Some more progress on the T-72s. I’ve finished cleaning the wash, but unfortunately there’s a couple of things I would do differently next time. The first is applying a gloss varnish before the wash. This protects the underlying colour and also provides a smooth surface that makes controlling the wash much easier. Because I didn’t do this I found myself rubbing off the green in some parts and also struggling to re-activate the wash with the thinner. Another error here was leaving the wash to dry overnight on a number of pieces. This wasn’t so much a deliberate choice, but more a result of having 11 tanks to paint and sometimes needing sleep. After spending far too much time removing wash and repairing with the base colour I was finally done with the washes.

The next step was to apply a drybrush. I find, if you are careful and avoid the centre of large flat areas that drybrushing is still an effective way to bring out the smaller details. Particularly at such a small scale (1:100). After the dry brush I applied chips to the tank, I focused on some of the areas such as the tanks and the side-skirts which would be made of thinner material and at the extremities. I prefer to use a yellow-green rather than just a light green or bright as I feel it better shows the edges. Lighter colours can make everything look chalky and a bit odd, while bright greens can just look plain weird. The pictures don’t show it particularly well (probably the turret in the second picture gives the best look at it.

Next I painted on some scratches and chips. This gives the tanks a lived in, used, feel. At this scale it’s super quick and easy. I simply take a piece of foam and tear the end off (I find the left over pieces from pluck foam perfect for this). I then dip this in a black-brown paint and random press it down. The result is a number of small random marks that represent paint chips from the use and abuse that working vehicle receive. I focus attention on areas that would receive the most abuse: exposed areas like the fuels tanks and corners, mine-plows, side-skirts, hatches and the like.

This is one of the pieces of foam I used. It’s just been torn off to give the rough surface and a couple of longer pieces trimmed off with scissors to make it easier to use.

The tracks are pretty simple. I just base coat them with a dark (but not as dark as the chipping) brown and then coat them with a dark brown wash. I’ll be adding mud and weathering there is spades so there’s no reason to go too in depth. I’ll come back lightly with a drybrush of a dark metallic colour on some areas that would wear, but that will be post weathering. I also picked out the road wheel tires with a very dark grey. You can see the difference before and after the road wheels below.

I then picked out a few other details, but there aren’t many on these tanks. The log at the rear and mantlet cover (which I believe is canvas – at least that’s how mine is painted) all got browns with different washes. While the turret MG was painted in a dark grey, then a black wash then a drybrush of metallic.

The colours used in this update:

• Drybrush: Yellow Green (VMC 70.881).
• Chipping: German Camouflage Black Brown (VMC 70.921).
• Tracks:
  • Base: Burnt Umber (VMC 70.941).
  • Wash: Track Wash (A.MIG-1002)
• Road Wheel Tires: Black Grey (VMC 70.862).
• Mantlet Cover:
  • Base: German Camouflage Pale Brown (VMC 70.825).
  • Wash: Brown Shade (VGC 73.200)
• Bog Log:
  • Base: Brown Sand (VMC 70.876).
  • Wash: Track Wash (A.MIG-1002)
• MGs:
  • Base: Black Grey (VMC 70.862).
  • Wash: Dark Wash (A.MIG-1008)
  • Dry Brush: Gunmetal Grey (VMC 70.863)

Here is one of the T-72 done, up until weathering. The last thing I want to do is give these guys a little more of a lived in look. They currently look like all they’ve done is drive out into the car-park.