PSC StuG WIP

These three babies have been poorly neglected since January, when I built them and their Universal Carrier brethren. In a bout of sudden guilt-fueled energy I decided to do something about this. A sunny sunday afternoon was spent in the shade furiously mixing and brushing paint on the StuGs while the kids sloshed around in the pool.

Three little Stuggies went to the market...

The StuGs had  been basecoated with GW Iyanden Darksun, but I had experimented with various paints on the different models and quite frankly all three looked like shite. So I started wetbrushing them with Vallejo Dunkelgelb mixed with German Camo Beige, then pure Dunkelgelb, then Dunkelgelb mixed with a little white. For each layer I put a little less paint on the brush. Finally I drybrushed them with GW Bleached Bone.

Camo starting to take shape.

I then had to decide on a camo. I didn't want to do anything complicated, but I didn't want the StuGs to be plain yellow either. So I started to draw random brown squiggles with Vallejo Saddle Brown on the first one, and decided I liked it. So I did them on all three and added green squiggles too. (I don't remember the exact colour I used, German Camo Green or something like that from the from the Vallejo Panzer series...)

Camo done!

Now the big problem is that the camo too bright and defined. In real life the camo would be faded and worn in various places. To solve that I did a last drybrush with Bleached Bone lightened with white. I did not want a pure white, but almost. This got brushed across the whole tank to fade down the camo all over although I concentrated on the upper surfaces.

Left: only drybrush, middle: drybrush and filter, right: only filter.

All this drybrushing left the tanks rather light, but it was all according to plan. I borrowed a trick from larger scale model builders and used a filter to enrich the colours and further draw it all together. A filter is like a thin wash or glaze, but instead of letting it pool in the shadows it is applied evenly all over. See the comparison photo above to see the effect. I used a filter from Mig Productions' german filter set. The filter was applied several times until I was happy with the effect. I then used GW Gryphonne Sepia as a pin wash to shade all the panel lines and tools.

Edge chipping. Only for the criminally insane. (Click to enlarge the picture.)

Inspired by some fabulous examples over on the Guild of Wargamers I decided to try my hand at edge chipping. This was done with a very, very fine brush and diluted Coat d'Arms Slate Grey. Instead of doing random paint chips with a torn piece of packing foam I patiently painted every nick and scratch around the edges of the first Stug. The trick is to make chippings that are mostly smaller than the edge highlight, so they really stand out. If you do larger chips here and there you need to keep them irregular and keep a mind on which direction the paint would flake off.

After I did the chipping on the first StuG I decided to take a break, so I still have two more StuGs to do. While the effects are nice close-up I'm a bit sceptical as to if it will show at all on the gaming table. Still, I will probably do the other two in the same way so they match up. Still left to do are the tracks and wheels, as well as any smaller details like tow cables, tools and stowage items. When all that is done I will paint and fit side skirts on the StuGs as well. So they are far from done yet. I will keep you posted.