Improving my painting - Vehicles

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Part of my present effort to improve my painting relates to my dissatisfaction with my old standard for vehicles and 'armour'.  Whilst I used to perfectly happy with it, I had long ago gathered (and then left unused) a collection of pigments and glazes for weathering, that at least subconsciously suggested to me I could do better.  I mean I don't think there was anything wrong with my output for a wargames table, but it no longer satisfied me from a modelling standpoint:

I guess this selection of German and Russian equipment (all subsequently sold BTW) bugged me as it looked so flat, and the simple expedient dry-brush dust was so limiting, anything other than summer dust and dirt is hard to do well with it.  Compare to the recent road-war repaints I've done, which experimented with a few more techniques:

Okay, still some way to go, but there is an effort to use chipping, oil streaks, powders and better dry-brushing effects.

Also in the category of largely unused, was a copy of the following:

By model artist (no better term really) Mig Jimenez.  Now the main issue with this for me is it is all hugely airbrush reliant* but there is an awful lot to be learnt about false contrast, shading, and weathering from a book like this.  And of course, there is no end of expertise on the net; with YouTube heaving with excellent painters of all kinds, Plasmo being one of my favourites:

Anyway, all this being said, I've had a pile of German equipment to represent the Cherbourg campaign 1944 lying around for a very long time now, roughly since I sold my last German force on.  And after months of Napoleonic, fantasy Napoleonics, and 18th Century uniforms I was feeling motivated to begin a new project; and upping my game so far as painting seemed like an additional challenge to make the thought of painting my umpteenth WW2 Germans more enticing.

It was time to engage Try-Hard mode.

I would begin with, well, not the best models.  Perhaps a pragmatic choice to warm up on something it would be hard to polish to finely to begin with, and give yourself a bit of latitude.  Plus they rather irked me.

These are from the Britannia Miniatures, Grubby Tanks range.  And Grubby is the word.  Bought some years ago, when I couldn't find the historical model I wanted available affordably (the Sd.Kfz.135 "Marder" I Lorraine is pretty much the Unicorn of German armour in 1/72 scale) these were very much the next best compromise.  But the mould quality was pretty atrocious, I'm not gonna lie.  As you can see I filled a bunch of holes and voids in the very old formulation resin, and there was no end of cleaning up to do to.  Even so I gave up on some details I could probably have fixed easily enough.  Impatience.  I did fit a crew for each gun out of spares lying around and some crew supplied with the models.  On reflection, I should have added these after I'd painted both separately.  Impatience again.

The painting here, is progression from previous efforts, but only by so much, the main difference being in the base coat, having a far inflated level of highlighting.  This is variously referred to as Colour Modulation, False Contrast or Highlighting; but in this case it's still a bit weak.  One thing I do that makes some difference is highlighting the brown and green separately.

A  common GW/Fantasy company approach to vehicles is edge highlighting, but for military modelers such an exaggerated effect has no place!

Once the base coats and tracks were done, I experimented with a panel line wash.  More on this later, when I got it much better, then on to the transfers.  I always keep transfer sets as they always  provide plenty of spares.  But you can buy them online so easily these days.

After this I tried out my Vallejo Weathering products.  Oil stains applied to the transmission and other spots needing some dirt build up.  I then tried the water staining product, but made two clear mistakes with it.  Too thick a brush, and using it as vertical staining rather than horizontal pooling.

Still it's all learning.

Next up some MIG pigments, another set I bought years ago.  My experience to date with these had been opening a couple of the packs, but some tutorials gave me an indication of some uses.  I began by mixing a splotchy paste with some matt varnish to make mud for the tracks and lower hull; then following this up by dusting a lighter shade straight from the pot over most of the model.  This can be fixed afterwards, but a blast of varnish really helps, so long as its dusted on from a good distance.

The final addition at this stage was some light dry-brushing, a glaze on the crew, and some foliage.  Then the basing was done, and these were for all intents finished.

PanzerJager Abteilung 709.

Foam foliage

Whilst I was pleased with these I still felt I could do better.  The highlights needed work, the panel lines were indistinct, partly due to the models themselves, the rain marks were used wrongly....

So I jumped in to some other models I had to hand, and went, well, a bit further.

Panzer Abteilung 203.

 More French tanks in German service around Cherbourg and the Carentan Peninsular.  These featured further, and better attention to the little details.

Char 2bis Flamme 

This represents a German modification of the Char 2bis to a flamethrower tank.  The 75mm was replaced with a flamethrower, and a larger fuel tank was added at the rear of the vehicle.  This was my first conversion (with the explicit intent of representing a real vehicle) in years.

 

The panel wash is a better formulation here, being 1 part black paint, 1 part glaze, 1 part water, and the tiniest touch of dish soap; which further breaks the surface tension.  It is applied carefully to all the recesses, through which it runs naturally.

  

The chipping was applied with a shred of sponge, and then some were highlighted in silver.  This is a quick method and added greatly to the overall look.

H39's

 The camouflage, is still disappointing to my eye, as it should be more subtly applied.  But that requires a spray gun....  The crewman here is an anciant ESCI tank commander I must've had for near on 40 years!

Somua S35 

This is an old Heller kit, and lacks the quality of the Trumpeter and S&S kits above, but it is still pretty good for its age.

 

Here the dirt build up with powders, and the staining with oils and watermarks is far better.  The key is for all the techniques to build up to give an overall sense of lived in reality.  It exaggerates real damage and wear, but the result provides the illusion of depth and heft, of a real vehicle.  Compare to my Panzer IV at the top of this now incredibly long post!

These have certainly taken a lot longer than my old standard, but the finished effect is deeply satisfying, and the progression across just two batches of models is really pleasing.  There's lots more to add too.  And as time permits, they and thoughts on other techniques will appear here as well....

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*and more on that, another time...