How to paint Afrika Korps vehicles

After painting two infantry platoons of Deutsche Afrika Korps for my brother, I have painted two vehicles units: three tank hunters Diana and two recon Sdkfz 232 8 rad. I wonder when he is going to start painting the rest of his army! Anyways, I wanted to share with you this simple painting guide to simulate the classical chipping effect on DAK vehicles using an easy technique. When I have a vehicle platoon in my hands, I always try to avoid the repetition and monotony. That is, whether I have three vehicles in the platoon, I will add different elements…

Mud splatter effects in 15mm

While I am working on different projects, such as the new PaintingWar book focused on the Spanish Civil War, I have no time to prepare any tutorial for my blog. It is a pity. Nonetheless, you can follow my work in www.ModelBrush.com, a blog which I run with some friends. Strikingly, I have found an abandoned painting guide in my computer (that is, unpublished) and I would like to exploit it, starting by this “mud splatter effects in 15mm” tutorial. A very simple but very effective weathering effect. I have already commented this effect several time in my blog, but…

How to paint a British Sherman tank, and a new book: Painting Wargame Tanks

It’s a great pleasure to announce a new book published by AMMO of Mig Jimenez where I have actively been collaborating beside Mig Jimenez and Carlos Cuesta. The book contains 96 pages. After a short introduction about general materials and techniques (differences between acrylics and enamels, what is a filter or a wash, how to clean the airbrush…) you can find ten complete painting guides “step by step” of different tanks (mostly Germans, but there are also from USA and Soviet Union). The three firsts pretend to assimilate the knowledge showed in the introduction (we can say “basic level”), while…

K.O. vehicles in 15mm

K.O. Wrecked vehicles. They have something special, aren’t they?. When we see an intact tank, we can usually know his history. If it is discolored and covered by dust, we can imagine it has been fighting in the desert of North Africa. If the mud blocks the tracks, the tank has been probably rolling on some Russian road. But what about an abandoned tank?. Which was his problem? Why the crews decided to give up their steel friend?.  Any possibility is right. The K.O. and wrecked vehicles are much more open to our imagination!. And because that, in my opinion…

Decals, transfer and stencils

Decals, transfer or stencils? Nowadays we have different possibilities when we want to put the Balkan cross in a Panzer IV, or the allied start in a Sherman. However, decals for vehicles are dominating the Wargames, thanks to games such as Flames of War or Bolt Action. But in large scales we can find other options, like transfer or stencils, and we can also use them for our 15mm models. Decals and transfer are too similar -a printed film above a paper-, but the application is different. Using decals, we wet the paper in first place, and when the decal…

How to paint 15mm tanks: German spider mech

While I am learning new hobbies (and sports) in this lovely Finish land, such as ice swimming, ice hockey or cross-country ski, I had enough time to paint and prepare a painting guide featuring an interesting Panzermech from ClockWork Goblin miniatures. I love this theme! In the past, I painted a couple of walkers from DreamPod9, and I currently attempt to paint as many E-series tanks as I can from Forged in Battle or Heer46. All in 1/100 scale or 15mm, of course!, my preferred scale. In this occasion, I’ve prepared a complete painting guide. However, I want to notice…

Weathering on horizontal panels in 15mm tanks

It’s very common to observe impressive streaking effects on vertical surfaces in Flames of War vehicles. However, we can’t apply the same effect on horizontal panels, because the gravity result is different, obviously. Here, I want to explain different ways or tools to work the horizontal panels. In vertical surfaces enamels and oils are usually used in this way: first we paint dots or vertical stripes with different colors. And then we blend all colors using a brush moistened in white spirit, by applying vertical strokes. The result are interesting vertical streaks. But these are illogical on a horizontal surface!.…

How to do a dusty road

Because I’m currently living in Finland, from a while I wanted to paint a Finish vehicle. First, I thought about a captured soviet T-26 tank. But the Stug III G it’s more impressive!. And I decided to display it in a dusty road. After gathering some information, thanks to some friends, I decided to paint a tritonal camouflage, very similar to the German one. And although I prepared a mud base when I started this project (because the ambient influence!), the Finish Stug tanks fought in the Continuation War, in Jun and July of 1944. Therefore, I switched the viewpoint…

How to make mud

We have spoken several times about how to do mud on the undercarriage, using pigments or pastels like tool. In this occasion, I propose you other simple way to use them, with one additional idea: simulate a granulated texture. To explain this process, I have used a 15mm (1/100 scale) miniature from The Plastic Solider. As I told before, the main tool will be the pigments. Nowadays, we can find a really enormous amount of pigment colors on the market. Thus, I have an important collection of pigments in my hands, so I can get any color I want. I’m…

PaintingWAR: WWII German army

After a year of work, finally, I have the pleause to announce my first painting monograph, about the WWII german army. Without a doubt, this little dream would never have been possible without the invaluable help of the editor group of the Spanish wargames magazine, BreakingWAR. I will be eternally grateful with them for the opportunity! Here you can find a review from ModelDads, whose website is absolutely recommendable!. With this first monograph, this editorial opens a new collection, called PaintingWAR. In each issue, presented in the same format of the magazine BreakingWar, different miniature painters will explain their techniques…