So I decided to turn this into a small article because you’re not always a lucky bastard like I was with this model.

Had this chimera tank for quite a number of years. You have seen it primed black in many a battle report. So far it’s the only one I’ve got (I love this model and will get a few more) and decided I wanted it for my Snow Guard force (AKA IG Valhallans). But I had never painted winter camo on a tank before, so the experimentation began.

Do not ask why, just follow the course of events. Covered the tank with a very dark grey color. Then I used some toothpaste with and old toothbrush, and put all that on the edges of the model. I thought that stuff would dry in a few hours. Well, it took a few days.

Now, the thing didn’t REALLY dry, ever. I still grabbed and old brush and started messing the thing up with white paint. Very messy. Take a look.

When I tried to remove the supposedly dry toothpaste, I thought it would be like peeling out PVA glue. It was actually like removing buggers from the model. If I used a blade to clean it, it would have taken me forever and also remove the grey color (even the black primer). So it was really a bad idea. I decided to cut my losses, I took the model under the faucet, and with the old toothbrush went on with the cleaning. Removed all that crappy stuff, and let the model dry.

Now… that is not half bad right? Instead of a recently painted winter camo model I had one that looked like it’s been campaigning for a couple of years. I’m cool with that, so with a rush of blind faith I carried on. My family passed near that table and saw that model transform so much over the course of a week.

Tidied it up with some drybrushing, metal on the tracks and guns. Applied some simple transfers. Then messed it up with lots of rust (Tamiya powders) and a lot of dirt. After a few more washes and rust dripping down the metal plates, a coat of varnish and voila.

All is well that ends well.