Welcome to Divisonal Maintenance Company!

Take your vehicles to the next level in a few super simple steps!

I have recently bought some vehicles, sprues, and bits from a friend and member of the local Bolt Action community, and thought that his paintjobs could be enhanced with some weathering. (Plus, I had some techniques that I really wanted to try...) With more forethought than normal, and some before and after pictures, I'll break down the process I used to take the tabletop standard models to the next level with only some super simple weathering.

Panzer IV. Ausf. H

Before

The Panzer IV already had some decals applied and had its dunkelgelb base and camo stripes applied. To start off, I took an old hobby knife and carefully scraped off the star wars Imperial decal. As much as I wish my Star Wars: Legion forces could have some armor support, I wanted to try out more battle damage, and thought that the decal would be distracting. After gently scraping it away, I took some Vallejo Luftwaffe Camo Green and Vallejo Dark Rust to clean up the camo stripes. Some of the green ones especially were a bit transparent and streaky. After these touch-ups, I took my craft knife and pliers and began to give the tank a war-torn appearance. I placed the tip of the knife on the desired surface and rotated it so that it would bore a hole in the tank. After the hole was all the way through, I put the blade in, and began to give it a bit of drilled appearance. Once it was made to the desired effect, I took the knife and scored the area radiating from the hole. One friend commented that it gave it an almost 40K level of damage, but I thought it looked good. I took an old brush and painted the inside of the hole with Army Painter's Plate Mail Metal, and washed it with Citadel's Nuln Oil. This gave the effect of bare metal exposed by the shot. The wash brought the color down enough that it didn't look too shiny. Once that was done, I lightly brushed some Vallejo Game Effect Rust to give a small amount of coloration. The process of shiny metal, heavy black wash, and rust drybrush was repeated on the exhaust. (mainly because I thought it would be a good place to test the rust on a larger scale) The model was given a once-over with AK Interactive's Streaking Grime, and the tracks were given my standard treatment of AK Interactive's track wash, Vallejo European Thick Mud, and Vallejo German Camo Medium Brown splashed on with the airbrush. Finally, some gloss varnish and decals were applied before a final layer of Matte Varnish. Check out the results below!

After

Sd.Kfz. 251/C

Before

 The same process from the Panzer IV was repeated here, only with a few extras. I painted up the tracks in my Vallejo Dark Rust method, and then weathered them like normal. Since the halftrack didn't have its MG42, I took an extra from the grenadier sprue, attached a bipod and belt, painted it, and glued it on. On here, no other decals were removed or applied, but I took some extra bits from the grenadier sprues and tacked them on; mostly helmets, breadbags, and an entrenching tool to give the vehicle that lived-in look. I took an extra passenger from my other Hanomag and glued him in place, and weathered up the vehicle in the same way as the Panzer IV with one exception: I used some extra Vallejo weathering pigments on the lower half of the vehicle. I was not super happy with how it turned out. I'm not sure whether it's my technique, the pigment itself, or a lack of knowledge, but I think I'm going to give pigments a pass until I can work out how to use them properly. Generally, I was happy with the end product; check it out!

After

Wirbelwind

Before

 This here is what I was most excited to play around with. For once, I'm super excited to dish out quad 20mm guns against my opponents, but secondly the vehicle was 3D printed! This was my first experience working with a 3D printed model, and I think the experience overall was good. Its detail was lacking in some places, and the striations visible on the above photo were kind of odd, but I think it can be a good way to get models on the tabletop if you're on a budget or aren't as concerned with minute details. Just like the other two, the camo lines were touched up, the tracks were painted, and because no decals were present here, I stuck on some extras I had kicking around. I made sure to do 2 coats of gloss varnish before application, since I was not sure how the 3D print lines would effect the decal setting, but it turned out alright. After decals were applied, I gave it the once over with AK Interactive's streaking grime, NATO Filter for Green Vehicles, and gave the tracks the business with AK Interactive's Track Wash. After that, the same basic mud & grime was done here, except applied more heavily in some spots to hide the 3D print lines. I tried giving the tracks a drybrushing of rust, but I think it didn't turn out super great in the end. However, I'm happy with the final product, and will be stoked to turn this against the allies in some upcoming games!

After

 

Conclusions/Wrap-Up

I know that a lot of the weathering online is super intimidating, but I promise it's easiest to just go for it. I know that none of my work should be held up as the standard to aspire to, but I had a lot of fun just going at these vehicles with some new techniques. Especially since I got these for cheap, I was more willing to go for it and make them look like they had been through the wringer. I know it's really hard to destroy a new model that you just spent a bunch of cash on, but I thought these (Especially the damaged Panzer IV) came out quite nicely. I know that last post I mentioned that I'd talk about my palatte clenser project: 28mm Early Imperial Romans. In the post before that, I wanted to post about some bocage terrain that I'm building for a board, but both those are on hold for the moment - I'm still experimenting with a good blend of foliage for the bocage, and my Romans are simply taking more time than they should to come together. Hopefully within the next month or so I can post up a thing wrapping those all up. Further, I've been distracted by Star Wars: Legion, so be on the lookout for a possible update on those.

Happy 74th Anniversary of D-Day. Thank you to those who came before us, so that we have the freedom to play tabletop wargames, rather than living the horrors of war.