Let's face it: If you build armored fighting vehicles, odds are you will eventually build one that's painted plain old green — far and away the most common color used on AFVs. During World War II, most American, British, and Soviet vehicles were this monotone. Watch just about any WWII war movie and you'll see fleets of Shermans or T-34s in solid green trundling over the battlefield. This trend continued after the war, with U.S. and Soviet tanks and vehicles painted dark green well into the 1970s, when both countries introduced multicolor camouflage. Unfortunately, from a modeling perspective, dark green is a color that can completely wash out most AFVs, no matter how intricately detailed they may be. Few things are as frustrating as spending time building and detailing a model, only to see it turn into a big green blob once it's painted.
So, what do you do? You could simply avoid those schemes. Sure, most Shermans were olive drab, but a few weren't; many people model the exceptions. Other classic tricks include bright markings, like the big, white stars on U.S. vehicles or the large, handwritten slogans on T-34s. Or, you can load up stowage or troops. These are great ploys, and I've used them myself. But what if you want to model an AFV where none of these options exist? Must you live with a boring, green lump? The solution is to break up the finish — as I did when I built a U.S. Marine Corps LAV-AD (Air Defense).
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