With the primer and undercoats reapplied I lightly sprayed the whole model with Nato Green (XF-67) followed by the same colour mixed 50:50 with Yellow Green (XF-4). The second colour was sprayed concentrating on the centres of panels. Both colours were sprayed in thin coats to allow the underlying black / brown and white to show through. At this point the model looked a terrifying lime green colour, nowhere near the colour that would actually have been used. Before any of the many experts out there start writing furious eMails quoting Federal Standard colour chip numbers etc, this was intentional as the following painting stages would tone things down a lot.
The next stage was to apply the markings. I chose to use just the national symbols supplied with the kit following a photo of a vehicle I found on the internet. In preparation for the markings I applied a light coat of Johnson’s Klear diluted 50:50 with Tamiya thinners. This darkened the finish considerably. Once the transfers had set overnight a further light coat of Klear was applied to seal them and protect the underlying paint in preparation for weathering.
With the varnish having set for a couple of days I applied some light chipping with a piece of torn sponge using Vallejo German Camouflage Black Brown. After this dots of oil paint were applied and blended into the surface using a flat brush in order to replicate faded paint. On a model with an overall green finish Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre seem to work well for this process. The oil paint was allowed to cure for about three days before being re-sealed with more Johnson’s Klear after which a pin wash was applied using Vandyke Brown oil paint. The wash was allowed to cure for another three days before proceeding. I find that the advantage of using oil paints is that as they take a long time to dry, they can be worked and blended over a long period of time. The disadvantage is that once oil paint is applied you can’t do much else with the model until they have dried!
The next stage was to drybrush the model and before this can be done it’s important to make sure that the oil paint is completely dried (and preferably sealed with varnish) or the pigment will be picked up and colour the paint used for drybrushing. This is best done on a matt base and so a thin coat of Testor’s Dullcote was sprayed over the whole model. This dries to a very matt finish and provided it is thinned does not turn ‘milky’ as do some other matt varnishes. I usually drybrush in order to tie underlying colours together rather than to highlight raised detail and so a colour approximating to the overall colour of the model was used rather than a light green highlight. However, in this case I think I may have overdone it being left with too much of a highlight for my liking.
Details such as the tow cables were painted with Vallejo acrylics. Some washes of brown pigments followed by oil washes were used to discolour the tracks. When these were dry I applied graphite dust to the raised areas of the tracks, machine guns and tow cables using my fingertip to give them a metallic appearance.