"SF Armor: what color for grav tanks?" Topic

Getting ready to paint my RAFM Traveler Tank platoon. Any ideas? Don't have an airbrush so camo-effects will be simple. Also have some Rebel Minis ones to paint, thinking Dunkel-Gelb base for those.

Open to ideas, pictures

Any particular climates/settings they will be deployed too?

My earthlike table mostly. Thinking a uniform grey for the RAFM ones (think Tech 15 Imperial Marines) that are ready of any environment. Where the others are more "local" forces.

Traveller grav tanks are capable of reaching suborbital altitudes, and combine traditional tank roles with tactical airstrike capability. So light grey on the underside, and either olive drab or dark yellow on top, depending whether it is Ally or Axis. Unless the world in question is largely covered in a thick, springy bright pink fungus. In which case, light grey underside and hot pink on top. Of course, if the atmosphere is thin enough, the sky may always be black, so black on the bottom.

That is the direction I'm going

If you're happy to use rattle cans, you can do some nifty splinter like camo that can look the biz, with masking tape or blutack.

Here's a thread where I bore the bejezus out of folks aboit the method I use. You'll have to scroll down to my post with pics.
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Storm Trooper White/Grey?

The Camopedia can serve as a source of inspiration.
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Originally, I was going to paint my new PHR army (for Dropzone Commander) in South Vietnamese tiger stripe, but then I realized that I'd have to do a five color camouflage by hand for a few dozen armor units. So no. Going with a simple two-tone parade ground paint job instead.

I didn't know RAFM made Traveller tanks. I'll have to check rafm.com.

You describe your table as earthlike, but Earth terrain includes ice caps, bare-rock high mountains, and oceans, as well as deserts, forests, prairies, and cities that differ by location and season. So it's difficult to come up with camouflage that will work everywhere.

That suggests that vehicles should be camouflaged for their expected areas of operations, which is what contemporary armies do.

On the other hand, grav tanks can be deployed anywhere on a planet pretty quickly, so their expected areas of operation could be all or most of the planet.

In that case, I would use light and dark brown and black or dark gray. Brown occurs almost everywhere on an earthlike worlds. I think it's mostly carbon from decayed organic materials. Black or dark gray should be used to break up the shape, outline, and symmetry of the vehicle.

The underside should be light gray or white. This countershading serves to make the vehicle's own shadow less dark when it's close to the ground, and makes it harder to see. Many terrestrial animals have light undersides for this reason (many fish, penguins, and squirrels come to mind).

You don't need an airbrush, but spray paint is useful. The smaller the scale, the less cost-effective it is to spray paint, but I find that primer and basecoat are best sprayed on.

For micro scale (about 1:300), I would start with white or light gray primer. Mask the underside. Then spray on light brown basecoat. Then add areas of darker brown, either with a brush or the edge of a small sponge, which gives an interesting mottled effect.

At this point, I would add a dark brown wash, which will settle into the low spots and give a nice contrast. Then add dark gray or black irregular lines. Dry-brush with a very light brown, and maybe light gray as well.

Remove the masking tape from the underside. Wash with gray.

Post your pictures when you're done!

If you imagine that what you are seeing on the tabletop is a holographic representation of the battlefield, then you can paint them any color you want to!

Great inspiration. I'll try to get started in the next few days

You are ahead of me. My RAFM tanks are queued up for later this year.

Under the heading of "there's no school like old school", I recommend – USAF European one camo. Gray on the bottom, camo on the top and sides. You can get the colors in Testors rattle cans without too much fuss.

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I know you said no airbrush, but someday if I ever get around to that, the Anarchy Stencils are really nice looking:

anarchymodels.co.uk

RAFM grav tanks:
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With DLD Raven APC

I went right out of books with my 6mm Slammer TF … though they are not Grav but GEV/ACV …

My Eldar 6mm Grav AFVs, I did the traditional tac camo colors like we see on modern helicopters. As we use Grav AFVs like choppers. That hide behind cover and then pop-up to take their shots. And go back down behind cover …

try applying a camo scheme with a tiny bit of sponge, its very easy and quick plus gives a great effect

try applying a camo scheme with a tiny bit of sponge, its very easy and quick plus gives a great effect

Hmmm…. anyone tried this with cheap sponge-tipped make-up application thingies? Might be less messy and I'll bet you can pick them up fairly cheaply…

Another trick to making feather-edged camo patterns is to use some blutac under the templates to give a bit of space. Put the blutac about 1/4" away from the edge of the template.

I like the aircraft pattern idea, complete with countershading.

I'm tempted to do Luftwaffe aircraft patterns, though USAAF isn't too bad, either. USAAF has wavy dark green at the edges of the aircraft, lighter olive green on the flats.

anyone tried this with cheap sponge-tipped make-up application thingies?

If the point is the open holes in the sponge leaving a pattern, those tend to be too 'unbroken-by-vesicles.'

Doug

Purple. You can't go wrong with purple:

It *is* sci-fi after all…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Totally forgot about Caunter and the WW1 camo patterns!