Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for me to ask you for your help, advice, expertise and opinions.
How should I paint my baneblade, Zarathustra?
She's a Forgeworld model, and she's a beauty, but having owned her for about seven years I really ought to give her a lick of paint. My concern is that I don't know what colour.
My Leman Russ tanks are painted olive drab and black and my light vehicles are all DA Green, but I don't really want Zarathustra to be the same as she's a stand-alone unit. I'm very tempted with grey, but anything I paint grey always looks utterly, utterly flat. Cool Luftwaffe-style camouflage is always tempting, but I have limited skill and no airbrush.
As requested, here are some library pics of my Russes and light vehicles, for context:
So...any suggestions?
Please comment - if any patterns emerge I might set up a poll.
Many thanks in advance,
- Drax.
That's a difficult one mate. With you using green for some of your vehicles, and olive drab/black for your LRBT's, and you not wanting to use them, you've ruled out the most common camo schemes.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to have a think on this one.
Well, going back to the gray... Instead of just a flat solid coat, I always thought it would be cool to try the old naval 'dazzle' camo along the tank's flanks (leaving the top just a solid flat gray).
ReplyDeleteFor ex.: http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/articles/feature5.html
Super heavy tanks have always struck me as more like land ships than actual tanks.
Just have to cut & paste that link into your browser, it didn't work for some reason.
ReplyDelete:-(
Pink with the timeless red hearts camo pattern?
ReplyDeleteHow about a beige color? I suggest it because a light color lends itself to weathering and you should totally weather this thing.
ReplyDeleteThese kind of choices are always tough ones. I sometimes try to have a think about a background for such unique pieces before I go about painting them. e.g. where was it produced? where has it seen action? should some of the panels be in a different colour to suggest recent patching? how old is it / how much rusting?
ReplyDeleteI realize I've not suggested an answer, but I hope these questions might be a thought aid.
PINK! and hang a pair of pink fluffy dice hanging from the barrel, drybrush the underneath neon blue, that way it'll look like the eldest girls Corsa, which according to her look great in my drive!
ReplyDeleteActually, I was thinking about this last night, how about 3 tone? You could use the olive drab, black and green in blocks or a stripped pattern with the black been a small strip divider between the olive drab and green.
That why, it's still fit in with your force and actually tie in the LRBT's to the Chimera's etc and still be unique.
Crumbs, Corbane: that's a great idea!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of 'dazzle' camo, and I've also often thought of these superheavies as 'ships', but I fear it'd be too garish for my poor, drab forces.
Remember, even without an airbrush, you can get decent effects with spray cans. You just have to be a bit careful and make a practice run or two on some old cardboard.
ReplyDeleteCol. Corbane's idea of Olive Drab/Black/Green as a thematic tie-in to the existing tanks is Ace! On the other hand, I like the idea of having the BB be a significantly different color scheme as they are generally seconded to the ground forces from other superheavy regiments. That being the case, I think that some sort of Khaki/Tan/Desert Sand color scheme could be neat, and as Simon Says (heh) the beige colors take to weathering and highlighting much better than basic grey... In any case, I can't wait to see what you come up with!
ReplyDeleteYou should paint it in your regimental colors. If it's the flagship of your your army, so to speak, feel free to dress it up a bit, but paint it so as to unite it with the other vehicles you field.
ReplyDeleteIf it's not part of your IG force, paint it however the hell you want. I've been going with a grey/white mountain/urban camo for my tanks.
I'm for some variation of the Drab/Green/Black idea. Corbane's idea is definitely a good start.
ReplyDeleteCan you post a few pics of your two current schemes, just so we have a frame of reference?
Also, if you want to try out some patterns, paint a few on a piece of posterboard or cardboard a few inches square to make a swatch. Then you can hold them up against the actual model and imagine how the whole thing will look.
As an aside, my tanks started out as DA Green and Black, but now I've switched to Orkhide Shade and Black, which I like much better.
Thanks, Darkwing: I've popped some pics in for reference.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Simon and jabberjabber are right: I will need to weather this beast, but frankly that scares me even more.
It's not that I don't think I can manage it - I'm sure I can - it's just that most of my other vehicles (and models) are distinctly unweathered, by choice (read 'laziness').
Alrighty Drax, you are a lucky bleep to have one of those beauties just lying around.
ReplyDeleteThe grey idea is not all that bad, all my tanks are just codex grey, keeps them simple and allows you to concentrate on the detailing (painting all the grils and vents etc really makes the difference on any tank in my opinion)
It depends on how you want it to look alongside your army.
is it borrowed from somewhere? - a different paint scheme entirely
is it their pride and joy? - a much lighter colour and plenty of gold.
is it a replacement for the last one? - a similar scheme to your existing tanks.
My vote is for a single colour (it makes tanks look better in my opinion - hence why forgeworld tanks are normally shown in 1 tone colours) but if you want to go camo, i think your russes look mighty fine and would transfer across no problem - maybe with a hint of olive as corbane says, although you run the risk of cluttering the paint scheme (my first mistake with my tanks - black grey and grey blue = not great)
I'm not very good at coming up with colour schemes, I usually go for one colour tanks myself.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say, there's some variants on your vehicles I've not seen in an army before, very cool!
Howabout winter cammo?
ReplyDeleteIts just returned from a winter warzone and she has not seen a lick of paint yet.
More good thoughts - thanks!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying out a couple of schemes tonight... I'll let you know.
And Soundwave: thanks. Any questions about any of 'em?