Oskar in the meantime.

The MK44 I was building got quite complicated and took actually quite a bit longer than I had anticipated... anyway I needed a break and wanted to build something quick so I could paint it.
I love painting.

The kit practically fell together and when the build was done I was struck with an idea for a bash...

but also abandoned it as quickly. I didn't want to get into another dragged out building process. I just wanted to get to the painting.

So anyway the build was done. I added some wires to the smoke dischargers and textured the hull with some Mr.Surfacer 500 to mimic cast steel parts.

Then it was one to paints.... finally.

First I put darkened the edges and panel lines with water thinned Tamiya Nato black, building up saturation with several layers. And then I added some colour in on the larger surfaces. Mixes of flat red, yellow and dark brown. All Tamiya and thinned with water. Applied in thin translucent layers.
Putting highlights on the horizontal areas (catching more light) and darker shades on the more vertical areas.

When this was all down I added a thin layers of Flat red and dark brown to the whole.

When this was dry I put down a solid layer of Mr.Super Clear matt varnish. When this was thoroughly cured, I added splotches and specs of liquid masking latex in the spots where the more wear and tear would occur on the paint.
When the final paints are on and I rub off the latex this will simulate flaking and rust damage... I hope.
It's basically a 'hair spray technique' but without using an airbrush.

I used Winsor and Newton Art Masking Fluid and that Molotov masking pen thing... it's nice the the pen leaves marks that are too 'round. The look too much like they were done with... well a pen. Duh.

Anyway, base paint done. Latex making done. On to top layer paints.
I use brushes and when I put on the paint I make sure it's quite thin (thinned with water) and use kind of a stippling technique to put it on.
I start in the center of a panel and then work out towards the panel line.
The colour is a mix of Tamiya medium blue and Tamiya sky blue in variable balances but mainly the latter (obviously).

So when the paints were mostly done I started thinking about the next step... decals.
Looking at the decals I found that the numbers felt a bit small. The Oskar has such big surfaces I really wanted one stoking big number on there... so I didn't really have a choice but to hand paint one on.

With the number on I had to look at some other details and I couldn't really leave out the iconic Strahl banding.
And after those were one and another small 5 on the little shield I pronounced the paint job done.

So have a look. Next time I'll stick on the other decals.

Thanks for looking.