15mm Sci Fi - Old Crow Vehicles in German Red Oxide Camo

 This weekend I finally got around to finishing off part of my Old Crow vehicle pool.  These have been around for about 18 months now, waiting for some time at the paint booth.  My issue was I could not decide on a pattern to paint them in.  The sheer number of ideas I had lead to gridlock in my mind.

In the end, I decided to go with something a little....out there....World War 2 German Red Oxide Camo.  I have never seen evidence that Wehrmacht vehicles ever left the factory in Red Oxide Primer.  But, the color is rather striking and certainly fits the bill for Sci Fi vehicles.  I still have to add numbered decals (I dread this).  Luckily I have small ones that will fit on the the turrets nicely, avoiding me placing them on the hull.

The scheme was very simple, done via my two Iwata airbrushes.  Tamiya paints are thinned with 99% alcohol.  The Eclipse BP Plus was essential for highlighting the smaller raised panels.  

• Black Primer (I could have used Grey, but I wanted the initial Vallejo Hull Red color to be very dark to create shadows and contrast; Black makes this possible).
• Vallejo Model Air Hull Red 71.039 (this is a very dark red, much darker than the Tamiya Hull Red)
• Tamiya Hull Red on the upper/lower raised panels 
• Vallejo Model Air Brown RLM26 71.105 as the first highlight
• Vallejo Model Air Light Red 71.086 as an extreme highlight on raised areas.  This was done very sparingly.  
• Tamiya Metallic Grey on the metal bits (this is a great metal color)
• Tamiya NATO Black for the tires and tracks.
• Vison slits were done with Black, Vallejo Game Color Imperial Blue, Magic Blue, Electric Blue and Glacier Blue.  
• Stowage was painted by hand in various colors.  
• The vehicles were given an airbrushed coat of gloss lacquer. This darkened the colors and have them a very “rich” look.  I then sealed with matte sealer.  
• To finish them off I used Tamiya Weathering Pigments - Mud, Sand and Light Sand.  These kits are fantastic and have the benefit of not loading up a model with paint like a drybrush does.  

No washes of any kind were used on these models.  Normally I would use a thinned amount of Polyshades Tudor, however this time I choose to dispense with that.  Old Crow models are mostly flat panels making an all over wash approach a bad idea.  The panel lines are also not very deep, making pin washes difficult as well.  

Solution: By using 45 degree angles with my airbrush I was able to keep the recessed shading more or less intact.  Also, an all over washes would have darkened the  models to an unacceptable level.  

One thing to keep in mind: Jez at Old Crow uses some type of resin that bonds VERY quickly.  Within seconds.  Once it is together, thats it!  So, you better know what you are doing.  Take extra care to make sure everything is lined up perfectly before you touch the glue bottle.  

Otherwise, you are fucked.  

Roof Stowage is attached via Blue Tac.  It is removable.  

I used an older version of the Support Turret for the Lancer Heavy APC.  I wanted a tank/APC hybrid and this turret allowed that.  Missile Pods are from GZG.

Reactive Armor blocks were unused bits from Khurasan Red Banner tanks.  

Pintle mounts are a mix from Old Crow and Brigade Models.

Stowage is a mix of Old Crow, Brigade Models, GZG and Khurasan.

If you believe it, I still have another lot of tracked vehicles, in the same quantities and types above to paint.  Those will be done in a modern Chinese PLA color scheme.