are chips a realistic technique

[Jamie Tainton]

Don't see very many "chips" on most pics of real deal that I see for example

[Dario Risso]

Interesting question; may be the (bad) quality of B&W pics doesn't allows us to note the chipping. Perhaps we must to study major quality pics, like those in LIFE magazine or pay atention to modern vehicles to have an idea of how the chipping looks.

Darío

[Roy Schlicht]

There are alot of modellers who really over do the paint chipping on their models because it's the "in" thing. There are a couple of reasons why things never got as bad as often potrayed on model kits. 1. The vehicle commander would never allow it. 2. The Platoon leader would never allow it. 3. The Company commander would never allow it. 4. You see where I'm going with this. Another reason is that tanks had a very short life span and if for some reason they did survive long enough then reason 1 - 3 should suffice. Tanks did get beat up and showing some chipping here and there is not unrealistic but here and there doesn't seem to be the current rule in models but the exception. I think that photographic evidence also suggest not so beat up paint jobs.

Roy