Tanks the Modern Age an introduction...

I love modern tanks and since Battlefront/GaleForce 9 saw fit to release the Tanks The Modern Age in Team Yankee period I only saw it fitting to give it a try.  As you have seen from my older blog post I have a rather large West German Team Yankee army already but this gives me the opportunity to try out individual units for other nations without purchasing a whole other army.

The worse part of any new modeling project is coming up with painting and color schemes.  Should this project be done with brushes, air brush, or some other means of putting paint to models.  I had a quick look at some color schemes that I thought would be awesome to try as NATO camouflage was already done.  U.S.A. MERDC camo patterns have always amazed me since the days of G.I. Joe.  The below images were found on the inter-webs while searching for ideas.

I decided to go with a more traditional paint scheme to start with and used the Stripes book from Battlefront's Team Yankee for a guide.  While tempted to bust our the airbrush I decided to just paint the patterns onto the tank.  Starting with a basic M1 Abrams the colors were picked from what I have available.

Base coat of Army Painter Green Spray/FOW Tan Earth

 Two thin coats of Tan Earth were used to lay down the basic color work. Then I went with some white and black instead of a dusty brown figuring I would maybe doing some heavy weathering in the future that would subdue the white.

GW Ceramite White/Army Painter Matte Black

Once the paint was allowed to dry I went into the cracks with some washes to pull out some additional shading. Once that had fully dried the entire model was dry-brushed to highlight edges and begin some basic weathering.

GW Nuln Oil/Vallejo Iragi Sand

 Once this tank was completed I went ahead and built another M1 but this time went with the IPM1 instead of the standard M1.  I wish I had went ahead and built another M1 just to have a second one but might pick up another tank in a couple days anyways.

Comparison shot of the M1 vs IPM1