Painting Buildings

For years I have been buying various dollar store buildings.

These are two of my most recent purchases.

I got some new paints and used them to paint these new buildings.  The paints are similar to poster paints.

These are the colors that I used to paint this one.

And these colors were the ones I used for this one.

The colors are rather thick, like poster paints.  As you can see the buildings look much better with just a little paint.
 

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.
 

Soviet Skip Loaders and Painting Eggs

I buy a lot of little Chinese made die cast vehicles.

Many are generic construction equipment such as this skip loader.  I am no expert on skip loaders so they all look about the same to me.  So now that it has been painted, it is officially a Cold War era skip loader from the Soviet Unions' Red Army.  Along with it's comrades in the back.

More die cast vehicles, this time two decontamination trucks and a cargo truck.  Various countries in the old Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe made military equipment and sometimes it was used by the old Soviet Union.  Decon trucks are conversions from three vehicles.

More T54 tanks in for servicing and some freshly painted cargo box trucks.  Note tanks without hulls in the background of the photo.

I use this tube on the end of my electric drill motor to mix cans of spray paint.  It goes 40 seconds one way and 40 seconds the other way.  I use an old rag to help keep the paint can firmly inside the pipe.  Then just pull the rag and it drags the paint can right out.  Makes a lot of difference on mixing the paint well.  I also shake it up and down the old fashioned way a few shakes and as I paint.

I keep a bit of rubber exercise mat by the basement door and use it to kneel on sometimes if I need to be low and close in while taking photos or spray painting.  Gravel is hard on the knees.

Easter is a nice time to harvest a selection of eggs.  These formerly colorful eggs are being painted gloss white for use by Batman Villain Egghead.  They have been flipped upside down and are waiting for a second coat.  It will probably take three coats.  A couple of the sort of foam plastic eggs are not likely to pass inspection, their surface is scruffy looking when not colorful!
 

Tank Maintenance

Note the road wheels.  The front of the vehicle is to your left.  The gap between the first and second road wheel is supposed to be to the front, as it is in this picture.  It's hard to see but the small front wheel has sprockets on it.  The sprockets are supposed to be on the back wheel.  So you can assemble the vehicle wrong with the road wheel gap at the rear or wrong with the drive sprocket to the front.  Maddening.

The upper and lower hulls often don't fit well together, so they have to be glued and held in place with clamps.

Sometimes the upper hulls can be so warped I have had to use some very big clamps.  I selected having the road wheel gap at the front because it is more visible than the sprocket teeth.  I could cut the teeth off the drive wheel at the front to make it look more like an idler wheel, but that's more work that it's worth to me.  I could also use plastic rod to make new sprocket teeth and glue them on the rear idler wheel but unless I was only making one or two of these the amount of work is just too much.

The missing hatch has been replaced with sheet plastic and a bit of paint splashed over it for now.  It will cover up nicely when spray painted.  Note the little white tab inside the gun mount.  It helps to keep the gun from drooping by making the space where the gun fits into the turret narrower.

I put a little Model Master liquid cement, wait a moment and then place the very thin bit of sheet plastic on the inside of the turret opening.  I push it into the dimple with tweezers.

I had to do this on probably 80% of my T54 models.  Most are very old and have been campaigning for decades.

I got these tanks used decades ago, and yet, I could match the color from my paint collection.  It's exact.

Many of these old tanks were painted with the turrets on!  So the space under the turret was not painted.  Not a problem until the asymmetrical turret turns and shows the original Roco plastic color!

This buff old soldier has been touched up, tuned up, and revved up and is ready for war.  Games that is.
 

Painting Stuff and Tips

For the last month or more I have been working on upgrading my Cold War Soviet / Warsaw Pact army.

These are all HO scale vehicles from a variety of companies.

There was a time when the Soviet Union was building an anti-aircraft gun system to replace or supplement the ZSU-23/4.

Similar to the West German Gepard system this was supposed to be a twin 30mm cannon with radar guidance. 

Usually I paint vehicles upside down first, with turrets off if they are easily removable.  Then I can flip them over when dry and paint the upper side.

I decant my spray paints into little jars using a funnel.  I label the paint with blue tape, and I always include the name of paint, the brand and the stock number.

It often does not last very long in these jars, sometimes a few days or few weeks.  I try and use it up quickly.  It is perfect for touch up where the spray paint missed or did not cover well.
 

Army Painting

Some Roco US Army trailer dollies that needed so Olive Drab goodness.

Some rocket carriers that needed some touch up.

The foil is a quick, easy, cheap way to mask parts and unlike making tape, it leaves no sticky residue.

Nicely Olive Drab.

More painting on these.  It was a nice day and so I did a lot of small paint projects that had been languishing.

Its hard to tell but these are buses.  They are resin models so old I don't even know how long I have had them or where they came from.

More buses, the paint color and shadow make weird optical illusions!

The Army uses buses to move troops around on bases very frequently.  It's a safe and reliable form of transportation for a whole platoon together.  But not so good for tactical use.
 

Quick Shine

Interwar period truck, painted as a civilian version.  Truck is HO scale.

I decided I wanted to see if it could be more glossy, several people had suggested this so I am giving it a try.

I elected to use the dip method, so I poured a bunch in this plastic food container.

Dump it in, take it out, let it dry.  Worked perfectly, used the funnel to get the Quick Shine back into the bottle and then rinsed out the plastic container with water.  Truck was already painted with a gloss paint, but this made it a little more shiny, and I expect to try it with a flat painted vehicle soon.

I think I have touched up this thing about 5 times.  Every time I paint a piece, I manage to overpaint a part that was already good!

I used this gray for the gray parts as it seems to match the Rust-Oleum spray paint pretty well.

Hey, you kids, get off my lawn.  A white tail deer makes a visit in my yard while I am painting.