| So, you want to paint a tank... |
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| June 12, 2001 Okay all you dogfaces! This is the first in a series of painting articles where I explain some of my techniques on vehicles and minis which can be useful if you've never done it before. So, you got your nice, pretty, new, gray styrene plastic Leman Russ just sitting there waiting for a paint job. If you're like me, you've just plopped down a pretty penny for this joker and you want to present it to your friends. Where do we start? Okay.... Let's start first with construction. Most of the time, tanks and other kits can be built pretty darn fast if you use the right stuff. I like to use Plasti-Zap and a little ZipKicker which you can find at any hobby shop or a good GW retail store. Get a good Xacto knife and a heap of blades, you'll need em. I like to put my entire kit together, minus the tank tracks, first. It makes it a lot easier to paint down the road. Decide on a color scheme. WWII refenrence books are a good start. Or if you like the pics of regiments from GW you can start there. Let's talk about paint for a sec. I like to use Testor's Model Master enamel. Since it's a plastic kit right, the stuff is designed for it. You'll get better coverage and color than that big ole can of Krylon that you got from your dad's garage. Their wide range of colors can compliment anyone's army. Many of the companies have now come out with spray acrylics like Tamiya. These can be good with a little practice, but are going to require several coats. Priming...it's up to you. I would say definitely a must on metal minis but optional on tanks. I've found that I can get a good base coat with several passes of the can. Just remember, if your base color is light, USE THE PRIMER THAT BEST COMPLEMENTS YOUR BASE, ie dark color/black or grey primer, light color/white primer. I like to paint my tanks fully assembled but without tracks. Make sure to use several lights coats instead of holding down the nozzle because you just can't wait that long. Details get marred and it takes a lot longer to dry. Once dry, you can start your work as Monet. If you have a camo scheme like I do, you can use bottled paint for camo striping pretty easy. And if you are fortunate enough to have an airbrush, well more power to you. I use tamiya acrylics. They cover pretty well and dry fast. Use a smaller brush and outline the pattern, it makes it easier to fill in later. Just don't glob it on. Vehicle periscopes are usually royal blue in color and you can put a streak of white in the middle for depth and detail. Tanks tracks...Man these are too easy. Leave the tracks on the sprue. They are already black and you don't need to fool with them. Does everybody here know what drybrushing is?? Somebody said no. Okay, basically you take your brush and load it with very little paint. LITTLE BIT. Wipe most of it off with a paper towel or on a sheet of paper. LIGHTLY go over your tracks with a color similar to aluminum. The paint picks up the raised surfaces on the tracks and lets the black show through. If you want a rusty look, just drybrush again after the aluminum dries with a rust color. Weathering, always a good thing to detail. Most worn areas will occur around vehicle access points. Paint begins to chip off, revealing the aluminum body underneath. You can lightly paint specks of aluminum around cupolas and driver hatches, any place where a lot of foot-traffic would occur. Muzzles, as you can tell most of these archaic vehicles are not equipped with bore evacuators, meaning soot gets blown right out of the end of the muzzle. This is where pastel chalk comes in handy. Using your xacto knife, lightly scape black pastel chalk into a little pile on your workspace. Using an old brush, pick up the pastel and start to grind the powder around the end of the muzzle brake. Eventually you can lighten the area towards the turrent and darken towards the end of the muzzle. Over time, you'll get a nice blending effect. Accessories. This is where you get to personalize it. I usually use tank accessory kits that contain oil drums, water cans, boxes, etc. Use 1/35 scale as it comes the closet to GW's scale. Look at pics of old tanks and see where crew members stored their gear. Don't just slap a water can on the front hull, it just wouldn't go there. Try to place them on the side of the turrent or in the back. You can use the extra tank track bits in links of one or two to place on the vehicles. Most modern military vehicles have them on the front or sides of the turrent. Antennas can be made from a number of sources, for example, piano wire. I like mine thin, so here is the technique I use. Take a long piece of sprue and gently heat up the middle, holding both ends, over a candle or use a lighter. The plastic will start to soften to a point where you can stretch the sprue to create a thin wire piece of plastic, let cool, and simply cut to length. Just don't put it directly on the candle, or somebody's going to ask what stinks in the house :) Sealing. DEFINITELY MUST. Since you're picking this guy up and down all the time, it's good to use a laquer to seal the paint. I like to use the Testor's flat laquer of Dullcote. This prevents the model from having a glossy look to it and it seals the paint, keeping it from rubbing off. So, I hope this has given you a little insight into how to do tanks and vehicles. Just remember to practice first, god knows how many models I've screwed up because I didn't test out the technique first! If you have any questions about particular techinques I've mentioned here, please contact me. Happy Modeling! Greiss |