Back To Green!

I continue to remain relatively busy preparing loads of stuff and finishing nothing! Some of this is to do with side projects and long term projects that have hung around waiting to be realised and I might write a post on them at some point. But, back in the present, I’ve managed to finish off an armoured car!

This is a Straussler AC3D armoured car for my 20mm scale WW2 Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) force and it’s a 3-D print by Garden Shed Printing. This is one of those models that I’ve been after for a long time and represents another gap filled amongst those vehicles for which I thought I’d probably never find a model. The KNIL only had around a dozen of them in service at the start of WW2 and a different version with a more roomy hull (the AC3) was used to protect RAF bases in the Middle East in the early part of WW2.

Although a 3-D print, this model comes in kit form consisting of the hull, turret, turret pin, two axles, four wheels and two machine gun barrels. Printing the bits in this way allows items like the hull, turret and wheels to be printed on a bed plate and thus have smooth under/rear surfaces (not that I’m an expert on 3-D printing) and the fit of parts was very good.

With little detail on colours, I’ve gone for a Bronze Green finish with detail lined in black. The chassis and wheels were painted in German Camouflage Black Brown and then drybrushed in Dark Earth. The whole vehicle was then lightly drybrushed in a white/dark earth mix to pick out the highlights – this is a much less heavy finish than I’d normally use, to avoid picking up any of the printer lines that are inevitable on this type of print of a multi-faceted armoured body (print lines are there but not too obvious once a couple of coats of paint go on).

I’m really pleased at getting this done! I’ve still got a couple more KNIL vehicles and guns to do, but I don’t need any more armoured vehicles so I am making progress! It seems to be easier to paint the odd single vehicle in amongst preparing other stuff so I might try and keep that up for the near future at least!