Well, after delaying it for an entire year, I finally got around to painting the 1/48 KV-2 I was building. This is basically my first ever build completed from start to finish. (I have a ton of 1/72 tanks I built when I was like 11 lying around somewhere... all of them unpainted.)

Anyway, it was a bit tricky weathering a tank for the first time ever, but despite my ad-hoc method of painting, it seems to have turned out alright. Well, it's terrible up close, but from a distance it almost looks as if I knew what I was doing. I figured I'd upload some pictures to try and get some tips on how to make my next tank look better. Hopefully, a lot better.

I should also mention the suspension isn't really painted, as I plan to bury the thing in mud in a hull-down position, so it won't be seen. This also covers up the multitude of sins I committed while putting it together.












If it helps with improving my future technique, he's what I did:

1: Found the model in the garage with little more than the base coat applied, and cleaned it of dust.
2: Got the paints that were also in the garage: Unfortunatley only some old, rather dry Tamiya and Humbrol paints were available. The brushes were also pretty knackered.
3: Applied a gloss varnish, which went on too thickly in places, because I'm stupid when it comes to spraying things. I attempted to wipe some off with kitchen roll... this only succeeded in papers fibres becoming stuck to the tank.
4: Applied the decals. Again, I'm stupid, and broke most of them. The slogan on the right side of the turret is actually in 4 separate pieces.
5: Applied another gloss coat. Again, far too thickly in places.
6: Applied a gray wash, with 80% water and 20% paint. I used acrylics, and I've been told that adding washing up liquid helps these to run into the cracks. It didn't, and the tank was covered in dark gray spots everywhere.
7: Used a stiff bristled brush to scrape off some of the failed wash.
8: Sprayed a few layers of matt varnish on. Luckily, I was able to keep these coats thin.
9: Used a dark grey/green filter-wash thing (90% water, 10% paint) to tone down the other areas of the failed wash.
10: Applied a thicker wash, more precisely, with a very thin bursh to the areas that needed it. This worked rather well, but somehow I overloaded the brush, and the top of the hull was again covered in grey.
11: Attempted to clean up the mess with alternating coats of a very watery dark blue, and a watery colour that was slightly lighter than the base coat.
12: Realised that, when the brushes didn't have much paint on, this gave the tank a sort of dusty look, and so did this to the rest of the tank. (This is basically the only 'weathering', if it can be called that, you can see on the tank.)
13: Dry brushed black onto corners, to look like paint had worn off.
14: Sat back and thought 'God, that's ugly as sin, but it'll do', and decided that I was finished, apart from adding mud.

Oh my, those pictures really do make it look awful! You'll just have to take my word for it that it looks a bit prettier in the flesh... plastic.

Hi Joseph. For a 1st attempt you've made a great start in the paint department! 3 things that need to be done on this one that jumped out at me were, 1)the inside of the barrel needs to be painted, 2)the areas under the periscope covers also need to be done, and 3)the rim around the headlight needs to be touched up (looks like some of the silver got on it). Depending on if any of the tracks will be exposed, you may need to do a bit of work on them

Like I said at the beginning, though, nice effort.

Thanks for the advice! I can't believe I missed those. I'm assuming the inside of the barrel needs to be a steel colour, but what would it be under the periscopes?

And yes, I was thinking about doing something with the tracks. I don't know why I left them light gray before I glued them on.

Looking at those pictures again, I may give the entire thing anther liberal brushing with a watery dark blue colour, just to try and disguise the brushstrokes a bit.

Very nice, for a first. The brackets on the fenders don't seem to touch them. This should be an easy fix, if not intended. Slice them off with a #11, trim off the tab and glue them back on.

Hi Joseph,
very good for your first complete model. If I can afford to give you some advice, do not wash with acrylic waterborne paint because when they dry, you cannot take away and so the surfaces remain stained. For washing uses oil paints (Burnt Umber, Van Dyke Brown, Raw Umber, Cassell Earth, Burnt Sienna and others) diluted to 90% with White Spirit or with thinner for the Humbrol enamels (it's even more delicate) and then you dry briefly the surface with a hairdryer.
This method allows you to have more time to take away the excess paint from the center of the panels and leave only the color in the slots and around the details because, despite the hair dryer, color doesn't dry quickly. Also, if you use a brush wet with White Spirit again and if you clean often on a piece of paper-cloth, you can even completely remove the wash and then possibly do it again.
Finally, the dry brush should always be done with the base color lightened with a little of its complementary color or a little of white, using a soft brush with bristles cut at 45° (that of "The Army Painter" is very good).
I hope to have been of help to you.
Until next time – Il_Colonnello

Hi Joseph,

I think for your first attempt very well done & a great job on fixing that "four' part decal, as I am also doing trying to do my first completed model in years i won't pretend to offer any advice on the painting I will leave to better people than me.

Great first model

Cheers Mike

I would attempt to fix the fender brackets... but I don't trust myself. Apart from the fact I'll most likely break them taking them off, I really don't want to get glue involved when there's already paint on the vehicle. I'll make sure to have a closer look at parts in the future, though.

And many thanks for the advice on washes, I wasn't aware that oil washes could be completely removed with a bit of care. I had actually thought about using an oil wash, as the selection of oil paints in the garage is much greater than the acrylics, but there wasn't any white spirit, so I didn't. Which is a shame, as I also wanted to try that dot method thing I've seen, which needs oil paints.

As for the dry brush, I'll definitely try and get a more proper brush for it. The reason I used black was not to try and highlight the raised areas, but to look like where the paint has worn off. I saw it used on some other webpage, and it worked much better for that guy, I have to say. I actually haven't drybrushed the entire tank yet, I only used black on a few corners.

Though it would probably be best to give it a dry brush, I don't want to risk ruining anything. Though painting the headlamp rim went fine, while painting the inside of the barrel I apparently got 'Naked Steel' on my fingers, which then got onto the top of the turret as I was handling it. Though I managed to mostly cover it up, the turret does now sparkle a little in the right lighting conditions.

And yeah, that 'four part' decal took a good 20 mintues to look right! It was originally only three, but just as I had finished with it I somehow pulled another chunk out of it. Rather annoying, to say the least, but it looked alright in the end.

Joseph, I just got back to your post here. Sorry to hear of the paint problems with the barrel. Actually, most people just do the barrel insides black, as it would look after some use, but before cleaning. That also hides the fact that the barrel isn't a completely hollow tube (well, most aren't) when you look at it from the front. You might try a wash and a little dullcoat to knock down the sparkle.

As for the periscope areas, they should be done in the same color as the rest of the tank. The periscopes themselves usually had a dark housing with the glass lense, but it doesn't look like your tank has them (at least from what I can see in the pictures).

Good call on the fender brackets Matt. I hadn't even noticed them.

Ah, the sparkle isn't too bad. And even if it was, I wouldn't mind all that much, it's not like the tank is going on public display or something. You may be happy to hear I wasn't foolish enough to paint the barrel with pure 'Naked Steel', I did darken it quite heavily, and it doesn't look too bad. Still, I think you're right about just plain black though, it would look better.

As far as I can remember, the periscopes are painted green on the inside, like the rest of the tank, it just doesn't show too well. And no, there was nothing to represent the glass blocks in the kit.

I also discovered that, apparently, the machinegun on the rear of the turret has broken off. I could improvise some stretched sprue to replace it, but right now I'm tempted just to put the tank in a bulletproof glass case and pray nothing else bad happens to it. In the meantime, though, I'll say the machinegun has been 'Removed by the crew for maintainance.'

Sounds like you came up with a good solution on the barrel.

The periscope areas were hard to see in the photos so you're ahead of me on that.

As for the MG, if you want to you could put a request up on the "buy, sell, trade" froum to see if someone has a spare (I imagine with the number of Soviet armor builders it won't be a problem).

All still, these are trivia things were talking about compared to how the rest of the build turned out. Good job there. ...I'd be purely embarrassed to show what my first effort looked like, if it still existed. Good luck on number 2!

I guess I could find a new machinegun, but to be honest I'm not too concerned about it.

Anyway, just thought I'd thank you all for the kind comments. My next project (after the KV is all muddied up) is to paint a 1/48 Sherman Firefly that my brother built. After that, there's a 1/35 Churchill VII, which my dad built, that I've been given permission to paint. Figured I need the painting practice more than building practice.

Oh lord, don't we all!

Looks awesome! I would never have known that the slogan decal was in several pieces. Looks fantastic.

-Joe