Vehicles have always been the bane of my model building hobby. This dates as far back as Warhammer 40k in the early 90's. Faced with the prospect of painting a small finely detailed foot solider or a mammoth vehicle made of plate steel and treads and I will always take the natural textures of cloth and armor. I don't know why but the ability to create a smooth clean metal finish that is typical of vehicles of war has alluded me. In recent years I have gotten clever. Spray Paint!
Ditching my brush in favor of a nice even coat of spray in whatever color Im going for has really renewed my confidence in tackling these big vehicle projects.
It was inevitable that I would face my long standing fear in my new hobby as well and sure enough the Imperial TX-225 Occupier Tank came along. Curse you Rogue One!
Here is how I tackled this hunk of plastic in record time in some easy steps.
Step 1
The first thing I did after assembling the tank was set about deciding how to base it. A common theme for my Star Wars Legion hobby is to try and create dynamic bases that aren't just sand and forest by default. In this case I took some inspiration from the scene in Rogue One that this tank was featured. It was a dirty street covered in sand and mud.
I used some air dry clay and laid out some strips. II then imprinted the tank treads on to the clay using the assembled tank itself. I then finished it off with some sand flock and some " muddy brown" spray
I even gave the under body of the tank a similar treatment with the sand but it isn't like anyone will ever see it when it gets glued to the base.
Step 2
While the paint job looks rather simplistic, it is actually a blending of two different colors of spray. I used a somewhat dark grey and covered the whole model with it. I then used the " Muddy Brown" from the previous step and faded in from the front and bottom. By using these two sprays back and fourth I was able to blend the two tones into a seamless coat that has the muddy hue while still clearly being a metal surface. When I was happy with the overall effect I hit it up with a generous coat of NULN OIL.
The crates are also treated with a spray and this time I used a " Poppy Red" spray to give them a even finish. I ran some NULN OIL in the side vents to break up the single tone color scheme.
Step 3
To finish the model off I primed the troopers with a WHITE spray but not before I pre-assembled them. All the remaining guns on the tank were fitted at the end . The Stormtroopers get the NULN OIL treatment while the guns can be dry brushed with any metallic color of your choice. In this case I used " TIN BITZ" to give it a rusted look.
FINISHED PRODUCT
While this tutorial doesn't cover every aspect of the modeling process I feel it captures the overall theme of what I did for mine. The goal was to do a quick but nice looking table ready tank without succumbing to my fear of painting vehicles. Using Spray instead of brush may seem like a cheat but in my case it was a life saver. Feel free to leave comments and let me know how you tackled yours.
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Bothan Report!