Help me paint realistic tanks! Please? 8)

[mageParticipant 20596xp 0]

I’ve never been a historical, camo or big vehicle painter. I want my dusty black Chimera to look like a Steel Legion one.

(1) I will dtill the gun barrels. Maybe.

(2) I will dust it

(3) I do not own, have access to nor will buy an airbrush.

Thanks in advance! Pics of my own and what I want to achieve (care of google images)

PS: Im looking for something quick, with primers possibly, as I have quite a few Russ tanks to do.

[torros 23816xp 0]

Although this is for 15mm It might work for larger vehicles. Just use different colours of spray cans rather than an airbrush

Behind the Mask

[soapdodger 17313xp 0]

It may be possible to get a couple of graffiti  cans of spray paint. I have two Liquitex cans on my desk just now you can also get a pack of different spray caps which provide a different spray patterns. I have one that provides a thin cone (12 -15mm without it looking too hazy) which would be ok for this.

Possibly in a larger store they may let you try before you buy to ensure you can get the type you need or a website with amazing descriptions)

I just don’t know how you could get that effect quickly without spraying of some kind.

[mageParticipant 20596xp 0]

In have a grey and bone colour spray primer(s) from the army painter

[damon 7525xp 0]

If you are using cans for the base coat, try the Blu Tack masking method to get a defined edge between the two colours;

(Ignore the airbrush, cans will work just as well), then you can wash for shade and dry brush or hard edge for the highlights

[m30wm1x 2318xp 0]

I’ve seen done, but not tried myself, getting the camo stripes by basing the major colour in first. Then solid line the other camo stripe colour and using a fairly large drybrush just feathering the edges to get a softer, sprayed on looking, transition.

[amachan 25677xp 0]

This guy on Youtube has done a full tank without the use of an airbrush, well you’d use a coloured primer for what he used an airbrush for because he did not have the coloured primers from the likes of Army Painter. Before I got my airbrush I used this as a reference to paint a tank as well. I did the entire base coat with a brush because I did not have coloured primers either, so that’s fully possible too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=163JnEE-mXQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5bcHfpJXnk

[captainventanusParticipant 4936xp 0]

The original Duncan, of Warhammer TV fame, videos on painting camo do exactly what you want. You just need to change the colours to get your Grey-Yellow scheme which is sort of mid-WW2 German Eastern front. The Cadian camo scheme vaguely represents late-Cold War/contemporary Russian camo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74p9eGwRAog

The weathering up is reasonable enough and doesn’t require much in terms of materials

https://youtu.be/gyuPxJG5kFc?t=2m15s

For the Grey you want you could use GW Mechanics Standard Grey. AP Uniform Grey ( comes as a spray too) is a bit lighter and GW Administratum Grey a shade lighter again. If you want to go for an ‘accurate grey’ take a WW2 German Dunkelgrau from Vallejo. Though in practice it makes little difference if its just about a quick and reasonable paint job once you start washing, dry-brushing and weathering.

These two were airbrushed, but it could easily be done by hand. The Panzer III is in Dunkelgrau while the Panther is a shade lighter (because is smaller) with a paint from Mig Ammo which translates into Administratum Grey.

[mageParticipant 20596xp 0]

Ive washed the model in army painter Dark Tone now. When its dry I will show off pics 🙂

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