STANDARD TOOLS ALL ERAS

The tools on the sides of vehicles in three colors

Spades, picks, axes and crowbars strapped to the sides of tanks and trucks are the small thing that decides whether a model looks like a machine in service or like a painted mock-up. Most such equipment consists of two materials, a wooden handle and a metal head, and it is exactly at telling them apart that these three acrylics are aimed.

You lay the light wood tone down as the starting surface on the handles, the darker mahogany brown serves to suggest the grain and to draw in the shadows, and the metallic gray belongs on the blades of spades, on cutting edges and on fittings. The set is not tied to one period or one army, because the same tools look similar on a vehicle of the First and of the Second World War and, in essence, on today's equipment as well.

Convincing wood

Create the grain by drawing the dark shade along the grain with an almost dry flat brush over a dry light base. Irregularity is wanted; no real handle has two identical grain lines. Paint the metal part in last and polish its edge lightly with graphite or a dry brush, so that it looks worn.

The shades are thinned with water. Tools look best when you give each piece a slightly different tone of wood. The set lasts for dozens of small parts, because it is applied in small amounts.

The leather straps and metal brackets with which the equipment is fastened are worth distinguishing with one more tone. Without them the whole bundle merges into a single mass and careful grain work goes to waste. It also helps to darken the place where a handle meets the armor slightly.