RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

This is a build I just finished, the whole build is posted to the Henglong builds forum. A whole lot of work went into this one, hope you enjoy.

20180602_191306 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_191112 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_191249 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_191009 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_191147 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_190856 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_190848 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_190657 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_190620 by jon newsom, on Flickr

20180602_190634 by jon newsom, on Flickr

Stay thirsty my friends!

The paintwork and detail you have achieved on this is exceptional Jon you have put a lot of work into it and it shows in the end result

Cheers, Lee.

That's really cool, Man. It actually made me think the tank had come out of the factory with a camo paint job, then some time went by and winter came so they white-washed it, then some more time went by and spring came so they tried to wash off the white-wash, and now it's the beginning of summer. Kinda told me a little story, even. Close? In the right background it could easily be mistaken for the real thing. Again, nice work.

WOW, Your finish work has only added to the overall project.

Great Job!

Barry

Max-U52 wrote:That's really cool, Man. It actually made me think the tank had come out of the factory with a camo paint job, then some time went by and winter came so they white-washed it, then some more time went by and spring came so they tried to wash off the white-wash, and now it's the beginning of summer. Kinda told me a little story, even. Close? In the right background it could easily be mistaken for the real thing. Again, nice work.

Thanks, yes you are pretty close they just didn't need to scratch it off, the weather did that. This tank would have been issued in late summer leading up to the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 44 / 45. Then whitewashed during the first snow before the battle then use throughout the battle and into February March in Germany through the spring rains and mud.

Very very rare are winter camouflages from the factory as they were not sure what the area would look like when it got there. The Germans and Russians and eventually the Americans would learn that you cannot whitewash tanks ahead of time because they stand out and make easy targets. You must wait until the snow is falling and has fallen a lot to paint it. The problem with that is that of course it is snowing and the tank is all wet and cold which are horrible conditions for painting. The German whitewash paint was very thin as they had a pigment shortage and had to stretch the paint to have enough to make all of the vehicles whitewashed. So the combination of the cheap paint and the conditions it was applied in caused it to chip off and run off very quickly. Also this had to be done very quickly because if your tank was not camouflaged the next morning after a heavy snowstorm it then stood out like a sore thumb. So many times these were done at night not with a spray gun as they didn't have enough painters to go around quickly enough to get everyone especially on the front line. So most of these winter white washed vehicles were painted with makeshift brushes, mops and even just material found around the area on the end of a stick. This is why if you're doing a whitewash winter camouflage you don't want to do it with an airbrush as the final look. Airbrush is fine if you plan on chipping it streaking it and washing it away but if you want a middle of the winter look use a brush and sometimes not a very good one. You want it to be sloppy you want it to be runny and you want to miss spots.

A trick I used to do before I had a lot of different options and I have learned a lot of different methods was to Simply take White oil based paint and pour it into water and mix it around and then splash it on. It makes for a horrible authentic look of splotchy beautiful white wash. But I do prefer this method that I used on this tank which is the hairspray method of chipping it off as it gives you a little more control.

Model Builder 4 wrote:The paintwork and detail you have achieved on this is exceptional Jon you have put a lot of work into it and it shows in the end result

Cheers, Lee.

I apreciate it! Thank you!

BarryC wrote:WOW, Your finish work has only added to the overall project.

Great Job!

Barry

Thanks!

happytank wrote:I love the shadows in your photos helps bring the tank alive, great work thanks for posting

Thanks, I try to photograph under daylight bulbs and try to get angles from which a real person looking at the real thing would be at while looking at it.

A beautiful result Jon, one to be proud of for sure. The colours, details and corrections are all so artfully and tastefully done. I look forward to seeing what you tackle next!

Raminator wrote:A beautiful result Jon, one to be proud of for sure. The colours, details and corrections are all so artfully and tastefully done. I look forward to seeing what you tackle next!

Thanks! I plan on doing a Tiger I latter in the summer, I want do the step by step pics as it takes so long but I will put it on the Show off forum when done.

Fantàstic!

And thnx for the mini-tutorial on white-washing. It’s a great help. My Königstiger is waiting for its winter-coat.