Mark IV tank (female) walkthrough

How about that?

After several months I've find myself a female:
solid, 27 tons piece of ass straight from British WWI armoury:
mark IV battle tank (female version)!

The wirus keeps most of people locked in so this one is another victim of painting frenzy.
I've always loved that war machine, it's shape is so wicked cool! Not mentioning the fact there was something similar in one of Indiana Jones movies (although that one was a fake).

Don't think it will be ever used on proper battle but it should be handy during Call of Cthulhu RPG sessions. If we live long enough to have a game that is...

Nice lady who provided the model asked me to prepare some walkthrough text while working on the model, and while I am gentleman and half-cadaver I couldn't refuse.
So here it is - hope you like the final effect.

Dry model, sealed with Revell matt varnish:
hungry for blood, ready to storm trench lines and repell mi-go invaders:

The same with pair of ones for the scale (Ia! Ia! Ia!):

And the proper walkthrough:

See? I told you: a female!

Dismantled female...

Assembling wasn't difficult, but sometimes resin elements come kinda bended - check the track on the left. The solution is hot water: throw there screwed element, give it some time and it can be bended back. I had same thing with my Dodge's canopy:

Problem solved!

Lady is now assembled and ready for some action:

First coat was Vallejo's dunkelgelb (spray). I think any dark spray would be good choice, I just needed undercoat so airbrushed paint sticks harder:

The model was airbrushed with mix of reddish brown, mahogany and black - I use such tone for most of my vehicles. After paint dried some chipping medium was applied for further scratches etc, but you can skip if you prefer clean vehicles:

Green brown from Vallejo Air line:

Followed by desert yellow:

And desert yellow with some white...

And some more white for stronger contrast:

As you can see on oldie pics the tank had some white and red stripes at the sides so I covered desired area with several layers of white using medium size brush. Couldn't put masking tape and just use spray because of the rivets:

The red stripe was painted with mix of bloody red and gory red. I picked finer brush trying to keep the lines straight and avoid causing red mess especially on white area:

Decals: I chose simple numbers and bolts from Bolt Action US vehicles, but you can also skip this phase: I've seen lots of pics of such tanks having no markings, numbers of whatever. You can also put your girlfriend's name on it - I'msure that would make her day. 

Try keep it simple anyway: it's not WH40K with those dumbass skulls murals on every flat surface possible...

Metallics: tracks and machine guns' barrels were painted with boltgun metal + chaos black.
It's metallic paint so let it dry TOTALLY before the next step. 

The beam:

at first idea was to paint it dirty brown but all in all decided to give model some contrast so I went for green. Colors used:

- dark brown undercoat (exactly the same as first color airbrushed on the tank);

- tank green (but any dark green would be fine);

- interior green;

- interor green + duck egg;

- metal sides and rivets were painted with boltgun + black, just like tracks and barrels:

After having a dinner metal parts got dry so I glazed tracks and the beam with diluted track rust pigment from AK line. It's very intensive color so be careful, you need only small amount of it to get nice result. As always two thin layers are better than a thick one:

In the meantime anxious deep one emerged from beyond the desk to check what those wacky investigators were up to...

As menioned the beginning chipping medium was applied on the base dark brown. 

As this stage I used damp sponge and cotton bud to wipe some paint off. Not too much really, but those large surfaces are bit dull with no battle damage:

Oil paint:

some black and brown were mixed and diluted with turpentine, then hull was painted:

Excess of paint was washed off with some turps:

The same procedure, this time I mixed cadmium yellow and gold ochre:

And washed again:

The exhaust pipe was painted using charred brown, parasite brown and rust - all colors from Vallejo game color line.

Tried to paint some streaks of dirt so dots of oil paint were painted on the tank first:

And then they were washed off:
wash them trom top to botton to get the streak. You can repeat the procedure, add new colors etc - oil paints are fun to work with:

I wanted to keep model dusty rather than muddy, but last week I run out of pigmrnt binder while working on the furies, so only some of it was applied in the corners.

Matt varnish is drying, model is now almost ready for action:

Buuut the tank provider asked me to add some mud as well:

I used Vallejo's ready-to-use thick mud, just take large brush or toothbrush and go berserk!

I liked the hull so decided not to sink the piece in the biggest puddle around Somme, just applied some mud around the tracks, like the tank is just leaving line of departure.
Or something...

More pics on the top of the post:

Over and out.