15mm WW2 eastern front, work in progress

[von Lucky]

I agree - the details have come out nicely.

[sundayhero]

thanks !

TOnight I had some time to work on the project, I first glued the prepared figures on sticks for easier later painting. I kept the bases organization I wanted (one stick = one base).







Then, I started the weathering on the resin tanks, using oil washes. For this I'm using fine arts oil paint, and "mig for washes" thinner. I also tried "revell color mix" thinner, it's also working. I do this in the paint booth, because of the smell.







Of course, we're just in the first stage of the work, tommorow I'll rework everything with pure thinner to blend the effects. I also plan to add some raw umber washes in the tracks, and probably a burn sienna wash on the tank body too, before going for the pigments and rust process. I'm not sure, I'm experimenting after all 

[Vermis]

Blimey!

Oil washes and weathering, and all the pigments and rusts and things, always seemed like some sinister, arcane art to me. I'll be interested to hear about your experience with these.

[sundayhero]

thanks,

Concerning oil work, I was thinking the same, but for now, it's a pretty straight forward process : just mix a tiny amount of paint with some thinner, and apply it like a standard wash, in the model recess.

Normally, I should start blending it (with pure thinner, and coton tip for instance) almost on the fresh, but since the figures preparation was pretty slow I didn't find the courage of doing it tonight. We'll see if it was a big mistake tommorow 


the materials were also easy to find, and cheap. The oil paints were dirt cheap (a discount in a local store, each tube was less than 1euro  ) and the revell color mix is also very cheap (less than 4euros if I remember correctly), and available easily too. Since you don't need so much colors to start (a dirt dark brown and a dust light brown would be a good start I think), oil tubes would cost around 4 or 5 euros/each.

FOr the pigments process, we'll see, I made some tries in the past, and used it in scenery and diorama, the most difficult part of the job is to fix it. I bought some specialized product for it (mig pigment fixer).

[sundayhero]

Hi,

A no pics update, just to say that there is no problem to fix, touch or remove washes using thinner even 2 days later. So it's virtually pretty forgiving and controlable.

The other thing I discovered is that oil washes take ages to dry  wich is probably a good thing for "serious" modellers, or for wargamers painting big (5 or probably even 10+ vehicles) batch of models together, but seems a bit innapropriate for a quick week end project.

At least during dry time, I prepared my 2 russian figures companies for priming (gluing them on sticks, sanding defects, cleaning, etc...), wich took ages too 

Tommorow I'll primer the figures, finish the weathering (except pigments I'll add at the end) on the tanks, and put some varnish on them.

[sundayhero]

Here's the last progress I made. The enamel washes finally dried (it really takes ages for the heaviest ones  :: ) and I varnished them with vallejo premium matte varnish with airbrush.

finish the tracks
chipping
fixes if needed
pigments weathering

Here's some pics of the current state :


















I also primered my russians with gesso. This stuff is magic  :thumbsup:

[Vermis]

Looking great, although... don't be offended, but have you put the burnt sienna on yet?

[sundayhero]

Thanks,

Yes I tried it, but it was more or less invisible, mixed with the raw umber and burnt umber washes (a reddish brown on reddish browns...). I even tried raw sienna, but it was too bright for my needs (but would be perfect for wreck rusty vehicle, I think).

Dust, rust and dirt effects will be applied with pigments. I will also add a few more "pin washes" once the chipping will be done. In one word, I try to practice as much technics I can on these first tries  

[sundayhero]

Hi again,

Tonight I made the chipping effects, a bit too heavy hand on this, but anyway  :grin:











Next : pigments effects (wich will be used for dust and rust, to add some detail on bare metal I made for instance), and finish the tracks (I made a few more washes on the tracks, wich are still drying, it's why I could not paint them tonight).

[Vermis]

Maybe a little strong, but what do I know! Not too shabby.

I take your point about the burnt sienna.

[grant]

Looking fantastic! 

[sundayhero]

thank you both !


Today I almost completed the tracks, and before going with pigments and tracks finish I  wanted to continue technical experimenting (after all, it was the main purpose of these tanks painting), again with oil weathering, this time for rust effects.

I used 2 diferent oil colours :



This time, using revell color mix thinner. I applied it in aeras I found that would be logical, first with the red orange, and then with the bright orange.


Searching for online documentation, I also found an usefull tip : putting my oil paint on paper towel, to "drink" the oil and keep the pigments paste only, and only then mixing the paste with thinner. Doing this you waste a bit of paint, but with a quick drying thinner (like the revell color mix), you obtain something a bit similar to dry pigments effects, I think.









Now I will let them dry all night, paint a few rust streaks with pure thinner, and finally varnish them a last time before applying pigments. I will probably experiment some "home made dirt paste" for the tracks too.


I also base painted all my russian infantry. I'm more comfortable with speed painting technics : base coat, wet brush of khaki grey, then zenithal drybrush of the same color (to make it more opaque), and finally apply a good coat of brown wash (here the trusty agrax earthshade). It will bring some definition to the minis, wich should paint and detail easily then.

[sundayhero]

The thanks are completed !

Last technics I tried on the tanks :

1) mud effect : I mixed some acrylic paint with baking soda, and applied the mix on the tracks. Then, I secured it with PVA glue. I finished with a couple of drybrushes of lighter brown to give a bit of definition.

2)pigments : I applied black pigments on the engines and exhausts, and dust colour pigments on tracks. I finally fixed it with mig pigments fixer. 

It results some tanks heavily "battle experienced"  for late (late) war. But overall I'm happy with the result, especially considering it was my first "real" armour project with airbrush and all.

Here's the final pics :

ISU152










T34-76

[von Lucky]

I like them - a lot of effort for the amount of tanks I'm used to, but with only a few on table for your games these'll be sweet

[sundayhero]

thank you ! 

You know, I think a complete platoon of each would not necessary take a lot more time than this couple, simply because a lot of operations I made take a while to dry. But the painting itself is pretty fast, because of the airbrush.