The Christian Wargamer : The Painting Corner

My T-55 project went off as I had hoped! With the extra time off, I was able to paint all 12 T-55s by Friday, even with all the other events this week in celebration of Christmas and time spent with my family away from the War Room.

I painted these in batches of three as I have found it is easier to find an hour to paint than it is four or five!

I started by priming them with Army Painter's Skeleton Bone color spray. This shade is close to the color I wanted for the base so I thought it would be a good starting layer. After the primer dried, I airbrushed the tanks with a base coat of Vallejo 847 Dark Sand. The two tanks in the picture are what they looked like with just the primer and base coat.

After the airbrush, I used Vallejo Dark Brown wash to do the pin washing on the hatches, panels, wheels, fuel tanks and other recessed areas. The tank in the foreground of the photo above shows what they looked like after the pin washing.

The next step was a simple dry brush of 50/50 Vallejo 976 Buff and 918 Ivory. I would then pick out the road wheels, tracks and headlights with Vallejo 995 German Grey and the DShK MG with Citadel's Leadbelcher. For the gun mount, I used Vallejo 875 Beige Brown with a coat of the Dark Brown wash and then a highlight of 75/50 Vallejo 976 Buff and 875 Beige Brown. Finally, the top engine compartment grills, the DShK MG and the tip of the gun would be given a coat of Citadel's Nuln Oil. After completing several of the tanks I went back and gave a final drybrush of Vallejo 884 Stone Grey to the tracks as this helped pick out some of the detail and gave then a slightly worn look. All in all, these were pretty fast to paint--even the decals went on pretty easy!

Here are some of the finished tanks, taking up defensive positions along the border: