being green

Its not easy

How to get the best from your green vehicles

by Jean-Baptiste Verlhac
2

The T-60 is the successor of the T-40 amphibious tank, and is the result of the requirement for a better armed cheap and easily produced vehicle. Thus it shares a lot of common features with its predecessor such as the running gear and the tracks. It carried a crew of two and the weakness of its armour (15 mm then 25 mm on the sides, 20 mm upgraded to 35 mm on the front) was responsible for its nickname A two man coffin. The main gun was a 20 mm cannon (developed from the aeroplane ShAK-20 gun) and it was used together with a DT 7.62mm machinegun. The production of about 4164 vehicles has stand until February 1943, and then it was replaced by the better-armed T-70.

I found the RPM kit in a hobby shop during a trip to Paris and I must say that I was attracted by the curious shape of this tank, more reminiscent of a sports car than an AFV. Moreover, and this aspect forced my decision, included in the kit was a splendid photoetched plate, making it something of a bargain. However when I examined more carefully what was inside I had a lot of doubts about the tracks. They are very poor but I was hopeful that the TECHMOD T-70 tracks (a very cheap solution) or the more expensive Fruilmodelismo Tracks could easily replace them. I have chosen the latter option because the detail is indeed far superior in the Friulmodelismo tracks and moreover the fact that they are workable will save me some of my precious modelling time ... When I started to build this tank the only references I had were the excellent, but small, photos from the website

Russian Battlefield as well as the step by step construction article written by Lance Whitford in his Kiwi tracks site. Thus I have kept the details to the minimum and of course, true to the Murphys law, I managed to get Ground Power issue n88 that was full of excellent (and big) T-60 photos when the construction was finished! Anyway I have used this small tank in order to test a rapid method for painting these Russian green vehicle but the method could easily be applied to any US or British armour. First of all it seems that there is no one Russian green but many different tones and after having seen the superb profiles on Russian Battlefield I have decided to paint it in a clear tone, thinking it will be more attractive. I will try to describe how I have reproduce the effects mainly due to accumulation of dust and dirt from grease oil, etc.... I have experimented the method with a T34-85 and a BT7 that are also shown in this article.

for the engine radiator (the frame, the louvers and the grille are provided) and the engine air intake grills are also very nicely represented. The improvements offered by the brass parts are less evident for the turret armour plates and I preferred to use them as a template for making copies in styrene as it is easier to represent the welded joints this way. The gun shield is best replaced, as the representation of the overhanging front part of the turret doesnt look like the most common version fitted to this tank, and the junction between the gun shield and the cannon support is lacking relief. As I was not planning to produce the ultimate model of this tank I only made small improvements such as welding lines and some rivets or bolts on various areas. The etched fenders are really superb and they are very valuable replacement parts that add realism to a model, far more than missing rivets in the right place. The sort of detail that replicates scale thickness is very important in my opinion. The fenders have been glued to an angular support on the model

Building
The arrangement of the different pieces is typical of Eastern European kits, with the hull in many parts making for a tedious fit. But it has to be admitted that the moulding is good apart from minor moulding problems on the thicker pieces that required the use of putty. I preferred to use the solid wheels rather than the spoked ones because the reproduction of the suspension arms is not outstanding. The photoetched fret is very useful especially 4

sides in order to increase the contact surface and ensure better rigidity. These supports (angular Evergreen profiles) will be masked by the tracks when the model is completed. The 20-mm gun was replaced by a round Evergreen profile and the tip is drilled out. The Fruil tracks and the sprocket wheels fitted the model without any problems and the kit road wheels are glued before painting in order to ensure perfect alignment.

Painting
The general concept behind the painting process is that the main weathering effect on these tanks is due to the accumulation of dust and mud along with the ageing of this finish by crew movements as well as the infantry often seen on these T-60 during WWII. Further dirt came from oil leaks and grease used by the crew. In this painting process, I have tried to rationalise the procedure in order to minimise the different painting steps. The painting process could be performed during two week-ends because I have used Humbrol paints but this painting time can be reduced to only one if acrylic-base paints are used. The entire model was airbrushed using a mixture of Humbrol 120 and 150 green. The proportion of the mix between these two colours is slightly modified before airbrushing each panel , and they are masked using paper sheets. Some of the horizontal panels are coated with a lighter shade of this mixture, obtained by adding Humbrol 175 or 187. Then the tools (only a shovel in this case) and the rubber parts are hand painted using Humbrol paints. Once the paint as completely dried, filters, consisting of a mixture of Humbrol 62 and 133 highly diluted with mineral spirit, are applied over the whole surface. Some local filters are then made on panels and hatches with blue or yellow oil colours. This gave more life and relief to the paint and prepares the surface for the following treatment with artist oils. In order to break the uniformity of the tint on each panel, some small portions of oil paint (fast drying Windsor and Newton alkyds) of different colour are laid on the surface and then spread over the surface with the aid of thinner and a paintbrush. Its important to keep a sort of vertical arrangement in the colour variations. This step could be omitted when the coat of dust is particularly important. The benefit of the quicker drying time of the oils is that our attention can now focus on the running gear. The textured surface is created with a mixture of plaster, white glue and natural pastel pigments (earth based such as mixture of Sienna or Cassel) applied with a

brush on the lower chassis. Once dry the dust is airbrushed, the mixture used is Tamiya Buff and Desert Yellow and it is applied especially on the recessed areas and horizontal surfaces. A drop of black is added to this mixture before airbrushing the running gear. Particular attention is paid to the roadwheels as they frequently appear to be covered by dust in in action photos. Any excess can be removed with a piece of cotton and some alcohol. Now all the elements are in place and its time to start the weathering process. The first step is to apply the base coat Humbrol mixture with a paintbrush taking care to draw irregular patterns and to focus on areas that are submitted to intense crew traffic. Its important to have a good dilution ratio as its possible to tune the intensity of these spots just by varying the amounts of thinner. Part of this job could also be done using a dry-brush technique, and It is important to use both methods in order to have hard and soft edge green

spots. This kind of technique with more emphasis on drybrushing is continued using a darker green (Humbrol 86 for instance) and narrowing the affected surfaces to the more weathered areas. Then add a drop of black to this green and narrow down the area again. In order to finish, the raised areas are dry-brushed with a mixture of Humbrol 33 and 133. This is exactly the reverse process from a classical wash and dry-brush process with the lighter tones are in the recessed areas and the darker on the upper ones. This

effect is currently occurring on real vehicles and especially those green painted Russian of US tanks. Now the acrylic paint job, and with this its not necessary to wait for complete drying of the previous paint coat. In order to represent small paint chips, whether superficial or deep, the best paints for the brush are the Vallejo acrylics. As they are water based paints the water used as thinner is less volatile than enamel based paints and they possesses a higher superficial tension so the paint does not

spread over the whole surface as thinned Humbrol paint does for instance. Some acrylic washes are added on the lower hull in order to introduce some colour variations on this area. Then the tracks are glued in place and pastel powder diluted with lighter fuel is brushed in the track crevices. The tones are light and rusty tones for the first ones and the last ones are of the same colour as the ground work. In order to keep the superb sculpting of the Friul tracks, I have been restrained with the mud this time. These pastel mixtures are

also applied to the exhausts pipe and to the metallic part of the shovel. A very light coat of matt varnish is airbrushed on the entire model and the more polished areas (the darker ones) are rubbed with a piece of cotton in order to give a satin finish. Some graphite powder is also rubbed on these prominent areas as well as the cannon and machinegun. Some grease and oil stains are reproduced with a mixture of black oil colour, thinner and clear varnish; these stains are often seen on the back area as on the wheel hubs.

Scene
This was very simple and the figure was added only to give the dimensions of this vehicle. Moreover, I have chosen this Hornet figure because the posing is typical of infantry running under the tank cover. The green of the uniform must relate to the green tone of the tank, and care must be taken with harmony. The figure has been painted using Vallejo acrylics. The terrain is made of plaster and some relief is given with roughly powdered cat litter. It has been painted with Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics, the final tones done with pastels.

References
Web site Kiwi tracks :/www.kithobbyist.com/AMPSNewZealand Web site Russian Battlefield , a must see for on-line references and information on WWII Russian tanks www.battlefield.ru/

Ground Power N88 Delta Publishing