British M3 Grants

I recently picked up a collection of Mid War British desert stuff for Flames of War and started sorting though it. I gave some of it away, spruced some up and sold it at Fall In!, and kept two platoons of Battlefront M3 Grants to try my hand at British desert camo. The Grants were painted, but I stripped them down using Simple Green to do some camo and got to work!

I gave Steven my can of British Armor Desert spray paint, so I needed a substitute.  I sought sage advice from Eric Turner who has been building a Brit desert force lately, and he pointed me to the plain old flat camo paint at the hardware store.  I grabbed a can of that and went to town.

Two Lee turreted Grants serve as platoon commanders.

I found the paint to be ok, but I thought it was a little soft and tacky compared to the Battlefront product.  I mean, it worked, but it just wasn't the same.  I also had to mix some Dark Sand and Khaki to make a touch-up paint that matched.

I remember reading somewhere that the green and black paint used for camouflage in the desert faded over time to a dark grey, so I used German Dark Grey for the main patches of camouflage.  I 'pin striped' them with white.

I used the Battlefront Grant pictures as a guide for the patterns.  I put in a little variety, but basically did the the same pattern for each tank.  I thought that this would be quite hard to do, but I did the Dark Grey and the white pin striping in no time.

I had some magnets around, so I magnetized the turrets -- standard practice for me.  I also was lucky enough to have all the decals I needed either from Battlefront or i94 Enterprises.  I used this wonderful guide from Battlefront to pick the proper decals.

Cynthia leads the way.

I do not plan to make a Mid War British desert force, so these will likely see the flea market table at Cold Wars.  I didn't weather or pigment these because I plan to sell them - weathering is easily added, but very hard to undo for the buyer.

I had a blast painting these guys!  They turned out a little darker than I hoped, as I used a very watered down Vallejo Sepia Wash on them.  I think the hardware store paint and the wash make these a little dark.  Next time, I'll use the proper paint!  I hope you found this article useful!