Hello! Today I have a tutorial how I paint my Bolt Action German tanks. I’m also a player of this game so why not to share my way of painting. You can follow whole process on 1:56 Sturmgeschütz III. Enjoy!

Let’s start with German Dark Yellow (Dunkelgelb) primer as base color.

I mixed Desert Yellow with addition of Dead Flesh  (80/20%) to make nice sandy color. Dead Flesh remove a bit of saturation of Desert Yellow.

Next step is to add first layer of camo – green one. I mixed Military Green with Heavy Green, also I add Retarder Medium and Airbrush Thinner to the mix. (75/10/5/10) I need thin paint with slow time of drying to manage painting such small lines. I paint it with low pressure and steady hand.

Second part of camo is similar one like previous step. So mix Mhogany Brown, German Camo Black Brown, Retarder Medium and Aribrush Thinner (75/10/5/10) and paint.

I add a protection layer of Gloss Varnish to prevent oil wash soaking.

I mixed Dark Brown and Black oil paint thinned down with White Spirit and this mix was appiled on recess of the model.

I cleaned up oil wash when it dry a bit, after couple of hours it’s not completly dry andl cleaning is much easier.

After wash is dry I sprayed model with Matt Acrylic Varnish to remove shiny surface.

You can ask why I didn’t place decals when model was glossy before – answer is simple, I didn’t want to make any damages on washed surface. Anyway it’s miniature for playing so it’s never too much of protection layers.  On places where decals will be appiled I sprayed Gloss Varnish.

When decals are appiled clean, without any bubbles covered with decal I sprayed Matt Varnish.

After varnish is dry I drybrushed model with Iraqui Sand.

Second drybrush made with Pale Sand.

I add chipping with sponge and using German Camo Black Brown.

I add filter on decals to make them more faded. I used Sepia Ink and covered decals with thin layer.

I painted rubber parts with mix of Black and Back Grey (90/10), Wooden parts with Heavy Sienna and metal stuff with Gunmetal Grey.

I faded barrel end and smoke launchers with thin layer of Black.

For tracks I used Plate Mail Metal Primer as basecoat, Gunmetal for main color.

I washed tracks with Dark Grey Wash.

You can also add pigments, dirt and other weathering additions but I prefer rather clean miniatures on wargaming table when you often touch minis. Also scale is not 1:35 where you can go with bigger size stuff and make it more spectacular :)

Thanks to Vallejo for paints! :)