Last year I started my big push to paint up my metric ton of unpainted Flames of War allied vehicles. The plan was to do them in mass, using the same colors and go with a production approach to painting. I was cruising along with the painting and then hit a road block… I did not have the decals I needed and found some other vehicles that I forgot to get started.
That setback meant that I stopped working on the tanks and sort out my decals. It also resulted in some changes in my force organizations. While I was doing that, I got distracted (who me?) and worked on some other hobby projects. Well, my long delayed shipment of decals finally arrived (that was another adventure) and I got back on the Lend Lease train.
The first group I finished was two platoons of Free French M3a3 Stuarts of the 1st FFI. The models are 3d prints from Battlefield 3D. These are part of a large purchase I made in early 2023. I wanted this version of the Stuart for my French and was happy to find them in 3d printed resin. The detail is nice and they do not require much clean up. the upside of 3d models is that I can now fill all the holes in my tank collection. The down side is that I can now fill all the holes in my armor collection….
With that said, these followed the same steps as the early lend lease project vehicles. I sprayed the models with Krylon dark olive camo paint, hit the bottoms with Vallejo mud pumice, black washed the tank, drybrushed up the green and brown, painted details, added the decals, dull coated the models and finished with a Iraqi Sand drybrush. It is a pretty quick way to get through armor and gives a very dirty effect. Now that I am stocked up on decals, I am adding them to all my trays of vehicles to get this project done once and for all!
- Mantueffel