Tag: KV-1

I have been working on getting a fleet of tanks for the What a Tanker game from the Too Fat Lardies company.   It’s a great game and has been a true hit with my gaming club, the Mass Pikemen.  I have been working on building up a flexible group of tanks, and so far I am up to 71 tanks in 15mm/1:100 scale – not including ones needing assembly and painting.

My sources have been eBay, hobby stores, and Facebook.  If I waited to paint them all, I would never do another project, so finding some mostly painted resin (and reasonably priced) models from Wargame Models in Ohio has helped shorten the process.  Mostly I just washed and varnished the ones I have gotten from WMIO.

One group acquisition was from another source on eBay – it was a resin Soviet KV-1 platoon consisting of 5 KV-1’s heavy tanks, 2 T-26 light tanks, 2 BA-64 armored cars, and 2 trucks.  I do not know the manufacturer.  They had been given some sort of dark brown coating with splashes of lighter brown.  They color-wise did not look particularly like Soviet tanks from 1941.  This platoon is the main subject of this blog post.

It was necessary to use a Sharpie to mark one end of the 1/8″ magnets such that I inserted them in the correct alignment (I did not want the turrets “blowing off” prematurely!).  I glued the magnets into the holes with Gorilla Glue.

I needed to find a way to paint the figures without damaging the paint, and tanks were new to me.  I decided to take advantage of the magnets on the turrets here.  I used small nails inserted into styrofoam blocks (the kind used for flower crafts).  For the hulls, I masked the tracks for secondary painting, and such that I could hold them safely.

I airbrushed/primed the figures with Vallejo “Surface Primer – Russian Green”.

I then gave the figures an airbrushed base coat with a thinned coat of Vallejo Panzer Series “Camouflage Olive Green”.

These looked too drab, and not very Soviet green looking.  I moved on to adding Vallejo Mecha Color “Green” with a light airbrushing.  Next, I used a brush to dry brush Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Green” on the figures.  I was able to then give the figures an appropriate light green by using Citadel “Biel-Tan Green” as a shade.  It worked!

At this point, I removed the masking and painted the tracks.  I then wanted to add some mud, dirt, and dust with pigments.  I used several Vallejo pigments and binders (all listed at the end of this post).  These models are small, (about 3″ long by 1½” wide by 1¾” high so I wanted to give enough weathering without overwhelming them.

This was my first attempt at painting any WWII tank models.  I think I can do better, but early war Soviet tanks are pretty simple, as they had not usually added any markings.  It will not be my last, and I am hoping that I get better with more tries.  This project also is my first submission for Azazel’s November Community painting challenge – Mechanical November ’18.  If you have not checked out his blog, it’s worth a look.  Also, my next few posts will showcase tanks, so I hope you enjoy.

Now for some eye candy!

I hope that you enjoyed this post.  Please let me know your thoughts and feedback below in the comments section.

Thanks for looking!

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, WASHES, AND FLOCKING USED:

1. Citadel “Imperium Primer”
2. Vallejo “Surface Primer – Russian Green”
3. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
4. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
5. Testors “Universal Acrylic Thinner”
6. Vallejo Panzer Series “Camouflage Olive Green”
7. Vallejo Mecha Color “Green”
8. Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Green”
9. Citadel “Biel-Tan Green” (shade)
10. Citadel “Athonian Camoshade” (shade)
11. Vallejo “Surface Primer – Black”
12. Elmer’s White Glue
13. Vallejo “Pigment Binder”
14. Vallejo “Burnt Umber” (pigment)
15. Vallejo “Industrial Splash Mud” (weathering)
16. Vallejo “Light Sienna” (pigment)
17. Vallejo “Light Slate Grey” (pigment)
18. Gorilla Glue
19. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish”

Thanks again for looking and for your feedback!