Flint's Tiny Tutes 5: Winter Camo

[Flint13]

Do You Wanna Paint a Snow Tank?

Subtitle: Winter Weathering the Lazy Girl Way

By: Flint and her compulsive winter theme obsession

 

 

Morning assorted hobby bros!

 

I'm going to level with all of you. I have a problem. If I can make an excuse to paint something in an icy blue, give a model a winter base, or include snow on a mini in any way, shape or form, imma do it. Combine that with a real love of Eastern Front history, a brand new tank-heavy Solar Auxilia army, diving into figuring out that super cool white-wash camo scheme was inevitable. Historically, this was a very impermanent measure to attempt to camouflage tanks on both sides of the conflict by spraying them down in off-white. Due to the rushed application in most cases, the white-wash top coats (sprayed directly over a tank's existing everything) tended to wear off super quickly and produce a really unique look that I'm a little in love with.

 

Here's a snowy kitty to illustrate what I'm going for

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/907/nMaJS8.png

 

 

First things first. I'm not going to pretend that I figured any of this out on my own. There are dozens of tutorials out there for painting a scheme like this from people way more talented than I am. If you ever want to learn how to paint a tank like someone legit pulled it off a battlefield, hang out with a 1/35th scale hobby bro for awhile. Damn do those bros know their business. But, back to topic, I've poured over tons of articles in the past weeks to figure out how to put techniques from many of them into a minimum-fuss package. Because if there's a way to take a short cut to getting a good looking model by cutting out a couple of steps, you can bet I will take them. I'll probably figure out a way to  cut out three steps instead. 

 

So, are there different ways to do this? Absolutely. Dozens. But this is my way.

Are there better ways to do this? Probably, it depends on how super in depth you want to go.

Are there quicker ways to do this? Not that I've found yet, but if there are, imma find them. 

 

 

0.) Materials, all applied via air-brush. Not pictured: Matte and Satin varnish, colors for a company stripe, and low tac painters tape (choose your own!)

 

Now these are the particular colors I chose. The "rules" are, you want a dark blue or gray (not pure black), a medium blue or gray for a zenith highlight and a very light blue or gray (not pure white) for your white-wash camo.

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/903/UX132l.jpg

 

1.) Primer. Get everything really really thorough coverage. Then basecoat. 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/911/vjSMOK.jpg

 

2.) Zenith highlight. Spray from a 45-ish degree angle from the tank. It pays to be super light on the trigger here, you want the recesses to stay dark dark.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/911/jagt9A.jpg

 

3.) Tape off an area for a company mark. There are two ways to do this. For larger areas, tape it off like you're marking out a tiny crime scene. For smaller things (the shield in this case) tape over them and then carefully cut them out. You don't have to be super precise since the white-wash will cover any messy edges pretty well. Try to minimize over-spray though.

 

Taped

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/907/VZtxvT.jpg

 

 

Sprayed

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/633/dhyzFR.jpg

 

Free!
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/633/E9pxT1.jpg

 

 

 

4.) Apply any and all decals you want now. Feel free to weather them however you feel appropriate. I tried a couple of teeny chippy patterns here.

 

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/903/Vyb24H.jpg

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/903/pdCSwA.jpg

 

5.) Matte varnish the hell out of your tank. Let it dry all the way.

 

It is now ready for chipping fluid. I don't have a pic for this one, since its just looks like a wet version of the last picture. Anywho, when you spray this stuff it doesn't require a super thick coat to work, just enough to get the surface damp. Coat the top, front, sides and rear of the vehicle and let it dry. Typically 30 min or so if you stayed with a thin-ish coat and it didn't puddle anywhere.

 

6.) Spray your brightest off-white color in a super thin coat in the exact same zenith pattern you used for the basecoat highlight. You should still be able to see your decals and company colors under the white-wash coat.

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/907/uICCFQ.jpg  

 

7.) Here's where I'm going to save you a little time and frustration, that took me a bit of experimentation to figure out. AK Chipping fluid is water activated. But it takes a second. So work in small sections on your tank. Grab a brush that you don't like anymore and dip it in water. Wet down a small area of the camo and wait five seconds. Then very very lightly, draw your brush down and away from the front of the tank. Be conservative in your brush application until you get a good idea on how much pressure to apply to remove paint. You can always remove more, but its a pain to reapply.

 

Concentrate on areas that would receive a lot of wear and tear. Sharp edges, hatches, bolts, anything near the tracks.

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/903/kvPDzh.jpg

 

8.) Keep going! Once you've weathered the tank to your satisfaction, matte varnish that sucker again. Now for dark lining your panels, you have two choices. You can leave the tank in matte varnish for a grubbier look, or you can Satin varnish it for a sharper look. Here's a comparison shot so you can choose for yourself. 

 

The left tank has had its panel wash applied over a matte coat. Super long explanation short, since matte is more porous, it clings to the wash more, and you'll end up with it spreading more. The right tank has a Satin coat. Its glossier so any wash tends to slide more into the crevices without staining the surrounding areas as much. This lends to that sharper look I mentioned. 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/907/RxFzaX.jpg

 

9.) Whichever option you choose, start lining anything deep enough to have a shadown. Panels, doors, bolts, whatevs. Here's what that looks like:

Before

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/910/LBbcld.jpg

 

After

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/910/7u1RyH.jpg

 

 

 

That's pretty much it! After about six strips and re-paints of my practice tank, I'm down to about 2 1/2 hours per Dracosan, including drying time and decal application. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Dosjetka]

Suh-weet. :tu:

[elohimalpha]

This is pretty epic! I wonder what it would look like applied to some power armor...

[infyrana]

Very effective, nicely done!

 

With tankfest this weekend, this was put up just at the right time :D

[Kierdale]

That was excellent :tu: