Model Color - Panzer Aces No.3 Set

The overalls of Western tank crews and their highlights

Inside a turret it was not a field tunic that was worn but working overalls, and those had a different shade in every army and a different way of fading. The set deals with that systematically: four base tones and a separate lighter variant for each of them.

The basis is made by British Tank Crew, US Army Tank Crew, USMC Tank Crew and French Tank Crew. The differences are small and that is exactly why it makes sense to have them together, because singly they could be mistaken for each other, while beside one another it is clear which belongs where.

The second four carry the word Highlight in their names and are mixed exactly one step higher than their counterparts. That does away with mixing in white, which not only lightens a shade but also pushes it toward the cold and bleaches it. The procedure is straightforward: the base over the whole area, the highlight on folds, the edges of pockets and the shoulders, and the transition between them evened out with a thinned mixture of both.

Anyone who paints with an underpainting from above can turn the order around and start with the lighter variant as a base, which is then muted from a lower angle with the base tone. Both ways lead to the same result and the difference lies mainly in how many coats you will need.

The paints are acrylic and are thinned with water. On a figure of this size it works well to thin more than would seem necessary, because a thin coat keeps the engraving of the seams and buttons that makes the overalls readable.

It also pays to think out in advance who of the crew will be leaning out of a hatch. That figure takes the most work, because it is the best seen of the whole model.