ScottRadom
Shogun of Saskatchewan
So I wanted to work on something a little different. I love Flames of War and thought I\'d start my Tonkovy Battalion for that game. It\'ll be mostly T-34\'s so I wanted to start there. I don\'t know how many starts and stops I\'ll have during this project but for now I was looking to bust out the airbrush and give these a working over.
Also this project uses really basic techiniques. No metalics! No eyeballs! Hooray! Here goes....
I primed the models black, then gave them a shot of white primer from about a 45 degree angle. This is to attempt to give some built in highlights and shade when I airbrush the basecoat on.
After that I applied in about three passes Vallejo Model Air Russian Green. Turns out it\'s just the trick for Russian Tanks. I love that Vallejo Model color has a bunch of it\'s range historically matched to WWII colors. I also experimented at this time applying some basic -and very rough- highlights by airbrushing some Gunship Green on the highpoints.
It\'s not easy to see but there is some visible on the turret in the foreground.
Okay, so I did a little (very little) research on Soviet tank markings. The other 15mm stuff I have done included Americans and Germans almost exclusively and their vehicles were rather extensively marked. Not so the Russians! They just sort of slapped some paint on \'em and got them out there. They weren\'t too worried about getting organizational marking etc. on the vehicles. Lazy Russians! Suites me just fine though. So since these are going to be two vehicles out of something like 32 when finished I just plopped a red star on one side of the turret and moved on. The decals go on pretty standard.
I prep the surface with a layer of Vallejo gloss varnish. I soak the decal and apply Micro Sol to the surface of the turret and place the decal on. I wait about 3 seconds then blob lots of Micro Sol on the surface. These were flat surfaces but the two part system of micro sol and micro set make decals super easy. For anyone out there using decals you NEED to pick this product up. I\'ve put decals over zimmerit (Very, very contoured surface) and it looks like paint when done. Of course most of you out there could just freehand this stuff... After the decals are dry (Wait at least a couple hours) I put on a layer of matte varnish....
The above image is after I\'ve applied a very thin wash of oil paint and turpentine. The technique I used I stole from a dude with the handle MoMini\'s from the Flames of War official site. I would provide a link but the ones I try to set up need a log in. It\'s in the gallery section stickied and it\'s called \"For the love of painting\". It\'s a great article that takes you from start to finish of some really great looking panzer IV\'s. It\'s worth the look.
In a nutshell you take some artist\'s oils, I used a small amount of Burnt Sienna and an equal amount of Lamp Black and dilute it in gum spirits of turpentine. I actually went quit a bit thinner then MoMini\'s suggested after using it on some previous projects and it\'s maybe 5% paint to 95% turpentine. Once dry you can always take a brush wet it in turpentine to take some of the wash away. The washes purpose at this point it to bring some definition to the vehicle and shade the recesses. It\'ll be weathered quite a bit later, so the finish need not be perfect. This wash needs to be left to dry for about a full day before the next step. Here\'s another shot of the hull that should show the difference from the clean layers of airbursh applied paint to it\'s current state....
Next step is to get the tracks brought up to snuff!
Also this project uses really basic techiniques. No metalics! No eyeballs! Hooray! Here goes....
I primed the models black, then gave them a shot of white primer from about a 45 degree angle. This is to attempt to give some built in highlights and shade when I airbrush the basecoat on.
After that I applied in about three passes Vallejo Model Air Russian Green. Turns out it\'s just the trick for Russian Tanks. I love that Vallejo Model color has a bunch of it\'s range historically matched to WWII colors. I also experimented at this time applying some basic -and very rough- highlights by airbrushing some Gunship Green on the highpoints.
It\'s not easy to see but there is some visible on the turret in the foreground.
Okay, so I did a little (very little) research on Soviet tank markings. The other 15mm stuff I have done included Americans and Germans almost exclusively and their vehicles were rather extensively marked. Not so the Russians! They just sort of slapped some paint on \'em and got them out there. They weren\'t too worried about getting organizational marking etc. on the vehicles. Lazy Russians! Suites me just fine though. So since these are going to be two vehicles out of something like 32 when finished I just plopped a red star on one side of the turret and moved on. The decals go on pretty standard.
I prep the surface with a layer of Vallejo gloss varnish. I soak the decal and apply Micro Sol to the surface of the turret and place the decal on. I wait about 3 seconds then blob lots of Micro Sol on the surface. These were flat surfaces but the two part system of micro sol and micro set make decals super easy. For anyone out there using decals you NEED to pick this product up. I\'ve put decals over zimmerit (Very, very contoured surface) and it looks like paint when done. Of course most of you out there could just freehand this stuff... After the decals are dry (Wait at least a couple hours) I put on a layer of matte varnish....
The above image is after I\'ve applied a very thin wash of oil paint and turpentine. The technique I used I stole from a dude with the handle MoMini\'s from the Flames of War official site. I would provide a link but the ones I try to set up need a log in. It\'s in the gallery section stickied and it\'s called \"For the love of painting\". It\'s a great article that takes you from start to finish of some really great looking panzer IV\'s. It\'s worth the look.
In a nutshell you take some artist\'s oils, I used a small amount of Burnt Sienna and an equal amount of Lamp Black and dilute it in gum spirits of turpentine. I actually went quit a bit thinner then MoMini\'s suggested after using it on some previous projects and it\'s maybe 5% paint to 95% turpentine. Once dry you can always take a brush wet it in turpentine to take some of the wash away. The washes purpose at this point it to bring some definition to the vehicle and shade the recesses. It\'ll be weathered quite a bit later, so the finish need not be perfect. This wash needs to be left to dry for about a full day before the next step. Here\'s another shot of the hull that should show the difference from the clean layers of airbursh applied paint to it\'s current state....
Next step is to get the tracks brought up to snuff!
