1:35 Camouflage Paint Masks For Russian BMPT TERMINATOR I (Russian Arms Expo 2011)

The show camouflage of the Terminator from the 2011 expo, 1:35

A show finish is a peculiar category all of its own. A demonstrator at an arms expo is not hiding; on the contrary, it is meant to catch the eye, and its camouflage therefore tends to be more contrasting and more regular than a combat one. The set carries exactly such a finish, documented for the 2011 edition.

Why there is a year in the name

Demonstration vehicles were repainted between the individual editions of the expos, so the same machine looked different every time. A modeler who is building a particular scene or keeping to a photograph therefore needs to know which appearance it is - and the manufacturer has also covered the scheme from an earlier edition of the same expo. Without this detail the two otherwise identical-looking sets could not be told apart.

A regular pattern forgives fewer mistakes

A show pattern has sharp, geometrically drawn edges, and that is exactly why every bit of paint creeping under shows on it. It pays to work from the light shade to the dark one, to leave enough time between the colors and to lift the films off gradually rather than all at once. Check the edges that run across the armor blocks and across the turret dry in advance, so that they carry over around the machine as well.

Who it is intended for

• modelers building from a particular photograph
• collectors of demonstration and trials machines
• anyone interested in regular geometric patterns
• builders of contemporary Russian equipment

The contents are a set of cut films; the modelers supplies the paints himself.