6DW: Egyptian Army SP Tank Destroyer Platoon
/Those of you who follow this blog regularly will know that when I bought Battlefront 15mm plastic SU-100s for my WW2 Soviet army, I also bought another box to use for the Six Day War Egyptians.
The WW2 models turned out pretty well, so I was looking forward to a similar result with the Soviet-cast-offs-now-in-Egyptian-service versions.
Building them was easy: just the same as before but with the additional of an extra storage bin on the right front wing. An undercoat in sprayed on desert yellow was followed by a dark brown wash followed by two highlights: desert yellow again then what I would call a Bleached Bone colour. Tracks painted black with a light dry brush of dark grey, a few other details done, and Bob's your uncle.
Well, that's what I thought.
One thing about metal-and-resin tanks is that you rarely get a totally smooth finish on the model. The very nature of the stuff that they are made of makes them a bit rough: a roughness that comes up during the wash and dry brush process and makes them look a bit less like a toy.
Plastic, on the other hand, has a very smooth finish: the 'finished' tank destroyers looked way, way too clean, even for me, who likes a car-wash finish to his vehicles. These, however, were supposed to represent old vehicles: old vehicles that had spent plenty of time in the desert as well...and with an army not known, even today, for its high standards of maintenance.
They needed weathering in a big way, so it was off down to GW to see whether I could find anything there to help. The very helpful store manager not only sold me a pot of what they call Typhus Corrosion, but even showed me how to use it.
This stuff, TP we'll call it, is like a dark brown wash, but has a sediment in it that sticks to the model as well, nicely roughening it up. It's a bit like the stuff I'm now using on the bases - from the GW Technical range - which is like paint with little mini, mini ball bearings in it.
I painted the TP on just like any other wash, and practically had a heart attack. My lovely, pristine tank destroyers now looked like horrible, crusty brown blobs!
This was only the first stage, however, so once they had dried, I dry brushed in Bleached Bone again, and suddenly the detail came back up again...and came back up again very nicely. I particularly like the effect on the roadwheels.
So, here they are: Soviet cast-off WW2 tank destroyers in Egyptian service: looking every inch of how old they must have been. They'll be a nice contrast to the Israelis (when I get around to painting them) who I'm aiming to do in a showroom finish!
