Spraying some Russian Green on the Stalin

Tow cables, again

A couple of weeks ago I bragged that I had finally remembered the tow cable. Of course I hadn't checked the instructions carefully enough as I needed two and both only 10cm long. There was almost twice that amount of thred still left after this panic-fix.

To get them painted I pulled them taut and locked in place with tape, then blasted very thoroughtly with the Steel-coloured paint. Despite them being tightened pretty nicely they still proved a bit challenging to paint. After a curing session I fixed the oversprayed hook bits with green. Whenever I was going to be playing with washes I'd apply a black one on the cables.

Painting at last

I started the main painting process with the lower hull. First I detached all the wheels except the drive sprockets, protected the axles with tape and then airbrushed the whole setup with a proper Soviet green (VMA 71017 Russian Green 4BO). The wheels I painted in two sessions both from the front - and backside. Finally I reinstalled the wheels and painted the wearable surfaces with steel (VMA 71065 Steel), except the left idler wheel, apparently.

The turret and the upper hull

I used two sessions two paint the turret itself. First I did the turret piece itself, moving from the bottom up and when that had cured I did the D-25T cannon with its muzzle brake. There wasn't anything special to say about the upper hull, it got painted just like the other parts. I was thinking if I should paint the toolbox and the fuel drums with a tiny bit different shade, just to highlight the fact that they were made of different materials.

Testing

To finish up this session I drybrushed some steel to a few more wear-and-tear subjected pieces, then I painted all the prism heads and the light's lense. Each crew member had at least one prism. I thought that I'd apply a dab of either a green or a blue wash on them, as I can't recall those being clear.

Dry-fitting looked fine to me. Next time I'd be installing these conveyor belts, as long as I remembered to paint the last missing idler wheel before that.