The first part of this build can be found here.

The tank needed to be burned out and rusty- something that stood abandoned (and looted) for years. I took a lot of liberties with the amount of rust and weathering -this degree of decomposition would only happen after decades. It’s an interesting point in our hobby: we tend to overemphasise the damage, the chipping, the rusting on most of the AFVs we build, which makes them interesting to look at, but quite unrealistic and out-of-scale. The point is: it’s not meant to be an exact replica of the real thing, it’s only a representation of an idea.

The idea here is a tank that had a catastrophic fire in the engine compartment, so it was abandoned in the Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl. (I wanted to use the STALKER figure, so it had to be Chernobyl. I could not come up with a realistic scenario why a T-62 would catch fire there, though, so you’ll have to use your imagination.)

Anyhow: after spraying on a base-coat of different rust colors, I proceeded to coat the tank with AK Interactive heavy chipping medium, and some NATO green from Tamiya. Once it was dry to the touch I created areas where the paint was worn off to differing degrees: more on the back and on the thinner metallic parts, and less on the front, where the fire did not heat the hull up that much.

Once the chips were done I sealed everything with varnish.

I put the tank onto the base of the display case I intended to use and realized that it was too long for the external fuel tanks to be mounted… I could have turned the turret around if I had not used epoxy glue to stick it onto the hull… Oh well, more battle damage.

I’ve used ochre and dark brown filters on the whole of the vehicle, and some burned umber washes to deepen the shadows in the crevices.

I’ve glued the tank onto the base using epoxy glue, and mixed some sand with plaster to create a rudimentary terrain; this will -hopefully- be refined further. (As soon as I get some replacement tracks for the tank, of course.)

While we’re waiting for the groundwork to be finished, I went on to further enhance the rusty feel for the tank: I used three different colors of iron oxide (it comes in brown, red and yellow, and dabbed it on using a brush and some flat varnish.

I’ve also tried Lifecolor’s rust wash set to see how it works; I suspect an airbrush would be a better way of handling it. (It is not easy to use. Well, it’s easy to use, what’s not easy is to get results like you see on the cover. Unfortunately there’s no real guide provided.)

They suggest glossy surface, however it tends to form droplets which is not ideal. (Surface tension is not always useful.)

I’ve checked out the storage box on a museum Shilka, and it was pretty much pure rust… so this is how the tool boxes will look once I’m done with it.

Some more rust over the burned areas will also be necessary, and also soot. It’s a good question how much soot actually remains after years of being subjected to the elements, but this will not deter me from adding some. In fact I’ve long been wanting to add white soot left over from the burning rubber rims of the roadwheels. I’m fairly certain this would be washed away by the rain in a short order in real life, but I shall not pay attention to this issue.

Anyhow, this is how it is as of now. Keep tuned in; updates will be coming (soonish).