Haha, yeah I put the bridge on every once in a while to look at it and it's gonna look cool.
I've only done this paint technique once before and it was also on another russian armor subject. I was overseas the first time and didn't have an air brush or any of my stuff for that matter. I went to a LHS and purchased a few acrylic hobby paints, then a general store for cheap brushes and alcohol and a can of spray primer.
I thought that I would run out of the single color bottle of paint so I thinned it with the alcohol, resulting in making a sort of heavy wash mix. Then brushed it on, let dry, brushed another layer, let dry, etc. The red primer would still be visible under each coat a little less each time so I stopped when it looked good.
Guess it's sort of like taking the conventional approach to model armor painting and turning it up side down and doing it in reverse, sort of 
Then final weathering follows.
Thanks for looking in and the kind words...