Finishing Trucks

Trucks waiting to dry.

Finally finishing painting these many trucks.

Probably close to 100 of the various types in total.

The Soviet Army will have a reasonable supply train.

And the engineers will have heavy dump trucks.

Somehow a Roskopf BTR-60 open top managed to sneak in there.  It's the only one I have, sadly.
 

Painting Trucks

My painting techniques have been getting a workout this last month.

The wheels are very time consuming.

Note to Roskopf BTR-152 in the middle, both have been slightly modified by a previous owner.  I think the one with the flat roof originally had a Roco SdKfz 234/1 turret on it.

These desperately need the window frames painted.

So do these!

I paint with a brush but I keep a cotton swab handy.  I use it to wipe off any excess paint that gets on the windows.  Tamiya can be cleaned with water and so I dip the swab with water if the first wipe does not work.

I use a toothpick to spin the wheels so I don't have to touch them while painting.
 

Trucks and Painting Tips

More Cold War Soviet Trucks in line for there wheels to get painted.

I use Tamiya  X-1 gloss black, Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black, and Tamiya X-18 Semi Gloss Black to paint most vehicle wheels.  In this can get confusing since these are Soviet tactical trucks they are all getting Flat Black.  Since all three jars are similar, I put the little note TRACKS for the Flat Black and TIRES on the Semi-Gloss black.  On a similar project I was painting black civilian construction vehicles and used black for the tracks, and semi-gloss for tires.

On top of all my paints I put a little price tag.  I put the color and other data.  The black dot indicates there is a steel ball for paint mixing already in the container.  The silver circle around the jar lid indicates this jar has been opened.  Tracks and Tires indicate the typical use for this paint.  With three jars that look very similar this seems to minimize problems.

Flat black.

Side two waiting for paint application.

Not just watching paint dry, but photographing it for posterity.
 

Brush Painting Trucks and a House

Another dollar store house gets a painting upgrade.  I use cheap paints on these and they work just fine.  A little extra brushwork and these things look a lot better I think.  They are great for dropping down a whole village in the middle of a wargame, or even constructing a whole city.  You can get 10 of these types of buildings for the cost of one box of troops or one tank.  You probably would not want ten of this specific one of course.

The Cold War Soviet Union project continues.  Over the years I picked up a lot of Chinese made die cast trucks and others from the former Warsaw Pact and now it is time to paint them.  These are finished, note the painted canvas and black tires on the trucks in the back.

Wheels are painted.  These get a very basic paint job, overall green, canvas light green, tires.  That's about all.  Quick and easy and so I can do 100 of them in less than a year.

Canvas tops waiting for assignment.

Truck tires drying in the open air of my desktop.

Truck tires get painted one side at a time so I can handle the truck and not get black paint on my fingertips.

Dump trucks, cargo trucks, van body trucks, tow trucks, heavy dump trucks, fuel and other liquid tanker trucks.

Windshields get masked off and them when the mask is removed the window edges get painted.