Guide to High Quality Vehicles (Featuring the Kratos Heavy Tank) - HC 361 

Looks great Vince - as a former Tank and Armoured vehicle Commander and Driving/Servicing instructor there are some areas that you could improved. Scratches on the side of the tank are rarely vertices they are always almost horizontal with the ground. The front of the tank, will have vertical scratches from where it runs over things. Lastly the horizontal plates of the tank with exposed tracks like this will also be heavily dusted/stained in particular where the dust/mud will flick up the back of the tank and onto even the turret. If you really wanted to get realistic there are some tips for you. Thanks.

Brilliant! I don't paint many tanks, but I think I could use a lot of that weathering advice on power armour too. As always, I really appreciate all the wisdom you push out to us here in the hobby.

Edge highlighting that thing sounds like punishment for somebody who killed mother and father

Great Video Vince!

I really loved watching that go through every step to completion.

This looks awesome! Would love to see more vehicle-focused videos in the future, both painting and build-related

Awesome to have all this techniques in one comprehensive video, thanks so much!

Probably the best tank painting tutorial I've seen, great job! I learned a lot!

Thanks!! I think I asked for this video a month or two ago so I really appreciate you putting it out! I was painting a Xiphon Interceptor, and used colour modulation on the wings. The wings are just so flat and I really wanted to play with the light and dark elements!

Free jazz, lol. Love it Vince.

This is PERFECT! I recently finished building a Spartan for my Imperial Fist army.

I’ve never had the urge to tackle a vehicle for some reason, except for dreadnaughts. Maybe time to have a go at one!

REALLY helpful, thank you ! Always a great video.

great video, a few more things clicked for my next project and the wet pigment for the tracks looks awesome

Excellence, Vince! Thank you 🙏

Going to try this on my Contemptor Dreadnaughts for NL.

Great paint job! Something I do to sell the environmental aspect of a dusty area is to put the pigment on the top surface of the vehicle and those deeper/ triangular recesses as well. If these are moving in formations or with other equipment, the dust will kick up (albeit finer and not as much) up on top. What was done here is more applicable to tanks driving through mud or not so dry dirt, vs dust/sand. Still, that 100 hours of work is intense and it turned out really awesome! Almost kills me when I spend hours on prep and then bust out the AK streaking grime 😅.

Perfect Timing Again!!!! Thank you!

I really like the look you achieved. Got me excited to paint my own!

Amazing video as always, so many things to learn here.

Just found this channel. Thanks to NInjon and Miniac! I love how you teach and it makes your incredible work seem possible for someone like me. Greetings from Wooster, Ohio and Happy New Year!

When I did my vindicator I applied my decals before the oil wash and that also took the stark white out of the Fists' chapter badge. Though I think that did dirty them up a bit too much. Really useful video as always. I have a lot of yellow tanks I need to paint and this is exactly the look I'm trying to achieve.

Incredible!

Perfect timing, I’ve just put together 2 sisters of battle rhinos.

And if you look at actual pieces of tracked equipment the track pads will typically always be painted when new. They're steel, manufacturers don't want them rusted out by the time they are installed. Great video! Tanks are cool! Imperial Fists are cool! Love this kind of stuff!

This and the colour exploration series might be one of the best videos you've made.

This is really great work

Burnt Iron is one of my favorite paints, flows well out the container and is just perfect.

Lovely, and near perfect timing as usual. I don't normally paint vehicles but yesterday I found the lost pieces of a partially put together Forgeworld Land Raider (I want to say Helios...) conversion kit I bought about 20 years ago :) So might have to give a kick ass tank a go.

I build mostly scale armor (actual military subjects) and I thought this video was great!

Great video... thank you!

I've always been intimidated by large tanks and vehicles that have large flat surfaces so this has given me the encouragement I'll need to tackle a project I've had in my head for a while

Lovely work! For treads etc, I've made myself a few bottles of various pigments and ISO. Give them a quick stir and a few seconds on the vortex mixer and you can just use it straight out of the bottle (as a solution the pigment settles very quickly). Its a very cheap & dirty way of getting the same effect as AK's various rust/dust/dirt washes without having to wick anything away with white spirit, plus the ISO helps it bond to the surface of whatever it is you're applying it to.

Awesome video as always, Vince! Gotta say the outro music goes hard because I had this playing over the speakers at almost 11pm and the bass was enough to wake my wife haha. Worth the look of doom I received.

You are my inspiration Magister !!! ❤

This video will certainly come in handy for my Nurgle grot tank!

My hero. Thx again for your advices

22:15 have tested a bunch of different option for sticking pigment to bases and mini's, with the goal of not altering the finish. Water works great, but has a very high surface tension, witch is not ideal if you want the liquid to spread on it's own. I tried 99% IPA, 50%, 20% and 10% and basically 50% has a nice low surface tension, but you get tidemarks from the IPA damaging the paint. Basically when you add iso to lower the surface tension sufficiently, it will start eating at your paintjob. I tried AK ultra matt varnish (high surface tension; doesn't alter the color of the pigment, but does make little clumps; really sturdy afterwards, so nice for gaming models), Vallejo airbrush thinner (low surface tension; damages paintjob; looks like cookie dough; not a great look); Vallejo airbrush flow improver (high surface tension; darkens the finish; damages the paintjob, but a little less than thinner); W&N Sansodor (low surface tension; ver slow drying time compared to the rest (did not expect that); doesn't alter the finish; slow drying time has the benefit that you can remove some of the pigment from the raised area's later; for a 25mm round base just add 1 drop, it will be enough and spread by its own). For now I will experiment more with the Sansodor (fancy name for white spirits).

That putty is the greatest thing I've ever seen LOL

If you haven't checked out that "Dirty Down Rust" paint (which is lie $20 a bottle), you might want too. That stuff is AMAZING for rust effects. Goblin Hut and Artis Opus sells it. For the US, i'd go Goblin Hut.

I think this is a great example of how varied the quality levels are in different corners of the hobby. (Not just this) most golden demon winning vehicles wouldn't place at a scale model convention because techniques is typically pretty poor by comparison. Similarly scale modelers struggle to win a GD because the pallette is typically not right for the genre. Then there is the rare individuals who master both and use slayer swords as cutlery because they have so many.

I know it's unnecessary work, but I often paint over decals, using them as a guide to paint the symbols. It's extra work, but they blend in well with the over all paintjob then. Great video, as always.

Lovely Vince, I'm convinced you must never sleep though, every week you seem to drop a video for a model that had taken you 80+ hours!

Love this tank bro. Definalty going to try and replicate this. Thanks for the inspiration!!!

A method that I use to flatten out my decals relatively quickly is to come in with a damp paper towel while my micro sol is drying and press down to push the air out. It's worked wonders for my shoulder pads, at least. :)

The three Cs of Vince. Credible Consistent Cool

Ok, "Now you get to watch a man go slowly insane" made me snort Coca-Cola into my nostrils.

What else I recommended this is only because I'm reading the latest book in The siege of terror if you want to try to do mud looking vallejo's range of mud European thick mud industrial mud that has an incredible look when it's finished and it's also cheaper than gw's basic material and you get more of it

Amazing. I would also live to see how make black vehicles look intreresting.

I think the main cannon could've used some extra attention. I think that is a melta cannon, so heat discoloration would look really good on it I think. Other than that fantastic job as always.

Great stuff friend 👏 👍 Silly first me

i hardly like any videos, but i like this along with your other videos. I love that you dont act all whacky and make retarted jokes. I like how you explain all these great techniques. Really good stuff mate, keep it up

une fois encore BRAVO .... j aimerais savoir après avoir passé les derniers pigments vernisez-vous en mat ?? et a l'aérographe ? merci encore pour la vidéo.

Dorn lives! ✊

Hi Vince. A very interesting video. As someone who does not play Warhammer et. al. but does build a lot of "machines" (mainly Sci-Fi but I do have a couple of WW2 tanks in the stash) this one was particularly useful. It yet again carries the underlying message (as alluded to explicitly) that the level/quality of the end result is directly related to the amount of time/effort invested in the piece and that it is up to the individual to decide when the desired level has been reached or when enough time/effort has been committed. One technique demonstrated here does lead me on to a question about an issue I have been having. I have been building a Klingon K'tinga recently - it is an old model and not very good (bad fit, soft detail etc.) but I have been using it as a practice piece for a couple of newer and better models of the same subject I have in the stash. The problem that I have been having is that since the panel detail is so soft I wanted to boost it with panel lining. After sealing the model (and decals) with gloss varnish I attempted to do the panel edges with an oil wash. The issue here was that the wash would not "wet" and kept beading up into little drops without running along the panel edges. Next I tried Tamiya panel line paint but this just seemed to coffee-stain. Finally I tried a clay based weathering wash but since the panel details are so soft the wash rubbed clean off leaving nothing on the panel edges! Any ideas?

Hi I’m new to painting minis and I find you videos invaluable to my painting journey. My question is, when you totally completed the tank, what do you use to seal the completed piece, varnish etc..

Awesome paint job, really enjoyed listening to the different techniques. One thing i see a a lot at the moment is these weathering effects on lightly painted vehicles. It gives a great opportunity to really push battle damage with oils and pigments, but what would your advice be if your base colors are a dark tone, such a dark green? Obviously you cant really push a dark brown/black oil streak down the face of the panel on a black or dark green base tone compared to a lighter base coat.

AMAZING! You're helping rekindle my hobby mojo. Could I please request a video where you make the vehicle or armor black, but with that oily sheen to it? Wanting to do some Iron Hands with the black that still has some look of oil slick where you can see multiple colors at angles. Hope I'm explaining this well enough, let me know please if you're lost. ;). Keep up the great work, as always, super helpful!

Incredible video. I’d be really interested to know your process for selecting highlight and shadow tones? Context for the question: I am putting together a leman Russ and while browsing the paint racks at my hobby store I got really inspired by an AK paint called ‘Pistachio’ which is a sickly green/yellow that I thought would be perfect for my Chem dogs.

Excellent vid and inspiration for projects. Have you fix the pigments in any means ?

Wonderful video. Thank you. I’ve noticed you using some very small spoons to measure your pigments with. What are they called and do you have a link for them? Would it be possible to get video or list of all your special metal recipes. I really enjoy how your metals look and I have many of the same supplies but can’t seem to get a similar result. Thank you for all the content and information you give us.

Of course Vince is a Loyalist…

That looks fun and I always learn something new from you Vince. Question for maybe a future video, I am wondering about how you set up your table and chair height? Is it same for brush and airbrush? Any recommendations for posture and ergonomics? My eyes are getting old so I have to use one of those magnifiers and I find myself hunched over with my elbows on my legs. Thanks

Why didn't you do a melta burn on the end of the big barrel? Loved the video by the way!

I hope one day you'll tackle something EC related. For a fan of purples and pink, there's quite a lack of III legion love! Maybe your marine video, but done for horus heresy legion?

Great video! You keep varnishing the model through out the painting process: what sort of varnish do you use in this case? Tx!

Would've been a perfect opportunity to test Citadel's new single pigment yellow contrasts both via airbrush and applied with a brush.

Looks awesome, the highlights are killer. I do have one question; how would you approach metallic vehicles? Like for Iron Warriors or Grey Knights? I really struggle resolving highlights in a convincing way

Hey Vince! Love the video and in-depth explanation, just had a question. If you were gonna paint a black scheme tank (say an adepta sororitas one), would you do it like the black thingies you did for this one? Cheers!

I definitely read the thumbnail incorrectly and was confused what IF have to do with pr0n...

Very nicely done! Did yo varnish a final time after applying the pigments?

Brilliant video as usual great tips, question I picked up a pot of citadel dry for my dry brushing on edges, have you tried it or even in your collection?

Vince, very much liked that video. I will definitely apply some of these lessons on my vehicles. How do you feel though about not being able to paint that sweet black base rim at the end?

As an armored vehicles model enthusiast, there are a few minor things I missed: Dust effect don't just collect around the bottom of the tank, but everywhere around it. A very simple approach to dust effect is chipping medium, then a thin airbrush filter of dust, then either stipple or streaking motion to reactivate the chipping medium and this creates very nice dust effect with rainmarks. Also, real debree can collect literally on top of the tank. Another few suggestions can be dirt splashes and earth texture around the bottom. Also, for competition and display purposes, doing real battle dammage such as bullet holes or damaged panels can be good, and on real life tanks, soldiers use to take their stuff around the tank, such as helmets, tools, boxes, etc. Real pleasure to watch nevertheless Vince! Greetings from Spain

AK Cammo putty is amazing. get 3 tins!

Hi Vince, beautiful tank, great work, i plan on painting in my kratos as well and this got me very excited. I want to do it in sons of horus camo, I wonder - how to deal with the preshading and green. I plan on using sky green as the lightest color, or perhaps if not good coverage in the darker areas than mix of sky green and sons of horus green. Would the black - grey - white preshade work with the green, or extra steps for the shadow are necessary? Once more thanks for your great channel and all the tips and inspiration you share! Cheers - Jan

Wow! The video was extremely helpful, especially since I'm a big fan of the Imperial Fists color scheme. I saw you used a number of Vallejo Metal Colors in this project. I'm planning to purchase some, but I wasn't sure which ones were essential. I'll definitely be grabbing Gold and Copper since they're quite unique, but which other ones would you recommend? Thanks!

Fantastic, video and an intersting style for Armour, so different from the alternating panel high/low. If you were doing this in purple what colour undershading would you use? Thinking a dark yellow brown but worrying the green will impact the purple. Edit, for the chipping it's a little too random, it should be random in placement but use its intensity tell a story. On any item there is more damage where it's used, like chipping and dirt where the crew are putting their feet to climb in, where the side skirts scrape things (longer horizontal scratches) or the front rams through things.

Very curious what color was that undercoat pink brown. Looks great for Infantry Imperial Fists or Lamenters.

Hi Vince. Great video and resource. I wanted to ask about the pigment step at the end. Do you need to do anything to “lock” the pigment in? I’m looking to experiment with pigments, but not sure if you need to wet it with some sort of medium afterwards for it to stay in place. Thanks.

I wanna paint a Tau army with the main color being a 50/50 mix of the new fanatic carnelian and tigers eye skin, could you give me some advice on what undercoat color I could use? I'd like to copy your approach in this video on my suits and tanks. Thanks for your content btw., its been really helpful so far.

I'm 2nd!! woop woop! Great video lol

When painting a vehicle for competition, do you have any suggestions on how to handle something like a Rhino, that has internal crew compartments that need to be painted before full assembly?

Nice video! What type of miniature holder are you using to hold the tank?

Loved this Vince! Did you bind the pigment on the bottom of the tank at all? Or is it on there loosey goosey?

Two part question. How would you weather a red tank? Still micro scratches, would you still use the Rhinox Hide? What about an arid desert battlefield, rust wouldn’t form in an arid environment with no water to create oxidation. How would you change these techniques for that environment? Thanks

What would be a good substitute for contrast medium. Would matte medium be good or is there another options. Loved the video

Hey Vince, Interesting to see how much you varnish. Any thoughts on a hobby cheating video on how to varnish through an airbrush? It's something I'm nervous to put through my airbrush, partly because I'm not sure on the cleaning process for varnish. Would save me time though as I currently brush on varnish.

Hey how would you paint high qualitiy black vehicles? Thanks to your vids I know how to paint black armor on miniatures (the oil paint method being my favorite) but what about black vehicles like falcons and wave serpents because I have to collect them eventually.

What would be a good replacement for the swamp brown, doombull ?

Brilliant video Vince, using it for my Slave Ogryn Necromunda Gang cybernetics! Just one question - do you thin that mix of varnish? What with? And if you don't have satin varnish, would you get away with Vallejo Gloss?

Do you chip ironjawz (AoS) in yellow as well with rhnox hide?

Bit of an odd question but do you have a video about properly loading up tiny brushes with paint. I'm pretty good at using a 1 but when doing fine lines with a 0 or smaller either I get too much and my fine line smudges or I have to go back to the pallette after every stroke.

Hey Vince, I was wondering how this video could be applied to black vehicles. I cant seem to get a nice color variation. I have tried black and red to give it a nice red tint but with the black it just come out looking flat. Any advice on how to make black on vehicles not look flat but interesting. Been using it on my ork vehicles.

I've had some difficulties with airbrushing paint as thin as you've mentioned, what air pressure do you usually use?

when it comes to pigment binding, do you have to by an actual pigment binder or is there another way to lock it in with not getting all runny and stuff?

Great video Vince for any level of painter. You must be a glutton for punishment not using oils for pin lining though 🤣 For things like vehicles, do you use things like streaking grime or does is the effect to strong for say the competition level mini? Same for say sponge damage effects, which I've never been a fan of due to the lack of control

Hey Vince, do you have any experience with the wax based true metallics from ak interactive? Stumbled upon them and I was wondering what your thoughts were on them.

Can I ask how you would handle heavier chips and scratches on black armor/vehicles? The dark brown really stands out on yellow, but feel like on black it may be too dark and get lost, leaving you only to see the highlight color painted along the edge. From the pics of the tank, it looks like you chose to leave just normal highlight color scratches. Is that best practice with black? Excellent vid, and thank you as always.

Quick question regarding the masking putty. I initially bought something called "cra Z putty" (we don't have anything called silly putty in UK, at least I didn't find something called like that on Amazon). Works great for easy masking, but after removing it, I noticed that the surface was feeling greasy. I did a quick trial on a piece of sprue and as expecting when I airbrused some primer it beads immediately. So I went to my LGS and bought the Mig Ammo masking putty (similar black colour, I supposed it is the same stuff sold under different names by different brands). And same thing happen, primer beads as soon as it hits the surface, though it was less bad. And that despite it was written on tthe box that it leaves no residue. Do you observe the same thing? The good thing is that if I wash the parts that was masked with soapy water that greasy film, it return back to a wetable surface. But for me, and probably it's professionnal deformation, anything that is silicone based is a big no-no for all tasks like adhesive bonding and painting. Cling film and masking tapes might not be as convenient, but at least I know I won't have a surface unsuitable for painting after removal.