Mark IV....Once More

 

       Having finished the German Stosstruppen there was nothing left but to turn my attention back to my scratchbuilt model Heavy Tank Mark IV. It had been left unattended since I started assembling the German infantry. Really, all it needed was a coat of paint and some weathering so it wasn't too bad an ordeal to get it finished. I decided to forgo the addition of rivets, there being about 1300 or so to add, and tiny rivets are quite the bother to make.

 

the track color was built up from steel then over coated with varying shades of dark rust

 

the exhaust system got a brighter shade of rust

 

the national markings on the bow "horns" were a bit of a pain to paint

 as the white didn't want to cover the brown and the red was very streaky until the third coat or so

 

and then came the mud

 

I stippled the lower areas and the tracks with dark khaki 

before switching to lighter shades for dusting and streaking 

it might need to have more "globby" mud on the track......

 

more of that yellow-shift, I think the green foreground confused the camera in my phone,

 I am going to try using a neutral gray in the future

 

I cheated and drew the vision slits and pistol ports in with a Sharpie marker

 

if I build any more of these I will be sure to use heavy card stock for the templates

paper is just too thin and leaves the details difficult to see

 

now I need to come up with a suitably ironic name

 

the actual tanks were positively festooned with pistol ports 

perhaps I should add more

 

but it catches the shape pretty well

       Now I have to work out rules. I am considering a cooperative-play idea where the squads of Germans are confronted with having to defend a section of trenches as waves of British tanks try to pass through. The tanks would be umpire controlled using a threat-recognition/response system.