Tamiya British Valentine Mk.II/IV Infantry Tank Mk.III 1:35

Once I had a good colour mix I then split it into 3 separate jars. I darkened one jar with more of the XF-49 Khaki and lightened another jar with a little white. This gave 3 different shades of the base colour. I wanted to do a bit of modulation to break up the surface so as to not make it too ‘flat’.

I started with an overall coat of the darkened base colour. I used the black primer coat as a pre-shade layer leaving some of the areas darker.

Next, I used the original base mix to fill in most of the areas of the dark coat, giving more of a light/shade effect and breaking up the shape a bit more.

The effect here is very subtle, but works quite well. Next, I used the lightened shade to highlight the raised upper surfaces, leaving the lower undersides darker. I then lightened a little of the paint even more and picked out the raised bits. Rivets, bolt heads and the top edges of brackets and handles were brush painted with this extreme lightened colour giving a good contrast with the surrounding areas.

More painting…