Panzer II "Luchs" - Camouflage painting - Vonvikken Modellismo Statico

For the camouflage of this Panzer II “Luchs” I chose to use the German three-tone scheme, that is a dark yellow base with soft-edged bands in olive green and red brown.

Versione italiana

I painted this model with Tamiya acrylics, thinned with an isopropyl alcohol-based liquid. For the dark yellow ("Dunkelgelb") I used XF-67 Dark Yellow, which I faded, at different ratios, with XF-57 Buff. For the olive green ("Olivgrün") I used XF-67 NATO Green, whereas for the red brown ("Rotbraun") XF-64 Red Brown.

Base

I started with the dark yellow base, fading the color mix in the zones most exposed to the light.

After that I painted the patches, spraying the color with a low air pressure, more diluted (although I didn't stir it properly and initially the denser paint made the airbrush "spit"…).

Then I painted the details (the metal parts of the tools and the barrels of machine gun and cannon in black, the wooden parts in buff and the rubber borders of the wheels in a very dark grey) with a paintbrush, using Vallejo Model Color acrylics.

Decals

After the base painting I applied the decals, softening them with the special Tamiya product and applying them onto a clear gloss layer: this avoids the "silvering" effect, that is the air trapped under the decal film that makes the transparent parts look "silverish".

The insignia depict a vehicle of the 4. Panzer Division, denoted by the upside down "Y" symbol with three vertical lines, which was in service at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in October 1943. The other tactical symbol denotes a reconnaissance vehicle belonging to an armored unit.