A fancy camo job

Kicking my own arse

So I decided to get myself (and my act) together and started painting this bugger for real. The priming didn't really need much more, for it was mostly done. Which was pretty nice at this point in the project...

A hastily taken photo of the primed model

A simple and easy plan

I figured that  a simple approach would be the best one. Supposedly. In any case, unlike with my earlier german devices I thought that I'd apply the paints in a bit different order this time. Somehow that "start with Dunkelgelb and then go with the rest" approach didn't feel as nice as the previous project's "green goes first and the rest follow later".

Maybe the different painting order was better or perhaps I had actually learned something at some point. Or maybe the Lifecolor paints were better. There was only one way to find out!

From the pot to the jar to the tank

Round one

Vallejo's Verde Panzer got the greatest of honours and ended up being the basecoat. At some point in history I had diluted the paint a bit too much and the result was a bit thin. But that was fixed by applying a bunch of layers, so nothing was lost except a bit of time.

The green experience

Round two

Somehow it felt natural to apply the brown (Vallejo's Marron Panzer) stripes and lines next. They'd be a handy general pattern-definer to begin with. Then I'd paint the rest of the stripes in the third colour to break the form a bit more strongly.

It actually looks fun this way, too

Round three

As the obvious finale I filled the paint jar with Dunkelgelb that the chums at Vallejo call Amarillo Panzer for some odd reason. This paint caused some confusion because the airbrush occasionally spat half-dried lumps of paint out... Damnit.
The end result wasn't going to win any awards, but it's all my own fault. Big parts of what I painted seem to be at their best in the rear half of the tank and oddest in the front - no matter which model I'm working on. This appears to be a clear sign of "practice more" and "study yourself and improve" it.

Right side without tools

Left side, equally toolless

A part of the weirdness of the left side is caused by that I stubbornly tried to keep painting instead of taking an airbrush cleaning break that was clearly needed. As I said, my own fault. In any case, the oddness and imperfectness of the camo job isn't the main thing in this project. In addition to camo being painted by people this is also going to be whitewashed over in the end anyway. So it'll be just fine.

Background activity

Without any special mention: I did paint the road wheels, drive sprockets, idlers and those random items that belong on the outside of the tank. The wheels will be needing some manual painting a bit later, but otherwise they're done. Yay.