Painting Maschinen Krieger! Wave 1/20 Gladiator Part 3

Painting Maschinen Krieger kits is great fun. Because the genre is wide open for the creators imagination, there is great freedom for color choice.

I’ve always thought painting a kit was not just a step on the way to the weathering. Rather, it is the foundation for all that is to come. Color choice, patterns, and painted details will all dictate to some degree how later steps will look best.

Painting Maschinen Krieger

I started with a basic coat of olive drab, using Tamiya XF-62. I don’t believe it is the most accurate olive drab around, but I knew later paint steps would alter it. The result would look much more olive drab than it started.

Subsequent coats were applied, using tints combining the XF-62 with lighter colors. An airbrush applied the paint in thin layers, opting for a mottled pattern on the upper flat surfaces. On the sides, a streaked appearance was achieved. Both of these steps helped to convey the notion of age and sun fading.

Viewed alone, the paint might look a bit odd and exaggerated. However, the paint application begins to “make sense” with application of later weathering steps. The weathering over the top of it takes on greater depth. Though the paint may not be considered part of the weathering, they are integral to each other.

The Gladiator is an excellent kit. It is a canvas that simply waits for paint. An exotic shape allows for a wide variety of textures and methods to be combined. Despite its science fiction origins, it takes on a very plausible look. You can almost imagine it clambering across a World War II battlefield.

The kit is not an easy one to find, and it tends to be expensive. Yet the amount of enjoyable builds hours offsets it I believe. It is an investment in fun that any modeler can enjoy!