Paint it grey

I have been ill during easter, but at least I managed to slap some paint on my Panzer IV's. I had a cold, complete with head-ache and a fever, but not enough to knock me out. So while the rest of the family went out for easter lunch I watched some movies and base-coated all three tanks.

Blue? I thought you said grey???

Normally I would use Vallejo German Grey for my tanks, but my bottle had actually dried out. Admittedly it was over 10 years old and I hadn't screwed the cap back on properly. I decided to improvise and had a rummage through my GW foundation paints. I first tried Fenris Grey and then Adeptus Battlegrey on different parts of one tank. Despite it's name, Fenris Grey was very blue while Adeptus Battlegrey was to light and didn't cover properly. Then I tried Adeptus Battlegrey over Fenris Grey and was immediately satisfied; it looked close enough to german Panzergrau.

Adeptus Battlegrey wetbrushed over Fenris grey. Stowage and tracks picked out in base colours.

When I paint several models identically, one usually serves as the prototype, where I can experiment a little bit. So while I basecoated all tanks with Fenris Grey, I proceeded with just one of them. As stated, Adeptus Battlegrey was painted over the basecoat, with a technique I call "wet-brushing". It's similar to dry-brushing, but you don't wipe off all the paint from your brush. You have to be careful not to get too much paint on the brush, but you don't want it completely dry since you want to pick out more than just the edges of whatever you are painting. I'm aiming for about 90% coverage, with the basecoat showing through in nooks and crannies on the model. I also managed to get some nice tonal differences Since Fenris Grey shone through the Adeptus Battlegrey in some places.

The edges were given a proper drybrush with Foundry Slate Grey.

After the two shades of grey I picked out the tracks and tools with Vallejo Gunmetal, and the packs and rolls with GW Dheneb Stone. The large box and wooden shafts were painted GW Khemri Brown. I then decided tha the gray needed some more definition and did a proper drybrush with Wargames Foundry Slate Gray (the light tone). In retrospect I should have done this before painting the stowage and tools, but it was easily touched up. 

Black pinwash and Devlan Mud applied.

Next step was to tone down the drybrush a little bit. A black pinwash was applied in panel lines, around hatches, tools and liberally on the wheels and lower hull. The tracks were heavily washed with black as well.  Devlan mud was used to shade the stowage and wooden box.

At this stage the tank was about 90% complete. It wouldn't look out of place on the wargames table, but with a little effort it could be improved vastly. First, the wheels. I touched up the wheel rims with Slate grey where the base coat had rubbed off, and painted the rubber tyres on all the wheels black. I then highlighted the wooden box with Wargames Foundry Spearshaft. I dabbed GW Macharius Solare Orange on the tracks and drybrushed them with Gunmetal again. I then had to touch up the wheels once more, doh! Next time I will touch up the wheels last...

Crate and tracks detailed and the tyres painted black.

While I had the black paint out I painted a thin black line in the viewports on the side of the hull and turret, and put a black dot on the muzzle of each machine gun. The inside of the muzzle brake on the main gun was also painted black, something that's easy to forget!

Notice the rusty exhaust.

The exhaust was painted with Vallejo Iron Oxide. It contains fine grains of sand and gives a nice textured finish. It was drybrushed with Vallejo Gun Metal and then GW Macharius Solar Orange. I then washed the exhaust and the tracks with Devlan Mud to tone down the orange a bit.

Is it finished now? Hm...

At this point I'm satisfied. I was going to try some edge chipping in a darker grey to show chipped paint, but I'm afraid that I will ruin the paintjob. What's left to do is base the tank and dust the tracks with some pigments. I need to seal the paint with a flat varnish of course, which will take the shine off it too, but that will happen after I have put transfers on all the tanks. The other two tanks are also nearing completion and I will need to paint their commanders too, of course.