Small Scale Military Headquarters

About 5 years ago, I got a Unimax FOV Panzer IVG (#80014, Eastern Front, 1943), but never could stand the ugly "waffle iron" paint job and "polkadot" pattern on the side skirts, so I decided to repaint it into a 3-color camoflauge scheme.

Original Tank (used a Flying Mule photo):


However, I got onto other things and never finished the project. When I moved houses, it went along and just sat in a box until recently. This week I decided to finish the job. Going in a different direction than my original idea, I plan to give it a winter whitewash and have explored several methods for painting that type of scheme. I'm currently trying out the "Hairspray" method whereby one paints the base coat, then sprays the model with hairspray, the paints on the white coating, then uses a brush to wash off parts of the hairspray for a weathered effect.

It is still a work in progress at this point, but things seem to be going well so far...

The tank where I left it 5 years ago with the dunkelgelb basecoat:


A simple camoflauge scheme applied, then covered with hairspray:


Painting on the white & attempting a panel highlighting effect:


Next step will be to try the weathering of the paint...

Bravo! I agree 100%. Even though I love FOV 1/32 armors, vast majority of them either have too much or too little paint. When I get a chance, I am also planning to re-paint them.

These are looking good. Please keep us updated. I would love to see the progression and the final product.

Thanks for sharing.

I agree the S1 pz IV scheme, that they later re-released, is pretty bad. I have one I recently took apart as well and will be repurposing to into a Tunisia pz IV. Watching this closely to see how it turns out.

Oh, and I can empathize with life getting in the way at times. I have a project I have been working on for nearly three years sitting on my desk right now. I am finally getting there though, now just waiting on some damn decals from Japan...

-Kevin

Well, the Panzer IV was finished last night, or at least closed to finished I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. The "hairspray method" actually worked pretty well and when combined with the mud effect made for a very weathered vehicle. FOV's Panzer IV tooling also lends itself well to heavy weathering, given that it has the mud, dings, and dents tooled onto it. I'm not sure if I've weathered it too much or not, but given the way winter-whitewashed Panzers look in historical photographs, what I've done seems realistic enough for a vehicle that has been in the field for a while.

Anyways, here are some photos... Enjoy









I can't decide whether I want to leave the schurzen on or off as I like it both ways.







Some reference photos I used:

Excellent work! Looks great!

-Kevin

awesome

It looks great!

Question. Before you sprayed on the primer, did you strip off FOV tank's original paint? Or did you just spray primer on top of the original FOV tank paint?

tparkhere,

I just sprayed the primer/base coat on top of the FOV paint. I used Tamiya acrylic paints throughout and had no issues with paint drying improperly or remaining tacky, even when sprayed on top of a coating of hairspray as part of the process for weathering the vehicle. The base coat was laid down about 5 years before I finished the rest of the project. I had originally intended to attempt a tri-color camo job on the tank, but then lost interest for some reason, moved houses, and then FOV released one of their last Panzer IVs in a similar tri-color scheme to what I had intended for my project. It was finally in May of this year that I decided to revisit the project and opted for a winter whitewash paint job.

You inspired me to re-paint FOV armors. They will not be as professional as your tank. But, I suppose, you will have to learn how to crawl before walking.

Thank you.

The internet is going to be your best friend! Plenty of references for how to paint a variety of paint schemes on armor, weathering AFVs, etc. Definitely worth reviewing some articles and seeing how the real professionals go about their work, but it does take practice and the learning never stops