Well, thanks to my friend Steve at Celtic Werks, an N.V.A. T-34-85 is born! The inspiration is that of the North Vietnamese. The N.V.A. used these as well as other Soviet Block vehicles during the siege at Kontum 72' & other battles as well as for traning purposes.
So here is the basic step by step for application of the AK Interactive Color Modulation Set 4BO Russian Green.
I began with a T-34-85 that I rec. today from Steve.

First step is to Prime with AK-003 Grey Primer. As you can see, all surface details like the sand cast textured hull are very well preserved.

The first step in the process is to give some emphasis to the natural shadows of the vehicle using Russian 4BO Shadow.


Next is to blend the shadows into what will be the base color with Russian 4BO Dark Base, being carefull to blend the shadow and avoid the upper most surfaces. After this stage I usually leave the lower hull alone for a natural darker appearance to the lower parts of the vehicle.


In the middle stages of the base coat, I have brought in the Russian 4BO base color. As before, care must be taken to blend the previous steps with the base color.


Here it starts to realy take on some character. Russian 4BO Light Base is applied to the upper horizontal surfaces as well as used to blend the previous darker shades.


Now we can realy bring the vehicle to life! Russian 4BO High Light is used to accent the upper most horizontal surfaces and areas that would be in direct light. ( Providing the vehicle is right side up!! )


Here is were each of the previous steps realy come together to give dimension to our base coat. The model has already taken on life and character and we have not even started to weather yet! Russian 4BO Shine is used to show direct reflections and to highlight some features. At this stage, all of the previous colors have been used to pick out small details with a fine brush. Again, generaly going dark from bottom to light up top.



"Field Applied" stencil N.V.A. markings have been applied using Vallejo Acrylics & the entire model is given a few fine layers of Satin Varnish applied at about 18psi. with a Badger Velocity. It is critical to get a high contrast and generaly paint darker vehicles fairly light as the weathering process will darken up all of our work significantly. This paint job was done in 3.5 hours including taking the photos.
With all the Russian-Soviet Client State vehicles available to us, this set will come in extremely helpfull.

!!! New primed and painted turret & photos to follow. That NVA marking is NOT going to work.

Looking Good Iain!

I will be following this one since bringing an all Green paint job to life has always been a challenge.

Steve
www.celticwerks.net

...alright. Re-primed & re-painted. We will always know that deep down she is "Hard Core" N.V.A!
I was not pleased with the insignia or the paint job in general. Captured the effect but just was not quite right.....looked a bit flat to me. Now this one I can work with!



Feedback welcome as well as questions. This one is going to AMPS Virgina for weathering demo.

Iain-
the pic of the rear end (next to last above) is is a really killer shot! The modulation and the highlighted bolts and hinge components really Pop!

Very impressed!

Steve
www.celticwerks.net

My two cents would be that the area around the mantlet needs to be darker.
In any case I'm glad you wrote up this thread Iain as I will be using the 4BO set on my BTR-80A soon enough and this is a great guide to follow.
Cheers.

I've just finished the last coat of color from this set on my BTR-80A. I thought I post a link to it:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/174361&page=1#1466787

Cheers,

Karl187

Karl: You are making a beautiful BTR 80, i love that subejct!. I am glad to see that the CM set is working for you, but I would like give you some small advices:

Don't be shy giving more contrast to your model, specially with the light colors and shines, because, as soon as you start adding weathering ( washes, dust, mud, dirt...) the look of the high contrasted surface will go down. If your actual surface look is not enought contrasted, as soon as you weathered it, the different shades will dissapear completly. This is why we must exagerate the contrast, without fear.

- In another hand, use paper mask templates to give a sharp look to the different between panels.

-Finally, don't forget that a CM method is not a preshadow and post shadow technique. In the last ones, the dark lines must go over the panels and lines. The CM way must cover almost a big part of the surface plates and panels.
So, expand without fear, the light tones over the surface plates, not only the lines or joins.

I hope it can be useful, but maybe it bring more confusion. I hope not.

Anyway, Karl, if you don't want touch it, not problem,. go ahead and finish this great model, and see what happen under your own experience. You can adjust next time the intensity of the contrast, based in your preview experience.

Good luck!!

Mig Jimenez

Thanks a lot Mig, your advice is very much appreciated. Based on what you said I think I'll make some adjustments and see what happens.

This has convinced me to go with the 4BO set for my next build. Some excellent effects created with it Collin.

Mig, I made some alterations based on your advice:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/174361&page=2#1468024.

I'll hopefully be moving on with some drybrushing etc today.

I have a question though. I am working on a KV-2 turret that was destroyed, reclaimed and pushed back into service (for a 'what if' diorama). I want to use the hairspray technique to expose the rust etc beneath the green paint. I was hoping to use the modulation set for the green but I was wondering if it would be too many coats to strip off effectively using hairspray?

Cheers,

-Karl187-

Karl,
I painted a M41 in much the same way you are describing. I must have used the "hairspray technique" 8 or 9 times on 1 model! You can see a feature here on Armorama named "Left For Dead". You will see that many different time the technique was used to get the correct effect.
When it comes to the final top colors, you must go a bit light on each color. As you build up the modulation effect, you will be building up more layers of paint to be removed. If I am understanding your concern correctly, you must go a bit lighter than usual with the final colors to avoid a thick base color.
I hope this is helpful. If not, please help me to better understand the question.

Yes Iain, thats definetly what I was getting at. What I want is for the KV turret to show several different paint coats. Underneath everything will be rusty, yellow and orange type colors. I want to then hairspray it and paint on the 4BO to look like a typical WW2 tank. However, I'm unsure as to whether the several (albeit light) coats of the CM set will affect the hairspray underneath- will I still be able to brush it away effectively?

And then I'm toying with the idea of another coat of hairspray and color on top of that to represent a 'whatif' camo scheme applied hurriedly/badly and which has basically been stripped off by combat etc.

Since you say you've used hairspray 8 or 9 times on one model, this gives me confidence I can get it to work.

Cheers,

-Karl187-

Karl,
Take a look at this link: https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/3551

On this one I used the HS technique repeatedly. A steal blue-grey color, all the different tones of rust, & the base colors.....all done over hairspray.

If it is your first time using the technique, I would suggest practicing before you hit your project with it. It is a simple technique BUT it takes a few practice runs to get a feel for it.

Thats a nicely done project Iain. I have done the HS technique before but only on small areas. I have some scrap set aside to practice on so no worries!

Cheers,

-Karl187-