Here's another old Tamiya kit, the KV-1B. One of my modeling goals for this year was to complete at least one piece of Soviet armor. This is the second time I've tried to complete this kit. In addition to messing up my first attempt at one of these, I also managed to FUBAR a Dragon SU-100.

Like the Tamiya A6M5c, this was built out of the box. Also like the A6M5c, I used Ace primer on it, and had the same problem with the top coat being absorbed by the primer. I ended up using Rustoleum Satin Spruce Green enamel as my top coat. It went on rather thick, but the color was exactly what I was looking for - something like a darker version of RAF interior gray-green. It did dry glossy enough for me to decal without applying a gloss coat. I used Krylon Satin Black Fusion for the tracks. It worked well, but chipped just a bit when I was putting the tracks on. The only other colors were Model Master Metallizer Burnt Iron for the exhaust, Metallizer Gun Metal for the machine guns, and silver for the lamp.

This is only my second armor kit, and tried to weather it. I put a wash of Burnt Sienna over the top. The wash was a bit too thick, so there is a bit more Burnt Sienna than I would have liked. I then tried to dry-brush using a light grey. That turned out horribly. I don't know whether it was the paint, which was a craft paint, or the brush, which was a Micro-Mark drybrush. I will not use that combination again. I then applied some pastel dust, which was easier than I thought it would be..

Page last updated June 15, 2023.