Armourfast T34/76

I'll confess that I don't paint as much as I should and certainly I haven't painted any armour for a very long time.  However, this week I finished a couple of Arnourfast T35/76 that were assembled last summer.  This was mainly an exercise in weathering techniques and to try out a few ideas I'd seen discussed on the internet.

The main colour is acrylic Tamyia "J.A.Green" (XF-13).  Over this I added various rust spots and lines around hinges and other areas I thought might go a bit rusty, for example around the exhausts.  Tracks were painted black and then with a metalic gun metal/steel colour (a humbrol enamel).  I then gave the tracks a thin wash of rust colour, Revell acrylic "Reddish Brown" (37).

The whole model was then given a black wash and dry brushed with acrylic Tamiya "Dark Yellow" (XF-60) to pick out edges and any raised details (XF-60 happens to be the recommended base colour for german tanks).  Numbers were added by hand (might try to find decals next time).  Then came the interesting bit - adding the mud.  For this I used Revell acylic "Dark Earth" (82) thinned down, which was washed over the wheels and mudguards a few times

I then loaded up a stiff brush - one of the cheap nylon ones for children you get from IKEA and, using my thumb, sort of flicked the thinned paint in various places to simulate mud that had been thrown up onto the tank.  I may have overdone this a bit but it was fun.  The last thing was to add some more black wash around the exhausts.

Overall, they have turned out OK although I think that a little more contrast would be good.  Next time I'll make the black wash a bit thicker and add more rust spots - the detail isn't that deep on these models so more contrast between dark wash and lighter highlights will be required.  Also, I will add a bit more detail, hawsers, tarpaulins and whatnot and might even paint on some suitably stirring slogans - I did try it this time but couldn't paint them small enough so that the words would fit.