Camo Scheme for my Zvezda 1/100 IS-2

Before I actually get down to the nitty-gritty of painting a camouflage pattern on my IS-2, there is the little matter of applying the decals. There isn't always insignia on WW2 Soviet tanks, in fact sometimes they left the factory and went straight into action 'as was', but more usually at least a vehicle number was applied.

IS-2 model 1943, 88th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, Berlin, April 1945.
Source: Tanks-Encyclopaedia.com

As a graphic designer I really like the Soviet fonts, but finding good decals in 15mm scale can be a little challenging (Zvezda does not supply any with the model). My usual source of smaller scale armour decals is Minibits.net as they have a rather good selection of historic and generic numbers, letters, military emblems and national symbols in 15mm scale.

I had already purchased their 'Russian WWII 'Cryllic style' numbers [1:100-1:76]' decal sheet for my 'Battle of Kursk' project's T-34s and was tempted to use it for my IS-2 as well...

But at the last minute I changed my mind and went hunting through my decal stash for something more suitable for the IS-2's larger turret. I managed to find a nice set of Cyrillic numbers which had been for a 1/72 BA-10 armoured car, but seemed to just the size I was after.

As usual I prepared my model surface for decals by painting on a small area of gloss varnish, just where the  numbers would go. Once the varnish was dry, I used some Microscale MicroSet setting solution to seat the decal. I find that MicroSet and MicroSol liquids help prevent silvering and hide the decals carrier film (although it can be clearly seen in the above photo, for now).

Once satisfied the decal is smooth, straight and adhering perfectly I let it dry and the dab on some MicroSol around the edges of the decals carrier film. This should further help the film blend in to the model's base coat and make the decal look like it has been painted on.

I conclude the process with a thin coat of satin varnish, to permanently fix the decal and protect it during the weathering stages.

The Camouflage Pattern
I'd decided that I wanted a winter camo pattern for my IS-2. Should I decide to add more late WW2 Soviet tanks to it (for a game of GF9 'TANKS!') I wanted to distinguish these Soviet vehicles from my mid-war 'Kursk' collection (which will be in plain Russian Green for the summer months of the war).

I didn't really want to do an all-over 'white-washed' winter scheme, so looked around for something a little different. Tanks-Encyclopaedia came to my aid with a couple of very nice examples of winter camp schemes...

29th Guards Heavy Tank Battalion, Poland, early 1945. Source: Tanks-Encyclopedia.com

Partial winter camouflage, Eastern Prussia, February 1945. Source: Tanks-Encyclopaedia.com

Initially, I favoured the 'dotty' pattern, but the thought of painting all those on at 15mm scale eventually put me off! The 'snow tiger' pattern won me over as it's just the sort of thing that can be done well with just a brush.

I'll began by sketching out the outlines of the 'snow stripes' using a white chinagraph pencil...

Next: Camo Scheme Painting.

I still hate Hataka paints!

Hobby Boss 1/72 Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC - Part 3

The final parts of the easy build kit went together very quickly and with no real bother. I did have to fill the unsightly gap where the fuselage joins the one-piece wing component.

One other detail that's worth mentioning is the cockpit, or rather the lack of detail therein. It is better than Hobby Boss's Easy Build Spitfire that I recently made (which was nothing more than an empty slot), but that's not saying much. Still, here's what you get...

Not much to see, really. A seat, a headrest, a very rudimentary (and incorrect) joystick and a simple gunsight. I'm hoping that once the canopy is on that this poor detail will not be so noticeable.

Now, having primed the model with Humbrol Spray Acrylic Primer I started marking out the camouflage pattern using a white pencil crayon...

As this model is a painting test to see how easily Hataka paints are applied by brush I'm applying the camo scheme freehand, but some faint guidelines will help me paint a fairly realistic pattern. Hopefully.

I wasn't all that impressed with how the Hataka acrylic paints went on using an airbrush, so let's see if they brush on any better...

Nope! Not liking this!
Maybe it's just me, maybe I just don't like brush painting (large areas), but Hataka paints continue to be a challenge. However, I have learned a couple of things...

First of all, mix Hataka paints well - I mean really well. On my first attempt, I shook the Hataka paint bottle the same amount of time I do with my Vallejo paints, about 30-40 seconds (really hard). But this still resulted in a milky solution where the paint binder was not completely mixed with the paint. This resulted in a streaky and glossy 'paint' (see left wing)...

Learning from this I shook and shook and shook the Hataka paint, ensuring that the ball-bearing that they put in their bottles was floating free in the bottle (it sometimes sticks to the side if you leave the bottles unused for a while). This time, I shook the bottle for well over a minute, and the difference was marked.

The binder was properly mixed, this time, the paint was easier to apply and not quite so streaky. BUT, there was also a marked colour change in the paint compared to the colour I expected (see the right wing of the above photo). I was expecting Hataka's 'Ocean Grey' to be a darker grey (based on the Hobby Boss paint instructions), but it turned out not that much darker than the primer I sprayed on.

Hobby Boss paint instructions...

The correct RAF 'Ocean Grey'. Source: Wings Palette

The Hobby Boss paint instructions indicate a mid-charcoal grey for the fuselage, but checking online references (see above photo) it looks like Hataka is closer to the correct shade of grey. So, once again, while using Hataka paints are a challenge (at least for me, it seems) they are very good renditions of the correct original paint schemes.

And, onto the 'Dark Green'
Despite my problems, I decided that as I've gone this far I might as well complete the model and the test (I was tempted to just respray the model, but resisted)!

So...It's shake, shake, shake, shake that Hataka paint!

While still not happy, I seem to be getting the measure of brush applying Hataka paints. Unlike when airbrushing, do not attempt to use Humbrol Acrylic Thinners but instead just use ordinary tap water to get the paint to a useable consistency. I have also settled on applying two thinner coats of paint rather than trying to get a good coat with one coat.

The Hataka paint has a tendency to dry fast (as I discovered to my horror when using with an airbrush) so you have to watch our for drying stains where you are brushing over already drying paint. Two light coats helps with that issue as well.

Even so, I found I had to be reasonably speedy in applying my coats and I took the precaution of applying the paint in zones - filling in panels so that the edge of my completed areas did not show up under the next brushed section. Stop and start mid panel and you are liable to see where you stopped underneath the next coat.

The effect is still a little streaky for my tastes - I cannot say that brush painting or Hataka paints have grown on me any!

Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 Pt. 4 – Painting

Well, construction complete, though I have left off some of the minor and tiny parts - such as machine guns - until the main base coat painting is done.

It's a nice looking plane isn't it? I hope my painting can do it justice, I will start by spraying the underside with my Tamiya AS-5 Light Blue for the Luftwaffe RLM 65. All I masked out at this stage was the canopies.

The basic green was done with Humbrols lovely Dark Green spray (N0. 30) and there was plenty of masking to do to create a nice hard demarkation between the lower surface blue and the upper green. I do like masking, it's very relaxing!

And finally we get to the groovy bit - the splinter camo...

Unfortunately I didn't have a good match for the RML71 (Dark Green) for the splinter camo, so I used the nearest thing I had in my paint box - Tamiya's AS-4 Grey Violet. But with some weathering it should look OK I think...

The canopies still have their masking on as I don't want these to be spoilt when I varnish later on. I will paint the canopy frame last - perhaps with enamels.

Well, there we go. Now onto the touching up before I gloss varnish for the decal stage.

Minicraft 1/144 JU-88 Pt. 3 – Camo research

Photo source: Flickr

Luckily for me the JU-88 in Finnish service seems to be quite a popular subject for modellers and a lot of good information is available about colouring and decals.

Finnish JU-88s seem to come in two 'flavours' - those that stuck with the standard German splinter camo and those that adopted a slightly modified version of this scheme. Either way the colours seem to be the normal German combinations of RLM71 (dark gren), RLM70 (mid green) and TLM65 (mid blue).

I've made this quick sketch to illustrate this scheme...

The underside was all mid blue but displayed the normal Eastern Front yellow sections at the wing tips and underside of the engine nacelles.

I won't be buying special paints for the top side pattern but using what I have in my paint box by way of Humbrol spray cans (their Light Olive and Dark Green) as I think I have fairly good matches for these colours. Especially if I weather them a bit.

I have to say that the German splinter pattern camo design must be the model newbie's favourite camo scheme! Nice uncomplicated strips of masking tape seem to get you a passable impression no matter your skill level! (Famous last words yet again!)

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 6

More painting (mis)adventures...
So you won't be surprised that my progress with this little project is crawling along at a snails pace. Looking at other model blogs you see projects that are done and dusted in a couple of posts...Well, not here. Today I present a change of tone on my Finnish Me 109...

I've gone gray. Not as pretty as the Luftwaffe RML 74/75/76 but closer to the Finnish subdued camo that I'm seeing in the available reference material...

Source: Antti Lappalainen

1/144 is a really funny scale to work with, it's like painting a bird house with a paint roller. I've learned a lot about how not to do things with this model and I want to do more. When I started I got some advice from Tim Gow of Megablitz to go with brushes rather than a spray - I now see why (as usual I like to understand why by experimentation).

This small scale requires no less planning than a larger model, and maybe even more as you have to understand what techniques do and do not transfer down from larger scales (again, something Tim pointed out to me).

I'm finishing this up with some more experimentation and just putting this one down to experience. Just too many new things going on in one project for my liking and I'm not satisfied with the quality of the job I've done. I've ordered a cheaper Zvesda 1/144 Me 109 F and have planned this one using what I have learned so far.

UPDATE: Egged on by Tim Gow...

Eduard 1/144 Me 109 G-2 - Part 5

Painting (mis)adventures
Hmmm, I'm not really sure how this is going. I've had a few disasters with this one along the way.

First lesson - trying to get nice blended effects at 1/144 is NOT for a novice and certainly not for a first model at this scale (I cocked that up). On the other hand I'm pleased with the splinter camo pattern.

Anyway, I have a lot of tidying up to do.

The scary bit is the next stage where I am supposed to tone down the whole scheme with a subtle coating of grey, so everything looks weathered and more subdued. Like this...

Ah well, onwards and upwards!

Painting an Me109 at 1/144 scale

Tim Gow from the MegBlitz blog pointed out that my looking at larger scale models for inspiration for a 1/144 isn't all that constructive as the differences in scales meas that a completely different treatment is needed. Here's a really nice example of one of Tim's small Me109s...

The basic camo scheme shown is a similar scheme to some of those used by the Finns (RLM 74,75,76, with splinter camouflage pattern on wing/upper surface and mottled pattern on the side).

Luftwaffe paint desciptions:
> RLM 74: Green-gray
> RLM 75: Purple-gray
> RLM 76: Light-blue

Now I'd imagined I would approach my 1/144 kit the same as my 1/72, with spray paint and masking, but as soon as I opened the Eduard kit box this morning I realized that Tim had a very good point about painting techniques and scale.

1/144 is small! Until I got that lid off I hadn't realized just how small.

Trying to apply complicated masks - tape or Blu-Tack - to something this small might not be viable, Tim prefers the good old fashioned brush method!

Edit: I found a really nice - if somewhat over-the-top paint tutorial for Eduards's 1/144 'F' Me 109 over at the ARC Forums. I am NOT going this far - but it's fun to read.

PSC 1/72 T-34/85 – Finnish camouflage

This is my second attempt at a camouflage paint scheme and as my first try went woefully wrong I have tried a few new ways of doing things to – hopefully – get the effect I am after.

Left: My first attempt at a Finnish camo scheme on my Pegasus KV-1e went a little pare shaped!

The main problems had to do with my choice of paints, the way I used the aerosol spray cans and the subsequent over-painting I had to do to rectify the mistake I made when spraying.

Would I do better with this second attempt?

SU-122M conversion - Part 3

Well, another first for me - this time the 'hairspray technique' for doing a winter wash. I wanted a highly weathered and chipped finish, so this startes with a very flakey and faded snow camo layer....

I think the Humbrol spray acrylic is a little thick and 'sticky' for this technique to work absolutely the way it's supposed to, so I will try spraying other types of paint in future attempts (an airbrush - once again! - would help I think).

The tutorial for this technique which I followed can be found here: Mig Jemenez Blog - The Hairspray Technique

NEXT: Pin wash and weathering.

Experiment No. 3 - Camouflage Part 3

Having gone through the various stage of masking with Blu-Tack and spraying a separate colour for the camo I have finally finished the basic pattern...

I have to say it didn't seem to be entirely successful, as you can tell from the photo there are clearly visible marks around the edges of the pattern where one paint layer joins the other. This hard edged effect isn't as clean as I was hoping it would be and now I will have to do a fair amount of remedial touching up.

Of course this can be partially explained by the fact that I am using spray aerosol cans instead of an airbrush as I am guessing that an airbrush can put down a finer layer of pain, thus negating any noticeable borders between paint patterns.

I can't help but be a little disappointed and have to wonder if I might have done a better job by just brush painting the camo?

Certainly these more subtle paint effects do seem to be best done with an airbrush, but I don't want to buy one of these until I can afford a very good quality one. I shall try a couple more experiments with this Blu-Tack masking technique on some spare plastic packaging to see if altering the hard mask to a softer one can alleviate the noticeable lines between colours.

Experiment No. 3 - Camouflage Part 2

Camo colour 2 - Hazel Brown
Having laid down the base camo colour - mid-grey - I was ready for the next paint layer in the three-colour pattern. The second part of this experiment is to try out the BluTack method for masking out camouflage schemes, so here we go...

Applying the BluTack is - it has to be said - a little pain-staking, but it is quicker than the masking tape method AND it is better for making organic and rounded shapes. I do worry a little about how easy it will be to lift off, but we shall see.

The spray paint I used was Tamiya's TS-1 acrylic Red Brown and it's exactly the colour shade I wanted, though it is slightly glossy...

My main concerns are as follows:
1. WIll the various layers, sprayed one over another, leave a noticeable hard edge between the colours?
2. How easy will the BluTack be to remove?
3. Will the additional over-spraying cover up fine detail on the model?

Number one is the critical one. Not being very experienced in masking the couple i have done have produced noticeable ridges where one colour meets another, this seems partly due to my dependance on spray can paint which puts down a thicker coat of paint than airbrushing.