Painting Soviet Vehicles

I am going through my Cold War Soviet Union collection, sorting, repairing, upgrading, and painting.

Many of my vehicles are die cast from China and from the former Warsaw Pact nations.

We have days here that have great weather, warm, but not hot, and low humidity, and reasonable wind speed.  So I am painting about 75 of these little truck and vehicles all at once.

For weeks now I have been repairing vehicles.  Then taping the windshields with masking tape.

So a few here and a few there that are getting primer paint.

Waiting for the perfect day to paint them the base color.

I lay down a mat in case I have to kneel down, kneeling on gravel is not comfy.

Here the gray primer vehicles are waiting for their new paint.
 

Tank and Rocket Launcher

Soviet Union IT-1 rocket launcher by SDV Models and Petner Panzer T62 tank.

The Soviet Union only made about 30 of these, but they are pretty neat looking.

Big rocket and only a few fit in the turret.  Discontinued in service after only a few years.

Russian truck shadows.

Working on spray painting the trucks.

Way over 100 of them to do, did primer work on over 70 of them in one day, did the flip side a couple days later.
 

NovaHue Paints

I got another paint set from Amazon.

NovaHue in 50ml bottles.

It came with a collapsible cup.

Kinda nice space saver.

And a mixing palette, I rarely mix paints and usually do so on aluminum foil.

A bunch of paint brushes and a trowel and a sponge.  Sponge pictured above with the paint jars.

The paint is thick like poster paints.

I likely will use it to paint backgrounds or maybe little dollar store buildings.

I did paint a couple dollar store buildings and it worked out okay.
 

Catwoman and King Tut?

In the TV series Batman, he fights two characters who often use ancient Egyptian iconography.

Catwoman often has cat related Egyptian statues in her lair.

The Sphinx is a lion with a human head.

And of course there is King Tut, who always has a very large, very elaborate lair filled with Egyptian art and statues.

I always thought it would be a natural crossover to have both Catwoman and King Tut working together to get some Egyptian artifact.

Or perhaps the two of them could be working at cross purposes to one another, each trying independently to steal an ancient Egyptian themed item with a cat theme.

Here King Tut makes an appearance!  Holy Boy King, Batman!
 

What Good is a Sphinx?

The Sphinx is mostly found in Egypt.  During the First Battle of El Alamein, in July of 1942, forces of the Afrika Korps got to within 60 miles of the Sphinx and Giza Pyramids.   

Sphinx have also been found in Syria, Israel, Turkey, and Greece.

James Bond was in Egypt among the ruins during The Spy Who Loved Me, so international espionage and intrigue and adventure can happen with a Sphinx. 

Ancient artifacts are often taken apart and re-assembled in other nations as monuments, or museum pieces so a sphinx could be found almost anywhere.

Ancient monuments are sometimes copied and used as tourist attractions at locations far from where the original is located.

So a Sphinx could play a role in many different kinds of toy soldier set ups, and miniature wargames and role playing games.
 

Reptile Toys

I like to shop the pet department for terrain.

Ancient Egypt used the Sphinx a lot more than just the giant one tourists go visit.

So having models of smaller ones can be useful.  This pet toy is for lizards.

Add a few palm trees and some beach sand and you have a quick set up of tourists visiting a sphinx.

It is nicely detailed all around.
 

T54 On Parade

Tan tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Brown tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Olive tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Tan and green tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Camouflage green tank at Lenin's Tomb.

Unpainted tank at Lenin's Tomb.

The line up.

As i wait for a few more tanks to arrive in the mail, and cobble together bits from the spares box, the unpainted ones will not be painted until the final paint run.  Probably be a few weeks before that happens.  But all the tanks in the inventory are repaired, had touch up paint done, and are ready to go to miniature war.  Only about 20 or so unpainted tanks are waiting for completion.
 

Painting Turrets

I am painting these on cardboard sheets.

I use this awl to poke a hole in the cardboard.

Like this arrow.

Then I can insert the tank pin into the hole.

And the turret can sit flat on the cardboard.

It makes it easier to paint when it does not move around.

Turret with tank hull.

This shows some of the paint build up on the nozzle.

I wipe it off every few sprays.

The build up will clog the nozzle if you don't wipe it off.