DiscoverThat - Journal: September 2026

Sunday, 20 September 2026

Not sure how to paint miniature tanks

I am still undecided how to paint model vehicles. Particularly the sorts of tanks and APC's that are used for grim dark future tabletop games.

The process I used the previous time that I painted tanks, was not entirely to my satisfaction. To find better ideas, I've been watching YouTube videos. Most are in some way similar to what I had already been doing, however they gave me some ideas.

For the most recent vehicles I did the following.

I started by airbrushing the base colour. I tried using a gradient on each side, but the wash obscured that, so for this process, it was a waste of time.

I painted in some of the details, before using a couple of washes. The undercarriage, wheels and tracks are washed in black. The undercarriage is in shadow, so it did not need anything else.

Behind airbrushed, front sepia wash

The sepia wash on the panels brings out the contrast however, it also makes it look a little too yellow, not surprising. Pushing the wash about with a brush to get rid of the tide marks was not as effective as I had hoped. The result at this stage was still a little mottled. It gets fixed by the next stage.

An alternative I saw on one video was to use a cotton bud to clean off the outer surfaces of the panels more thoroughly. I did a test panel and that looked tidier and nowhere near as yellow. Something I may consider for future use.

Front washed, behind dry brushed over

For these models, I used a large dry brush to reinstate the base colour to the panels. The tip I got from several YouTube channels, and the change I made from my previous process, was to leave a little more paint on the dry brush and apply it in a circular motion. I think this worked well. It covered the panels while still leaving enough contract.

The light over painting of the edges of the tracks from the dry brushing, in this colour, is a good dusty effect. In a different body colour, I might have to repaint some of the tracks or use another dirt colour to replace it.

Adding in the final finishing touches is the quick bit to do. This included re-instating the colour on some of the pipes, edge highlighting a couple of areas and a touch of silver dry brushing to the edges of the tracks and other areas that would get worn.

With a darker base colour I would have probably done some edge highlighting of the panels with a dry brush, but I didn't think that would be noticeable with this sand colour.

As these are for tabletop use and are not display models, the final stage was to spray with a matt clear coat. I painted these over a number of weekends and evenings, so I am not sure exactly how long they took. I feel the process is a little more time consuming than it needs to be.