we start to blend them with vertical movements from bottom to top.

Again you must let it dry completely before the next step. 

Rust streaks:

For the rust streaks, you can use specific products like AK Rust Streaks, or use enamel paints. In that case I'm using Burnt Sienna for the orange red tones and Burnt Umber for the darker tone.

First have a look at as much real rust streaks as possible. Also you have old and fresh rust streaks. 

The streaks have to start also from some previously painted chips or rusty panel also painted before.

Of course depending of the operative situation of your model you must add more or less rust streaks. Some models like used on the Russian front with very hard weather conditions will means more rust streaks. On another hand, vehicle used in desert condition will not have the same kind of streaks.

Also the rust colour will vary from orange for fresh rust to deep brown for old rust.

!!VERY IMPORTANT!! 

BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE PLACE WHERE IT START. EVERYTHING ISN'T MADE OUT OF STEEL.

Two techniques are recommended, the first one is to blend the streaks with a flat brush wetted with thinner. With this technique the center of the streaks will loose intensity. I would recommend it as a pre streak.

For the second one, once the streak is done, with a thin (brush N°0), wetted (never flood it) with thinner I blend the streak first on one side, second on the other side. With this technique, the center of the streak keep it intensity. 

Again let it dry before getting to the next step.







                        

Weathering Tutorial Part 2: Washes and filters

The filters and washes must be done with enamels, they are better than acrylics as the acrylics can leaves undesirables marks on the paint. They dry faster and are not workable as the enamels.

If you are using acrylic thinner you can remove or damage the base colour as they are made with acrylics.

Also I’m preparing my own filters and washes so I can vary the tones according to the camouflage as well as the operational theatre where it is used.

Filters:

A filter is a thin layer of heavily diluted paint, applied over a surface to slightly change the background colour.

You can also apply various filters in thin layers to achieve the desire result.

Nowadays, various brands like AK Interactive, Ammo and others are offering specific filters related with the camo colours of your model: Dark Yellow, Panzer Grey, DAK, 3 tones, NATO etc.

Once the base coat is dry, I will brush a coat of enamel thinner on the areas that I will apply the filter. By applying first the thinner we will avoid undesirable tide marks but also help the filter to flow.

I’m brushing on the filter, layer after layer, until I have the result I’m looking for. It is always easier to cover a light colour with a darker colour.

Apply the filter gently on the surface of your model. You must distribute the colour by thin uniforms layers. You must avoid to get lines or streaks due to the accumulation of filter on like on details too.

On the side of the model, like on the turret, flancs etc the gravity will work for you with less colour on the top than on the bottom. Meaning the colour on the top will be clearer than on the bottom.

Don’t forget that you must remove the excess of filter accumulated on the various areas.

By varying the colour of the filters you are applying, this will add to your model more richness.

Always get your brush wetted and never flood it.

Washes:

In order to give the model's details deepness like on the bolts, nuts, rivets, welding etc we will apply washes on them with precision. 

Washes are also called pin washes as we will use a thin brush (N°1) to apply theses washes with precision. 

The colour you are using here must be dark but don't use black except on few parts like on the engine deck or the rear. With a soft thin brush we will apply it on the details. We don't want it to cover the entire surface like with filters.

After few minutes, we will remove the excess of paint with a thin brush wetted with thinner.

Don't remove everything or you will undo the effect.

Now you have to let the model dry before the next step: Fading.

Weathering Tutorial Part 3: Fading

The fading consist of reproducing the paint faded due to climate agression as well as elements like sand, earth etc. 

Due to the sun, rain, frost, dust etc the original colour is affected. 

Oils or enamels? For many years I was using oils, now I'm using enamels like Model Master's or Humbrol's one.If you have plenty of time to let the oil dry for 1 maybe 2 weeks you can use oils of course but due to lack of time I had to find a quicker solution. 

The fading with enamels or oils are very easy to do, again see real references to guide you. You must know where to place the various colours you are using but also how it can affect the base colour.

As a security, I sprayed a layer of satin varnish before the fading.

Here you have something I found useful, it is the primary, secondary and tertiary colours diagram:

If your base colour is yellow like on the German vehicles, adding blue with give you green shades. But blue over green will give you deepness on the green.

The colours I'm using on this Panther are: White, Buff, Dark Brown (Burnt Umber), Red Brown (Burnt Sienna), Cobalt Blue, Light Grey, Kaki and Ocre.     

Here a brush N° 1 or 2 will be necessary, a flat brush to blend the paint, thinner and some paper towels to remove the excess of thinner as well as cleaning your brushes. 

If you are using oils, depending of the brand, you need first to put the paint on a piece of cardboard. On that way the excess of oil will be removed by capillarity.

Also placing them on this piece will help you to pick the paint more easily.

For the enamels, shake the jar well, I even use a toothpick to shake the paint well. 

   

I recommend you to work on one area at a time. f.e: the frontal armour then the side etc. 

Once dry, you can repeat the process until you are satisfied with the result.

First place the lighter colours in small dots, in a random way in terms of size and distribution. 

Next: the ocre, grey, buff

The darker tone like the dry brown is placed around the details and shadowed areas to emphasise the deepness.  

You can place some points of red brown to create some light rust streaks.

Now with a flat brush wetted in thinner for enamel, we will blend the tones together with vertical movements. 

It is important to keep the brush clean and only wetted not flooded with thinner while you are melding the colours.

More paint you will remove, lighter the fading will be.

You can place some lighter or darker paint over some areas you want to highlight or darken.

Before the washes, I'm putting some darker colour dots around  that I will blend.

Always remember to blend and stump the colours.

Here you can see the difference with the fading and without:

Weathering Tutorial Part 1: Painting, chipping and scratches

So, now let's start with our model:

The process of weathering is achived by applying various layers of effects without covering the previous one totally.  They will superposed and not hides the previous.

On another hand, try to think at your model like if it is a full scale one. Use images or real vehicles to inspire you, think at how the crews will go up and down of it (creating worn effects etc) where the tools and other boxes can scratch the paint. 
The operational theatre where your model is supposed to be. Earth and dust aren't the same all around the world.  

I painted my Panther according to camo scheme used by the 1st SS Panzer Div. in the Ardennes during winter '44-'45.

I painted it with Tamiya acrylics paint.

I wanted faded colours on the tanks as well as some colours variation.

For the "Dark Yellow" I mixed XF-60 Dark Yellow with XF-2 White (mix ratio from 75-25 to 50-50)

For the "Red Brown" I mixed XF-64 Red brown, XF-68 NATO Brown, XF-9 Hull Red with XF-2 White (mix ratio of 75-25) I vary the brown used.

For the Green I used mainly XF-65 Field Grey and NATO Green with some drops of XF-2 white.

The next step is the chipping and paint scratches.

How did the Germans painted their tanks? The lighter colour first to the darker one. This will help too to chose the colour for the chips.

Theses chips and scratches are made with the base colour tone lighten with white. 

In terms of tools: Thin brushes N°1 to 000 and a sponge is all what you need.

Once dry, here we go for the bare metal chips. I mixed XF-1 Flat Black and XF-10 Flat Brown (mix ratio of 50-50% to 33-66%).

As you can see just by adding theses scratches and chips we already achieved a nice used effect.