It's that hard to spot technique again

My friends, next step was blending oil dots. It's one of those "invisible" steps again, because I kinda prefer to keep it rather subtle, because it's easy to change the tone of the model too much if you're not careful. It's also one of the fastest techniques to completely nullify your post shading or distressing, hence why I haven't used it on the T-90, Sherman or Crusader. But here it makes perfect sense as the base coat has no artificial textures or contrasts, so we can go much heavier if needed. However, I still kept it smooth and only added a few extra tones here and there, and also some faded streaks on the sides. I'm also including a couple of "in progress" shots showing a treated front and side panel compared to the rest of the model. 

Oils used were white, ochre, dark brown, buff and faded yellow. Obviously the white is the easiest to see as it's the most powerful, but that also means it must be used with utmost care. Cool thing about this technique is that you can always go back and add more selected oil dots in a specific area if you want to. No need to wait for the first layer to dry. 

Also there's a massive benefit of blending them over a layer of wash! It'll make it even more subtle and natural. No "sterile" look! It also slightly hides the overspray on some camouflage patches, which almost feels like cheating 😆 Not to mention how it can integrate decals into the paintjob. 

It's also important to be careful with yellow tones, as they can give the model too much of a warm hue, making it look as if it was photographed under a yellow light bulb, which can be really bad if there are no white elements such as crosses or numbers which can serve as a reference point that yeah, the white balance is right. 

Next step is adding some fake lights and shadows, which should make the model look more 3-D, and probably make it ready for chipping. 

Also there's been some discussion about the red crosses, apparently Germans were experimenting with them at the end of the war as white outline was like a crosshair on the tank. I'm including one historical photo of the 331 showing the red cross and also the oxide red hull sides and brush painted yellow lower hull. 

Now onto more oil blending!