Hi All! I’m just back from my holiday, where I have been lucky to visit the Armor Corps Museum with a collection of over 200 armored vehicles dating back from WW2 to nowadays. It was a real treat to see how real tanks look: their design as well as their textures and painting.
Some of the vehicles did remind me a lot of GW tank models as well as a lot of the Forge World tanks. And not only in design, but also how they are painted and how they have aged: it seemed to me that I was seeing the big version of the vehicled from the Forge World Imperial Armour painting books.
Most of the tanks were one colour: sandy, green, grey or white. Nevertheless there were a few painted in camouflage pattern. It was done quite crude and imperfect and seemed to be applied by spaying. In fact even the one tone painted ones seemed rather patchy, and on some tanks the paint used was quite thin and runny, you could even see where it was running down the skirt of the vehicle.
There was a lot of interesting texture. I noticed that some tanks had rocky textured concrete applied on the surface. I am guessing it’s for camouflage purposes, as well as to strengthen the vehicle. And since most of the tanks on display were old, there was a lot of rust, corrosion and paint chipping, which in some way suited them and made them look tougher.
There was not a single “off the factory conveyor” tank in sight, they all have been involved in the warfare and looked the part.
Before I thought I was making my painted vehicles look battle damaged, but now I see there is definitely a room for improvement. I think I’ll be refering to those images for a long time when painting GW vehicles. What do you guys think?
13 Comments
Leave a Reply
Tale of Painters is the unofficial Warhammer hobby magazine run by hobbyists like you. Support our work by using the affiliate links from our 🇺🇸 / 🇨🇦 partner stores for your next orders so we can continue to bring you fantastic FREE content every day:
Or support us directly:
and beautiful photos.
The sky is amazing on these photos. Thanks for sharing and would love to see.
The gravel look comes from the antislip coating mentioned earlier. You may also note the the thicker, more matte finish that from the Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (CARC) paint that is used. The spray cans used over the carc coating for some camoflage patterns can make it look a little off.
Cheers Dartfrog. thats interesting stuff.
TEN you must go to Bovington museum! You can even "drive" a Tiger!!
By the way, i think that this type of reference works great…and a lot with Imperial guard tanks. But with the Astartes armoured vehicle i think is different. Its ok the wheatering but not too much. They are like holy relics. I think that they act like a USMC rifleman with his rifle. 😉
Andrea,I saw this museum last night whilst writing the article. It sounds awesome and I'm planning to arrange a visit next spring when it gets a bit warmer. Looking forward to it a lot.
…oh, and the camouflage patterns were, indeed, applied in the field or at the motor pool, so no two will be alike and they can be very sloppy (although not TOO sloppy – the sergeant will have a field day if you start going on like Jackson Pollock!) 🙂
Cheers Greg, I absolutely loved it. The thing that really shocked me was just how thick some of the plate armor was. Some of these tanks must weigh a ton and can imagine it must be pretty scary being in one during war. They look very claustrophobic.
I served in a mechanized division, so I was always surrounded with tracked vehicles. One difference between museum vehicles and those actually being used is dirt – and lots of it. Mud and earth will cake itself onto the drive wheels and tracks like peanut butter, and dust will settle on top surfaces that are not walked on regularly. Also, vehicles in garrison will not show rust since maintenance routines will nip these in the bud, but in the field for lengthy periods will allow rust to accumulate, especially on the junctions of steel plates and many of the thinner pieces of metal. Glad you had a great visit!
Having a drivers licences for tanks helped me a lot to paint and weather tanks. The Rhino is pretty similar to a M113 😉 You know where the dirt comes up and where not.
The "rocky stuff" is not for camoflage or better armour. It's just for anti-slippery surface. You don't want to walk with army boots on painted wet metal 😉
That makes a lot of sence with the gravel areas as I did climb up on the foot holsters and found it fairly easy to get a foot grip on the surface. Clever idea.
Having just got into bolt action I picked up my first WWII tank last week. So I think I'll be using your photos for inspiration as well thanks for sharing.
Bolt Action is a game I have always wanted to try. I love the models and so many times have I nearly purchased one to paint up for fun.