15mm modern armour- BTR-80 Part 1

This is the Zvezda plastic 1:100 BTR-80. A little pricey for plastic, but effortless to assemble and nicely detailed. It comes with a sheet of individual number decals.

There are many different schemes for modern Russian AFVs. You can't go wrong with green/ tan/ black. Here's Part 1 of how I did mine, with the disclaimer that there's probably a better way. Probably involving an airbrush.

Paints used in this stage:

• Flames of War War Paint SP02 Soviet Armour
• Vallejo Model Color 70819 Iraqui [sic] Sand
• Vallejo Model Color 70.995 German Grey
• Jo Sonja's Black
• Derivan MiNiS GI Green (~GW Catachan Green)
• Derivan MiNiS Desert Stone (~GW Bleached Bone)
• Army Painter Warpaints Anti-Shine

Green spray and black not shown

First, assemble your BTR. These are snap-fit, but I used plastic cement. I left the wheels on the sprue for ease of painting. Spray it all with 'Soviet Armour', ensuring you get under the underhangs etc.

Next, a drybrush with GI Green.

Then, paint on your camouflage pattern to taste with Iraqi Sand. I recommend several thin coats to prevent the base colour coming through.

Then add a few black accents.

Now lightly drybrush Desert Stone over the Iraqi Sand to bring out the sharp edges. This is subtle and probably unnecessary.

Apply decals. Master modellers will use a gloss varnish as a base layer, followed by a softener, but I'm a lazy modeller. Whilst the water's evaporating, paint the tyres German Grey.

Now apply the antishine to the decals. It will reduce the sheen, but not completely. Finally, take the wheels off the sprue, glue them on and paint over the bare bits where they came off the sprue.

Coming next: washes, weathering and details.