Recently a club member asked me if I would paint some German vehicles for him. I agreed and after a bit of discussion he specified what he wanted - basically grey vehicles for the period mid-1942 to Stalingrad and for the 14th and 24th Panzer divisions.
The models themselves are from The Plastic Solder company and they went together really well. I've become a fan of the Plastic Soldier Company - not least because they're half the price of the stuff from Battlefront.
Anyhoo - he's some pictures. 5 panzer III and 5 Panzer IV models have been assembled and undercoated with that well-known base-coat for German vehicles, Halfords undercoaten-grau.
I then gave the models a couple of washes with a thinned down black and then did the running gear with a couple of heavier washes of black. I added a spash of steel to some tracks, just to gauge how it was all hanging together at this point.
Not too bad for this stage. Of couse, the big challenge is really to make grey seem interesting. There will be more shading and highlighting to come, and various deck-top tools and stuff will provide a little colour. But I'm still wondering what else I can do to add to the models. I can add some rust to the tracks, then some mud or dust to tracks and road wheels, and then maybe do the commanders in a mix of black and grey uniforms. Hopefully some or all of that should balance out the grey. And perhaps red over white platoon vehicle numbers if they're appropriate for this period.
More later.
The odd aerial recognition flag draped over the front or back of these will make the models more interesting. Especially if its bright red! I'll have a rummage and see if I have any left
ReplyDeleteCheers, Ross
Maybe a reddish brown dirt to reduce the grey. With my late war tanks I used a lot on the tracks,wheels and filter housings. It broke up the camo effect to stop the fresh from the factory look.
ReplyDeleteAnother wee tip is paint chips on corners etc. I do them with tiny splashes of the red primer showing through then rub the corner with a 2b pencil, gives a little dull metallic sheen to the edge. Would look better on your grey tanks than it does on the late war where it kinda gets lost in the camo schemes.
Forgot to say, for tracks I use the pencil also. Paint them dark grey then rub the pencil over them, it catches all the raised bits and leaves a hint of metallic behind.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, gents. I'll take these suggestions on board and do some experiments.
ReplyDeleteI'll cut some paper flags and place them on the rear hull of a couple of tanks. But I don't really want to do the swastika in a white circle on a red background. I did start to wonder if there's any evidence of units using panels or flags with an enlarged version of their divisional sign. Since these tanks will represent the 14th and 24th panzer, I may well do a test of a red flag with the yellow symbol of the 14th, and maybe a red or yellow flag with the horse rider symbol for the 24th. But maybe this is straying into fantasy territory.