Mantovian and Tartarian Armour Heading to the Front!

"They're big, aren't they, Franz?" Hans whispered. 

"They are, aren't they? Think you'll be able to drive it?" Franz whispered back.

The platoon of trainees stood in a semi-circle in their crisp new tanker coveralls, their black berets sticking out awkwardly because they hadn't been moulded to skulls yet by rain, and sweat, and intercom headsets. They listened attentively as the British liason and training NCO gave them the introductory lesson on the Centurion tank,  Mk3.

"I think I saw a Panzer III once." Hans observed. "In Russia. It was broken down. This is bigger. "

"Bah!" Klaus behind them interjected. "It's not a Tiger!"

Franz chuckled. "What do you know about Tiger tanks? Did we ever see one? All we had were horses and wagons." Franz shook his head. "And the verdammt Germans took those too!" 

Just then they had to move as a British supplied 3 ton lorry rumbled past. Hans waved at his football team mate Uwe, who was behind the wheel. Hans and Uwe played midfield for the battalion football team. Uwe honked the horn. 

The British NCO moved to the front of the turret and slapped the gun barrel. "The 20 pounder, or 84mn, gun firing APDS, will penetrate 210mm of armour at 1000 meters." He turned to smile broadly at them. "That will easily take care of a Tartarian T34." The Eastern Front veterans in the group cheered. He paused and looked at Klaus "Or blow the turret off a Tiger with a frontal hit from 2 kilometers away!"

Klaus at least had the decency to look embarrassed. 

The British Staff Sergeant jumped down and made eye contact with the Mantovian Obergerfreiter. "Right. That's enough for now. After lunch we'll be in the classroom tent to start on Engine Maintenance."

The Mantovian junior NCO started barking to form them up. As they were marched off to the Mess Hall, Hans wondered aloud "I hope there are sausages today."

"Ja, that's more than we had from the Germans." Klaus agreed. They weren't sure if he was talking about tanks, trucks, or sausages for lunch. Klaus wasn't entirely certain himself. Perhaps he was thinking about all three. 

On Father's Day I had a bit of time at my painting area and did some quick trials on a Centurion and a unit of T-54s.

The Centurion got Tamiya "NATO Green", with camouflage stripes of dark grey (black and neutral grey mixed 50:50), and Tamiya "Khaki". I used a small make up brush to stipple on the camouflage to soften the edges of the stripes. The mantlet cover was painted Tamiya "Khaki Drab."

The Tartarian T-54s got a base coat of craft acrylic "Rainforest Green" and then TT Combat "Tank Green."

Tracks, road wheels, and fenders were dirtied up with craft acrylic "Sable Brown."

There are a few recessed bits I should darken up with some thinned black or dark brown, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the results.

Now I need to just line up all the tanks, APCs, and softskins and churn them out for the table before the infantry arrive.