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being green

How to get the

best from your

green vehicles

by Jean-Baptiste Verlhac

It’s not easy

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.

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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

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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 Murphy’s law, I

managed to get Ground Power issue n°88

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.

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

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 doesn’t

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

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.

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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. It’s 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

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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 it’s

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. It’s important to have a good

dilution ratio as it’s 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

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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 it’s

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

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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 N°88 Delta Publishing