Tankodesantniki

For those that don't know, Tankodesantniki were Soviet infantry that road into battle on the decks of tanks.

These little guys took me a long time. But I guess December is usually a write off for anyone. I did happen to refine a couple of techniques and think it will greatly speed up my painting of infantry. I'm going to really try my best to stay away from tanks and get some infantry and gun teams done. I tried a couple of different things here. I used two different base coats, and two different washes.

First I used Tamiya Khaki XF-49. Tamiya paints are perfect for the airbrush. I mix 2 parts paint and 1 part Windex and you can spray for ever. In some painting guides it says you can use Khaki as an alternate for the Russian uniform. For these guys I tried a black wash. 60 parts Future, and 1 part GW black ink. This stuff is way to think to be called a wash. But even this was a bit thin as you can see in the pic's. I'll probably try 50:1 or 55:1 for the next batch.

2nd, I used BF's Khaki Grey (880). BF paint really sucks in an airbrush. Its just crazy thick, and I've yet to find a good solution. This time I used 1:1 Windex and paint. Didn't work to bad, but it still clogged the airbrush after a bit. For these guys I used 5 parts W&N Peat brown and 1 part Future. This stuff is fantastic for faces and hands. But I think I like the black better for uniforms.

The next time I'm going to try and paint the uniforms with the black wash, and the peat brown for hands and faces. we'll see how hard it is to separate.

One of the things that took so long on these guys was the highlighting. the old way I would do a heavy dry brush over black primer for the base coat, and then a highlight dry bush. But now with the airbrush, I decided to try painting the highlights. This took for ever. Plus I really wasn't sure what to highlight. If I skip this step or at least not do as much, I will be able to paint infantry way faster then I used to.

Anyway, hopefully everyone has a great holiday. I'll leave you with a picture of the loot I received for Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

T-34's and Panzer III J's

Its been a while since I've put something up on here.  I haven't painted much in the last month.  Been pretty busy.  But I've finally managed to finish some more tanks.  Tried a couple of new things here, including using an ink that every raves about.  Winsor & Newton Peat Brown ink.  I must admit it worked rather well.  It's still going to take me some practice.  I'm not going to try and move on to do as much infantry as I can.  I've been avoiding it ever since I started using an airbrush.

One thing I am noticing is that the round soviet star decals are thinker then other decals.  These are the only decals where the edges are picked up by dry brushing.  I don't do these any different, but you can still always see the circle after, where you can't on other decals I do.


Of course my son and his mohawk  had to get into one.

Happy Anniversary to the Wife

July 1st was my 6th Wedding Anniversary. I just wanted to say happy anniversary to my wife. A while back she had asked me if I could paint her a pink tank. I don't know if anyone has seen this but I had come across the pink T-34/85 that's "sitting" in South London. So I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately, I tried the technical pen thing again, and I now know I don't like that technique.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HONEY! HERE IS YOUR PINK TANK!

Unfortunately its not even pink any more, but still there. I'd like to go see it one day. I guess there is a big story behind how it got there as well, and its called 'Stompie'. This is what it looks like now.

Here are the pictures of the finished tank.