Dust Warfare Painting: KV-47 Walker!

Woo! Just finished my first model for Dust Warfare, a Sino-Soviet Union KV-47 walker. I haven't painted any large tanks like this since way back when I still played 40k and I wasn't sure if my techniques were up to scratch. Actually, I was sure they weren't. So I started researching historical model painting.

However, as I was doing this the new (first) number of Dust Chronicles net fanzine was released and lo and behold, a guide to painting the Russian walkers! The guide is similar to a lot of the stuff that I had researched so I simply decided to go with it as I liked the look of the end result. While I used different colours for the most part (Vallejo) I used the techniques in the article and I'm very happy with the result. So thanks to whoever wrote that guide, unfortunately it's not signed.

As you can see I've repositioned the right leg to create a bit more movement in the miniature as it's very static in its original build. While that looks kind of cool as well I don't want all of my KVs to look like that. I also broke the left arm at the elbow and reattached it pointing up a bit more. Otherwise it's basically dragging along the floor. Easy adjustments with nice results.

Drybrushing was kind of scary as I basically haven't done it since the nineties! I rarely like how it looks on a human miniature, but on a big hunk of metal like this it's the right way to go, you just need to be carefull with the amount of paint loaded in your brush.

It was fun using pigments as well. I've used them dry before to create a dust effect (see my 15mm stuff) but this time I mixed them up with water and painted them on which is a great way to create rust effects. I can very well see myself going overboard with pigments as they're fun to use and really gives an authentic end result.

The walker in the painting article had his shoulder armour painted red, but I had actually decided on doing that earlier as an homage to the Red Shoulders in Armored Troopers: VOTOMS. I do think I need some ID numbers on there or something.

I want my Dust models to be quick to paint and I'm not too concerned if they don't look top-notch. Of course the walkers are the stars and I wanted to spend some extra time on them, but even so using the techniques in Dust Chronicles I finished this guy quickly. I was listening to the Minions of the Master Monster's first Mass Effect session and made it most of the way through it so about three hours from start to finish. It's basically just a couple of layers of drybrushing and then wheathering. Very happy with it!

Now I have two more and a whole lot of arms to paint... :)