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.
 

Foil and Horses

I needed to paint some horses that are pulling a wagon. 

But I did not want to get paint on the wagon.

I am using spray paint so it will get on the wagon unless I cover it.

 So I covered the wagon up with aluminum foil to protect it from the spray paint.  Worked much better than masking tape.  Faster, cheap, easy, and comes off without a sticky residue.