Continuing with where I left off, I applied some liquid mask over the decals then I applied a coat of hairspray to all of the gray parts and let that dry. Over that I sprayed Tamiya Buff, then used a lightened Buff to do some light modulation/gradation.

After a few hours I started to wet the parts and using some plastic sheet scrap scraped the edges and added scratches in the buff-coat showing the more durable gray paint beneath. An odd thing happened though which actually saved me a later step. Certain areas where I scraped and paint did not come up dried lighter showing lighter colored scratches and panel areas. I planned to hand paint and sponge these, but now I don’t have to.

After the parts dried again I took some fine synthetic sponged and added finer paint chips. First I used Deck Tan, then on top of those I used Vallejo Dark Gray, Dark Rust then Red Leather for rust. The rusty areas were applied very sparingly and only where the heaviest scraping would occur. D-Rings, and lower legs. I used all the colors below to sponge rust onto the exhaust, but didn’t photograph that yet.

Next up is filters and discoloration.