A Tank Called Coleraine
Chameleon tanks, weren't they yellow before?
So after second guessing and tormenting myself trying to decipher black and white photos and trawling books and websites, I decided that the most likely colour for 25th tank brigade is Khaki Green. So, back to the airbrush, I didn’t have anything close to the right colour so I mixed up three different Vallejo Model Air colours; Camo Green, Burnt Umber and Pale Blue-grey in a 9:6:1 ratio. This got me close enough to the required colour. This was applied to all three, then some white was added to the mix and used to add some panel highlights to try and get a ‘sun-bleached’ look on the larger flat areas of colour. After that a liberal coat of Army Painter strong tone dip was applied and left overnight to dry.
Next up, start applying markings; first step is hand painting the names, red letters with white outline. Free hand painting letters and numbers is not my favourite, why do I put myself through stuff like this? Do I like the pain? Do I hate myself?
Anyway, the other two tanks will be ‘Cork’ and ‘Cavan’, much shorter (easier to paint)
White first, I used a bit of tape marked out at 2.5mm increments to make sure I got the letter spacing correct. Looks a bit rough but this is going to be the best I can do.
Red added over the white and some base coat colour used to try and tidy up some of the ragged edges. Hopefully a heavy layer of weathering will 'hide the crimes' and blend the lettering into the overall scheme.Next up, add the rest of the markings; but, realising I don’t have all of the correct tactical markings, tomorrow will be a trip to Warlord to spend a few pennies on some decals and maybe some other goodies.
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