A commanding paintjob

Choosing the colours

I was torn between two options: either I'd paint this with the traditional German Grey or with a camo. The box art had it grey and I've somehow always maintained an idea of these tubs being grey. Then, out of the blue, I got the idea of outsourcing the camo pattern!

First I asked my Project Assistant, whether she wanted to paint the camo on my Kübelwagen or not. Her answer was a very enthusiastic yes and that she'd want to paint it orange! Nope. I'd basecoat it with dark yellow and give her a free reign over the green-brown pattern. She was cool with that and that in turn made me happy.

A rapid start

I quickly airbrushed the war-beetle and the wheels that were still attached to the sprues with the primer and later on with the traditional Vallejo's Dunkelgelb (71081 Tank Dark Yellow). They aren't in the photos, but I also did the same to the engineering tools (a pickaxe and a gravel shovel) for a later manual painting and installation.

Subcontracting

This was a very good point to let her paint a bit. I offered both the paints (VMA 71096 Panzer Olive Green; VMA 71041 Tank Brown) and an airbrush. Then I practically lifted my arms.

In the end the result it was a bit green-heavy, but who was I to judge the artist? After the camo was done I painted the seats brown, the steering wheel and the wheels black grey (VMA 71056 Black Grey) and the wing mirrors metallic (VMA71065 Steel). Here and there I drybrushed some metallic to give some wornness and then some more grey black, especially near the engine-related bits and some on the doors too.

Finetuning

I decided to paint the lowered ragtop later with a different shade of Dunkelgelb. My reasoning for that was that it'd be of a different material and therefore of a different shade.

While I was at it I finished up the engineering tools. The wooden handles I painted with the same brown and the metal parts with steel. Those metal bits I'd later wash with brown, maybe I'd do something small and most likely unnoticeable to the wooden parts.

Mr. Murphy popped by for a visit and I completely broke the pickaxe, it was beyond salvation. So my command car had to survive with just a shovel. Then I installed the wheels and quickly wixed the sprue attachment points. After those I started with the Balkenkreuz on the doors and painted the ragtop with yellow (VMC 70806 German Yellow). Maybe I'd wash it to tone it down a bit.

Finally I installed the missing front window and I think I broke one of the connectors while pushing, but it seemed to stay put anyway. Then I used my way too thick Citadel's Devlan Mud on the ragtop. It didn't end up optimal, so I may end up touching it up at some later point, whenever I felt like it. Instead I then painted the missing white edges to the Balkenkreuz and decided that my Kübelwagen was done practically done.