Clearing Some Odds and Ends

An assortment of 15mm vehicles have been lurking in the corners of my work area, sporting varying degrees of undercoat, so I decided to finish a few.

First batch is a field car and a pair of halftracked tractors for use by an 88mm flak battery.

For many years I have used Tamiya paints through an airbrush for German vehicles in the later war colours. This time I decided to brush paint and to only use the base dark yellow colour. I pulled out some old Humbrol paints and went to work. The Humbrol version of "dunkelgelb" is a bit paler, more washed-out than the Tamiya version, so these three vehicles received a second coat, this time of Tamiya paint, as they have to match other vehicles and the 88s themselves.

The next mini-project was a pair of Hornisse. The first two Hornisse I painted had olive green camouflage applied over the base yellow; these two have been left unadorned. Again, I used the Humbrol version of dark yellow, not being concerned about a little variety in shade. Interestingly, the Humbrol paint has darkened after being coated with one layer each of gloss varnish (helps decals and washes settle properly) and matt varnish (these things did not receive regular wax and shine attention).

Brush painting without multiple colours of camouflage was quite enjoyable.

Harlequins

Remember the GW Harlequins that went through a Simple Green bath? A couple of them have just been given new uniforms, acting as test pieces for colour schemes.

One trouper has red and white checks and blue tertiary colours against black. These colours were pretty much bound to work.

The second trouper started off with a dark green "bland" colour, offsetting pink and pale green motley with purple-violet highlights. Sadly, there was not enough contrast between the colours, so it was back to the wardrobe department. The dark green was replaced with black, the pale green was brightened, the purple was replaced by stronger magenta tones and now we have a striking uniform.

Now all I have to do is decide which motley the entire masque will wear.