1/72 Trumpeter T-62 ERA (Mod.1972), USSR, 1980s + WIP

Prepping for chipping. Primer is Vallejo black primer, then it's the base coat of AMMO Jet exhaust burned iron with easy random spray of AMMO Rust tracks. Stowage and boxes are supposedly made of aluminium, which is the color i don't have, so Vallejo Silver should do. Wooden log is sometimes painted over, so I'll chip it as well, painting it now with AMMO Old wood. Random ERA blocks and details I feel have a good chance I'll chip later were also painted with two kinds of rust pigment, for texture.
Color I choose is ZIS 508, AMMO Russian green base which was aparently in use during the 70s-early 80s. It's kind of yellowish, but I have enough russians vehicles painted in Zashchitniy Zeleno, therefore I'm trying something new. I guess filters and weathering will make it darker. 

After curing the matt finish for 36 hours, chipping fluid and a coat of AMMO Mig 932 (Russian green base) were applied, thinly as possible, but trying to cover all the rust and aluminium completely. Somehow, the color works better than on my test hull, very light, but I'm now sure a wash and post shading will make it just fine. Now, I'm trying to go for a mothballed vehicle with moderate to heavy wear, so here goes nothing.

PS: Scratch built tow cables and hooks look decent enough painted. Nice! 

This turned out better than I expected! I just stipled wiht a hard old brush for the tiny dots and pieces and scraped some of the edges. Only the coat on aluminum was VERY delicate, needing barely a touch to strip the pain. That and the wooden log just... didn't turn out the way I wanted, but I guess I'll leave it as it is. Next step: filters. I'll use 3 diferent filter, Dark green for majority, then a yellow green and NATO tan for specific ERA blocks. Later I'll paint 10% of the blocks different soviet colors so that some will appear new/replaced. I'm also a bit weary about postshading. On the test hull, AMMO spaceship grime apeared a bit dark, so I guess I'll seal it with gloss after filters so I can strip the shader if need be.

PS: Matt finish under chipping fluid chips harder and in smaller chunks because it doesn't pool up. Silver being a very gloss color was apparently still a bit smoother under a matt coat. If not being careful, I could have striped all the green with a few harder strokes of soft brush. 

Filters, post shading and wash done. Painted a few blocks (and one wheel and right barrel) with different russian colors and different filters, but I see almost no difference at all 😄 Will try oil paints(tan and olive green) next to discolor some of them. Next I'll probably pigment weather the lower hull, wheels and tracks and fix those, then a gloss coat over the top hull and everything else to seal the wash and off to weathering. Lots of rust streaking I guess.
 

Assembly complete. Wheels, tracks and lower hull painted and are now weathered. Tracks use base coat of AMMO Rust tracks covered unevenly by Vallejo Track Primer weathered with Light dust wash and dark rust pigment. Looks nice, might add some engine oil for extra grime. No polished metal bits on the tracks because it is stationary vehicle. Oil paints used for ERA block variation worked ok. Some blocks darkened by AMMO dark shader. I have no idea if it will hold after matt/satin coat.

Next is dust layer on upper hull and turret, enamel rust wash/spot highlight and some rainmarks/grime streaks on the spots without era, matt coat, details(lights, periscopes) and some light pigment dusting of the front and back lower hull.

PS: Had to cut the pins holding turret on the hull. I guess the paint was to thick and I rather not broke any part of the turrent trying to force turn it. 

And it's done! Not much to see under suboptimal lighting conditions, but once I put it in the lightbox, everything will be visible 

This is the final step, the photoshot. I use cheap ~30x30cm LED lightbox from Ebay and IPhone SE 2020 to shoot. Then I use batch photo editor RawTherapee to crank up the exposure so that the shadows, stains and such on the background turn white. Sometimes, if the vehicle color acts up on the white balance, I do some light color correction. Then finaly, I use Photoshop to paint white the shadow corner holes of the lightbox. Then it's just picking apropriate photos out of the batch of 20-40 taken and placing them in photojoiner . net and there it is 🙂