WWII Armor Colors and Markings

General Painting Comments

by Bill Rutherford

GENERAL PAINTING COMMENTS

Once you've given your tanks their basic paint and markings, there are a couple of things you can do that will spruce them up a bit for the game table. First, consider doing a bit of detailing. Detailing can range from something as complex as adding crew, radio antennae, crew equipment, etc. (not in this article!), to something as simple as adding depth and detail to your paint job. How do you do this?

For starters, experiment with paint washes on your vehicles. In case you don't know what a wash is, it's very thinned down paint - perhaps only a few parts of paint to a lot of parts of water or thinner. When you apply this to your miniature with a paint brush, the pigment in the wash will sink into the cracks and crevasses of the model, accentuating shadows and increasing the contrast between backround and detail. If you've a dark green or olive colored tank, try putting a black wash over it. If you've a tan or yellow vehicle, try a dark brown wash. A black wash works well on running gear, tracks, engine grates, etc. (you will have painted these details prior to washing ... ) I recommend doing any washing prior to placing decals - that way, when you're done, you can still seethe vehicle's markings! If your model appears a bit drab and dingy after washing it, don't worry - highlighting, the next step, will remedy this.

How do you highlight your model? Drybrushing is the easiest way. You've all heard about or tried drybrushing. You know - you get a bit of paint on your brush (an old one, if you're smart ... ) Scrub the brush on a tissue or piece of foam (the pieces that come as padding for almost all miniatures packages work very well) until very little pigment is left. Then, brush your vehicle with the brush. What little pigment is there will stick to the raised details - hatches, rivets, mantles, engine deck details, etc. - heightening the relief between them and the background. This gives the impression of more detail because you can see the highlighted details from further away than you could with a lesser contrast between details and background. With which colors do you drybrush? Try the base color of your model, lightened very slightly with white or yellow (depending on the base color ... ) Many gamers; will leave things at this - with very good results.

If you want to do a bit more, you could highlight some areas that are subject to excess wear - exposed track shoes, hatch handles, steps, etc., with gunmetal or steel color, to show where paint has worn away. Rust will also appear here - a reddish brown, with or without a touch of gunmetal color, applied either as a wash, or simply painted onto the rusted area, will show the depredations of moisture nicely. Highlight the rusted area with a bit of metal to show recent wear, and you're done.

One last step will complete your paint job. Take your favorite dirt, mud color, and drybrush it onto the running gear and lower hull - this gives a weathered, used appearance, and, if you use a reasonably drab dirt color (Polly-S 410069 Dirt is very good for this), will tone everything down for you.

In your haste to get your army on the table, don't forget the simple things. Spot a bit of dark red for tail lights, black for rubber radio aerial boots, and silver for headlights. The larger the scale you game in, the more important are these little details, but they will help even the tiniest models. Most importantly, don't overdo it! Go to some of the references and look at the photos - they're, after all, what you're trying to recreate.

CONCLUSION

This article doesn't provide you the information you need to paint a specific tank of, say, Prince Harvey's Fusiliers. You're going to need to do some homework to find all of the little details that made that unit's vehicles unique. You will, however, be able to produce generic equipment for most of your protagonists.

For further information, go to the bibliography. I refer to it frequently in the text this is not for the sole purpose of giving credit to those whose works I used in preparing this article, but is also to point you at specific references to expand on the subject at hand. In some cases, you will have to go to the bibliography to make sense of what's gone before! The books therein are all available (even the out-ofprint ones can be obtained from many hobby shops), are written basically for hobbyists such as yourself, and provide a wealth of information with which to make your miniatures more interesting.

More WWII Armor Colors and Markings Europe and North Africa

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