Painting 10mm armor

[acctingman]

Greetings gentlefolks!

I'm jumping into the world of 10mm ww2 gaming and since my only painting experience are model kits I'm here to ask you all how you paint your armor?

I google'd "painting 10mm armor" and nothing popped up. I was hoping for a video tutorial as I'm a visual learning, but nothing came up.

Thanks!

[Ace of Spades]

Welcome acctingman!

What scales do you usually paint? In all it isn't really that much different I guess; you might just want to go for slightly lighter shades. All other things like shading, highlighting etc. are roughly the same i would say...

Cheers,
Rob

[fsn]

What ho! AcctingMan.

Especially welcome if you like tanks.

There are lots of people here who paint tanks wonderfully. I'm not one. I still haven't mastered the three colour German scheme. 

In fact, someone ... I can't remember who ... was asking about cammo on tanks just recently. I think templates and spray cans were involved.

Hopefully someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

Please post a few pics of your efforts.

[SV52]

Greetings gentlefolks!

I'm jumping into the world of 10mm ww2 gaming and since my only painting experience are model kits I'm here to ask you all how you paint your armor?

I google'd "painting 10mm armor" and nothing popped up. I was hoping for a video tutorial as I'm a visual learning, but nothing came up.

Thanks!

Moved in the same direction fairly recently. I think if you study the theatre and units your interested in you may be able to avoid things like complex camoflage alotogether.  After all, 'should have had it' doesn't necessarily mean 'did have it'.  Good luck with it.

[Subedai]

Got completely the wrong idea, I initially thought you were talking about personal armour as in the Middle Ages and ws wondering why nobody had mentioned gunmetal and silver...

Moving swiftly on. i paint tanks by hand. Block in all the different the colours then you could give the whole thing a quick drybrush with a lighter colour along the raised edges or go straight to covering it with a brown wash to soften lines where the colours join. Pin washes along plate joints and around rivets is also an option. After that a drybrush of your favourite dirt colour flicking the brush upwards along the glacis plate towards the turret and at about 45 degrees along the sides to give the impression of dirt being thrown up while on the move.

Something I didn't know but found out after spending many hours reading the bigger model mags is to give the whole thing a coat of gloss varnish, fix your decals in place because apparently gloss varnish makes the decals adhere better. After that another quick coat of gloss to protect the decals then just matt varnish the whole thing.

Thats my tuppenceworth anyway. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Hello and welcome

[FierceKitty]

I thought you meant mailshirts and plate harness there.

Welcome aboard, anyway.

[Norm]

Providing there is ink in the shadows, dry brushing the tank (a sort of dusty look to the highlights) as the last stage seems to get the right look.

[Terry37]

The method I use to paint my 10 MM armor/vehicles is to first block paint everything, insuring nice even lines. Then I hit the model with a dark wash of black, gray or brown depending on the color scheme, but with the wash thinned. After that has dried I go back and do what I call a wet-dry brush (which is a very thinned paint on the brush, but not as dry as normal dry brushing. The reason for this is that normal dry brushing puts the paint on randomly, and a wet-dry brush allows me to put it where I want it). I use this wet-dry brush to hit all hard edges and then sort of feather other areas I want to create contrast with. After that I use another wet-dry brush of an even light color to go back and hit the hard edges again. Here are a few pictures of some of my models, where you can see each of the techniques I use.











These are 6 MM, but I use the same technique.





Hope this helps,

Terry

[Ithoriel]

I'd say the main things are already covered by this thread.

The smaller the scale, the lighter the colours need to be, the less detail you need to paint and the more the six foot rule applies.

I use a black/ grey/ white or brown spray base coat, depending on final main colour of the model, then wet brush block painting, a shading wash, wet brush detailing and dry brush highlights.

I reckon I achieve a competent but not brilliant result. YMMV!

[hakejumble]

I'm a bit late to this party but thought I'd give my two pence worth.

i. Invest in an airbrush - seriously laying down a thin airbrushed layer of paint supersedes a thick layer of brushed of paint. This way you get a nice even coat that retains 99% more detail. More detail = more cracks for your wash to flow into = more pleasant on the eye.
ii. Paint the body, tracks, detail, wash, apply highlights. In that order
iii. Invest in ink washes, they will transform your work and you'll wonder how you ever survived without them.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

This works for most scales -

Add any detailing, radio antenna, crew and stowage ect.

Paint undercoat black, make sure that all panel lines are well filled in.

Do the base colour in a heavy dry brush, so that the panel lines still show through.

Add Cammo colours darkest first, it helps if its still wet when adding a second colour, so that they merge  at the edges.

Paint tyres (very dark grey) and tracks, I use a mix of gunmetal and black for this.

Dry brush with - lt yellow, white or sand to your choice.

IanS