I had a couple of small details to attend to on the build before paint work could begin. Those details involved the spare tracks. The 7 links that mount to the turret were missing their individual pin details so I used some 0.8mm diameter styrene rod to recreate the pins on each link. I also drilled out the exposed end of each link to show the empty pin hole at the top that's exposed once they are mounted in their holders.
For the front spare track run, I used the remaining links I had from the MK set for the 12 links required there. There weren't enough links left over in the MK set to do this and the turret links and since the workables are better suited here, that's where they got used. The instructions for this little addition are in Step 12 but they parts callout for the support bar is wrong, it should be K3 and not C15.
With that done, I prepped the vehicle for painting by masking off all the suspension arm mount points with blue-tack to prevent paint build-up from causing an issue with the wheel fit later on. I also mounted all the wheels, sprockets, and idlers on toothpicks with blue tack to make it easier to deal with them, fitted a temporary handle to the turret in the form of a cardboard toilet-paper cylinder cut down to size and let the paint fly.
First up was an overall primer treatment using MM enamel Italian Dark Brown. The zimmed surfaces exponentially increase the surface area so more paint than usual was required to get complete coverage.
Next came the base coat using a custom mix of 50/50 MM enamel Panzer Dunkelgelb and enamel Light Gray.
Same treatment was applied to the road wheels, sprockets, and idlers. Since everything's all steel wheels, that sped up the process here a little bit but I still have to paint and detail the contact surfaces for them before they are fully detailed.
Then the real fun began with the application of the camo pattern. First I applied the rot-braun elements using a custom mix of 50/50 MM enamel Military Brown and Leather and then the olivgrun elements using MM enamel Khaki. Final step involved spraying a mist coat/filter of the original base coat highly thinned from a distance of about 12 inches to help tie everything together.
Top down view shows what it would've looked like from the air.
This will get a chance to sit and cure up thoroughly before moving on to the next phases. Still a lot of work to do in the details department as well with the tools and suspension.