Team Yankee: Chieftain painting guide 2 (final steps)

Final result of the Chieftain Mk5with BAOR camouflage.

Here is the continue the painting of the Chieftain Mk5 painting guide for my coming BAOR force.
For previus steps see this bloog post: Team yankee chieftain painting guide 1

Step 9: Hand painting step, I used following colours for the painting:
Tracks -  Vallejo 70.836 London Grey
Rubber pads and road Wheels - Vallejo 70.980 Black green
Gun and vision slots - Vallejo 70.995 German grey
Heat cover on gun -  Vallejo 70.988 Khaki

This is all hand painting done, not very time consuming.

Step 10: I paint gloss varnish Before applying decals I also use Vallejo decal fixer after positioned the decals. Wait over night so the decals attach properly.

Step 11: Satin varnish with Air brush on complete tanks.

Step 12: Wash step, I use oil wash sins it´s cheap and effective. I use oil Paints from Winston newton. I make an mix with 30% Burnt Siena and 70% Payns grey and dilute it heavily with god quality thinner. Then do I cover the complete tank with the wash.
Wait for 15-20min
Then can I take an brush with some thinner and Clean the areas where the wash is to heavy or where I don´t want the wash.

Step 13: Mig Dark Mud wash on the tracks and other areas subjected to mud.

Step 14: Pigment, I make an mix of following Vallejo pigments:

• 25% Burnt Umber
• 25% Nature Siena
• 50% Light Siena

I thin the mixture with thinner to an milky contens. I apply the mixture in the tracks and road wheels and bazooka covers. I let it dry for several hours. Then i brush of the excess pigments to create the amount of dirt I want.

Step 15: Final mat varnish coating with Vallejo 62.062 Matt Polyurethane varnish. The best matt varnish on the market according to me.

And here is the final resut:

Team Yankee: Chieftain painting guide 1 (air brush step)

As I mentioned in previous post will i document my painting steps for the Chieftain tanks for Team Yankee. The models are assembled with plastic glue and look rely good. I paint the turret, body and the tracks seperat it´s easier to get coverage in all locations and ad the masking for the camouflage.

I use an Iwata Pro+ for the air brush painting and it works well for me. As with all airbrushes it´s important to clean and keep them in good condition. I usually clean my 3-4 time a year with ultrasonic cleaner + pro paint cleaning fluid. This helps to remove paint in areas that are not possible to reach with brush or cotton tip. 

I also use steel balls in my paints to get them mixed well in the bottle. It makes the paints survive for longer periods and will work better in the air brush.

Here is my painting steps.

Step 1: Priming I use Vallejo primer 73.612 straight from the bottle

Step 2: Dark base coat to get shadows. MIG 931. Important to cover all underside areas where you would get shadows.

Step 3:  Base coat. MIG 932. Even coverage on all parts. 

Step 4: High light 1. MIG 933. First high light. This is the time when you need to decide of how your high light should work. There are to options. Either normal zenitial lighting including panelling or colour modulation. I prefer colour modulation because the models get´s an more depth and especially when I paint 15mm models. But it also takes mode time sins you have to mask and paint each panel separate.  So this is the first result of the modulation cover 50-70% of the base coat.

Step 5: High light 2. MIG 934. Second high light same method as Setp 4 but only 20-30%

Step 6: Masking. I use normal blue tack to mask this hard edge camouflage.  It´s time consuming but gives an good result and sharp edge towards the base coat.

Step 7: Camouflage base. Valejo 72.751. Base coating of camouflage important to keep the airbrush 90deg towards the surface.

Step8: Camouflage high light. 50/50 mix of Valejo 72.751 and 72.749 and added some acrylic air brush thinner. Same panelling method but for the high light cover gradual to 50% of base coat.

This is the air brush steps. I like the result. The contrast between camo and base coat if nice but and will look good on the table.Next is to paint tracka and and add decals. More about that in next blogg post.