Sturmtigers Progress

Well, I'm really pleased with my progress thus far with the Sturmtigers. Here's what I did tonight:

1) Painted the rope hanging off the side with GW Bleached Bone
2) Applied Vallejo 994 Dark Grey with a sponge on high wear areas to simulate paint chipping
3) Painted Vallejo 982 Cavalry Brown inside some of the chips to show red oxide primer underneath. Note: this will get darkened up a bit with an oil wash later
4) Painted the tracks with Vallejo 994 Dark Grey
5) Heavily drybrushed tracks with Vallejo 874 USA Tan Earth
6) Rubbed the graphite from a #2 pencil semi-randomly along the edges of the hulls, muzzles, and track links to simulate exposed bare metal from wear

I took the picture at this point. After the pic I mixed up a 1:1 Future Floor Polish and Tamiya Thinner, and airbrushed it on the Sturmtigers for a nice semi-gloss/gloss finish. This will enhance the capillary action of the oil based washes I'm going to do tomorrow.

I'm pumped. I've never really done weathering at all on my vehicles. I learned to paint in the "GW style" vehicles that were essentially "factory fresh". Only recently has GW started showing a lot of weathering, and old habits die hard. The way I'm painting these models right now is completely different then anything I've done before. Even though they are not yet done, I can feel a tangible sense that I'm headed in the right direction.

Many thanks to Nick and Soo Jinn- you guys have been a fountain of knowledge regarding airbrush technique, 15mm scale painting, and advanced painting in general. I humbly appreciate it dudes! These guys, along with countless Osprey books and other publications have really helped my hobby progress. I salute you!

Before I leave you tonight, here's a pic of what's next for my SS Panzerkompanie...