Thursday, January 27, 2022

Micro Armor US and East Block Forces Project

I've been working on my Micro Armor, most all produced by GHQ, that I've been collecting for many years.  I think I got my first boxes of US Tank Company and Command and Soviet Tank Company and Command back in the latter part of the 1980's.  I previously painted a few things, but this was first endeavor on a large scale.  I decided to do the Soviet forces in primarily a deep green color, I can't remember exactly which colors I used for them, if I find them, I'll edit them in.  I experimented with several different colors before settling on the ones I used.  Everything was washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.  I do know I used a bit of an olive yellow color over the green for some older T-64's.  I'm sure the Soviets used some type of camouflage patterns back then but believe they did a lot of mono-color schemes.

As for the U.S. forces, I used Vallejo Gunship Green (895) as a base color for all armor except the M1A1 Tanks.  For the camouflage scheme (MERDC) all the rest of the US vehicles, used basic black splotching, but later found that Vallejo German Grey (995) looked and worked a lot better, as the dark splotches are truly NOT black but a dark shade of gray/black.  For the brown camouflage portion used Vallejo US Field Drab (873), in accents along the dark blotches, and then some very small very light strokes of Iraqi Sand (819).  If you look at pictures of US camouflage patterns, the green is most prevalent, followed by dark grey/black, then smaller blotches of brown, and very few sand-colored streaks. The canvas on the 2.5 Ton Cargo Trucks was Vallejo Model Air color Light Grey Green (044).  All were washed with Agrax Earthshade.

For the M1 Tanks I used a bit different shade of green with black (should have used the German Grey), and Leather Brown (818). I initially used a wash on these but it darkened/muted the color a bit too much, so I went back in and re-touched up the colors.

Tracks for vehicles could the German Grey with a little light drybrush of gunmetal.

The soviet vehicles outnumber (at this point) the US vehicles, as would be expected.  I used a good variety of Armored Personnel Carriers (APC's) on both sides for transporting troops.  Each force also has a complement of Artillery assets, anti-air assets, some engineering and equipment recovery assets, and air assets including transport and attack helicopters, and fixed wing fighter/bomber aircraft.  Eventually I will get the ground troops painted.

Doing the camouflage was cool, and I've received a lot of really positive comments on Facebook Micro Armor Wargaming group, but it was pretty time consuming and detailed.  I got into a  assembly line mode where I used a similar pattern for all vehicles of a certain type, just so I didn't have to re-imagine camo schemes.  I'm very happy with the end result of my US camo work, especially for the number of vehicles involved.

PS... Thanks Russia for potentially invading the UKRAIN and providing us more scenarios for Russian vs Russian battles...  

                                                           US FORCES


Artillery, M577's, M113 Mortar Carriers and APCs


M1s and M60s, 2.5 Ton Trucks, Wreckers


Recovery Veh and Artillery middle right, HMMWVs

Vulcan ADA Vehs, TOWs, 113's


Tow Mounted 113s


SOVIET/EAST BLOCK FORCES

Overall Force, Artillery in Back

Air Defense Systems (ZSU 23-4), SA-6 Gainful
Behind the Tanks

Tanks, Tanks, Tanks

APC's BRDMs, BTRs, BMDs, BMPs






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