Winter T-34 Tutorial

As you all have heard, our buddy Grumpus on the WWPD Forums shipped us a bunch of his extra stuff to see if we could use any.  There were a mess of Battlefront T-34s in the mix, so I decided to paint these guys up for winter.  I really wanted to try to paint some white-washed tanks, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.  I think this might have been a New Year's Resolution for me as well, eh?

These guys came basically painted.  I patched up a little bit of scuffed paint from shipping, but that was mostly it.  Since these were already green, I needed to have a plan to paint the white-wash over the basic regular paint job.  I read online that people mask off the paint in wear areas, then spray'm white.  This was the technique I planned to use, so I went and got some toothpaste!

TUTORIAL:

1) Finish the model up normally.  Paint it just like a summer model you plan to put on the board.

2) Use masking tape to mask off the tracks on the side, front and rear.  Make sure you leave the front and rear hull exposed.  

3) Get some plain old toothpaste.  I would avoid the gel type and go for the traditional white gritty kind.

4) Using a small-ish old brush, put on the tooth paste in areas you want to stay the normal color.  I put it on high-wear areas, the edges and the lower front/rear hull.  I also dabbed some on stowage and tracks I wanted to stay the regular color.

5) Spray the model with some plain old white spray paint.  Go ahead and get it quite white.  I started with trying to let the under color show through, but I was not happy with the result.

6) Let the white paint dry.  I only waited like 20 minutes or so - I was excited.  I then took an old sponge and washed off the toothpaste in the sink.  It sometimes took a bit of scrubbing.  I also scrubbed off some of the green, but that can be touched up.  I used one of those sponges with a regular side and a really rough side.

7) Let the model dry for an hour or so -- you don't want any water in the tracks.  Touch up any areas with your undercoat

8) Paint the wheels.  I used an old brush and some white paint to make sure there was some white-wash on the wheels - I did this pretty messy to make it look like it had worn off in the dirt, mud and rocks. Next, I put white in the recesses of the tracks with a very small brush.  When I looked up pictures, I saw tons with ice and snow stuck in between the individual tracks. 

9) Let all this dry really well.  Next, grab your Testor's Dullcote and some Baking Powder - NOT Baking Soda.  You can substitute your favorite commercial product if you want -- some folks have reported yellowing and such in the long-term with baking powder.  Take your model and turn it on the side and spray on some Dullcote.  Pinch some baking powder between your fingers and make it snow on the tracks!  Let the dry a bit - just a minute or two - then flip the model to the other side and repeat.  Get a lot in the tracks!  Let this dry, flip the model right-side up and repeat on the top.  I think this gives a nice fallen snow effect.

10) Touch up.  After this dries, I went back and painted some of the original undercoat in some places - like air intakes and around exhaust - that would not have so much snow.  Some of these pictures are before this stage, but you get the idea.

Make sure you put toothpaste around the edges of hatches and such.

I made sure to put a bunch of toothpaste over the tarp on the left-front of this T34.

This is one of the first I did.  After this, I put more white on the wheels - this looked a little too worn to me.

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial!  Have some ideas for Winterizing your tanks?  Head on over to the Forums to discuss....