"Painting over diecast WWII Tanks?" Topic

I have just purchased a load of ready assembled and prepainted 1/72 diecast dragon armor and deagostini WWII tanks, and well, they look a little to much like toys and lack a realistic look. Any tips as to how to make them look more realistic?? I am thinking weathering with a drybrush, dullcoating, spraying over and repainting them…?

I have just purchased a load of ready assembled and prepainted 1/72 diecast dragon armor and deagostini WWII tanks, and well, they look a little to much like toys and lack a realistic look. Any tips as to how to make them look more realistic?? I am thinking weathering with a drybrush, dullcoating, spraying over and repainting them…?

Yeah, and the bug managed to post this on the painting service board instead of the painting board, amd twice to be sure….great.

Weathering and adding stowage will improve the look as will dullcoating. If you are going to repaint I would suggest using a primer 1st.

If they are not in scale or proportion, paint won't help much. If the factory paint job is poor, you can improve the look. To repaint, you may need to rough up the existing surface or strip it completely. Steel wool or a liquid that provides some "tooth" will keep the paint from flaking or rubbing off. Pay attention to scale effect by using a lighter shade as a base, then highlighting even lighter. If the models are missing some obvious details, paint them on. Dark shade and highlights trick the eye to see things that aren't even there. Try to paint your tanks as a group. Battery painting saves you time and effort. Good luck.

Dunno if this helps or not, but at one point Dragon offered some of their collectables as actual model kits, with pre-primed metal components. If you are going the whole way with a repaint, maybe picking up some of these kits may help? I mostly have experience with the jagdpanther & the AAV7A1 as kits. Their Tiger II was all plastic however.

Damon.

Diecasts I just spray black and repaint the whole thing.

Having five tanks with the same turret numbers just looks silly.

For German vehicles reapply base coat either in dark yellow or dark grey depending on the type of vehicle and period (early or late war), then airbrush camouflage over the base coat for late war vehicles. You can leave it in their base color if that's the color they will be in anyway. Weather them only after they're repainted. If you plan to run similar vehicle types in squadrons/platoons, I would paint them in the same scheme but give them different turret/hull numbers (Martin is right) by re-decaling them.

For US/British/Commonwealth vehicles it's simpler. Airbrush them olive/OD green, weather and reapply decals (stars, serial nos., etc.). Same goes for Russian.

Airbrush is a must if you want to apply camouflage. Otherwise the paint will not be applied smoothly and you'll end up with a worse paint job than before.

I repainted a few of the Maisto diecast tanks for an AK47 Republic force. Started with a rubdown using steel wool (wire brush in a Dremel tool would probably be a little easier); prime with a coat of flat black auto primer and followed with a mix of Testor's Model Master aerosols in the chosen base color. A little detailing and drybrushing with acrylics and pinwashes for weathering, adding decals and then dullcote- ing to finish.

The black undercoat helps to add depth to the shading.

Cheers folks! And thanks for all the good advice!!