The Grande Old Dame from the Kalmyk Zone, Part 1

Imagine this.

The beloved Bishkek 2nd comes out of a terrible war in the Kalmyk Zone, taking with her the remnants of the Kalmyk 1st, a tattered and broken regiment, devastated by huge losses and defeat. It is decided that the Kalmyk soldiers are being absorbed into the Bishkek 2nd, before they land on Kartvelian, the desert planet that is being overrun by hostile insurgents.

The Kalmyk troops have low morale, so the brass decides to bring one of the few remaining tanks from the lost battle for their home planet to Kartvelian. The soldiers name it lovingly The Grande Old Dame. This tank becomes the symbol of survival and pride for the Kalmyk troops, as they lose their identity in a new and much larger regiment.

I am modeling the old guard models from 1994 into the Kalmyk regiment. They will all have a grey patch on their left shoulder pad, like this guy.

I have started work on the Grand Old Dame and I put together a quick tutorial on how I got her the way she looks. She is not done but the project is started. I have been wanting to do this for a while and finally got it together. Here's the step by step:

1. find an old Russ that's decently painted and give it a gloss coat

3. give it a coat of hairspray

4. give it a new camo pattern (really simple)

5. let it dry for 5 minutes and then start attacking it with warm water and a scrubber

6. for harder parts, let them soak in the water

7. the water makes the hairspray come off and reveal what's below. By doing it sparingly you can achieve a nice effect.

I on the other hand went WAY to crazy and came out of the battle with this Grande Old Dame. She is not finished by a long stretch, having to still finish up all the moving parts like barrels and tracks, but I love her already!

Try it out. It would work well on Ork or Nurgle Vehicles as well.

Mike