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Hi,
I’ve recently been considering getting a FW tank- either a Malcador or a Macharius- to complement my PDF/Fuedal Guard. I’m not sure what colours to paint it, however I have managed to narrow it down to a few options.

-Chipped grey with green/dark red sponged on to match a factory primer;
-Turquoise (to match the infantry)
-Turquoise with camo showing through in places
-Khaki/rust with painted-over Cadian insignia

The idea is to represent a very old tank taken out of service with the proper imperial guard and given to the PDF.

Any ideas/new suggestions are appreciated!

I do, actually.

When it got down commisioned, someone stripped the guns out of its sponsoons, leaving them as sort of empty nests that guns COULD go in, sigh, with the right budget.
Maybe one of them has what's left of a sponsoon that obviously took a hit, half the thing ripped away, and the hole patched with platting armor that looks like someone just cut a piece of thin plastic and slapped it on over the open hole with GW glue. Then painted it with silver primer, and then painted it over, thinly, to try to match the tank itself. (A metal primer under other colors gives a really ugly looking tank, fyi. I have done that and ended up not using it because it looked bad, but if your purpose is to look like this was the spot the eldar blew this tank to hell, and now its back in service, well, you got a nice zombie tank look going.
Viola, you have a tank that is obviously mispurposed a bit.
Maybe even put 4 spotter troops on the sponsoons with binoculars and commo gear with tiny, tiny wires going back into the tank itself, and a similar guy up on the main turret. Now you have a tank that REALLY looks ghetto, I mean, orcs might now not even steal the thing....

Dukeofstuff wrote:
I do, actually.

When it got down commisioned, someone stripped the guns out of its sponsoons, leaving them as sort of empty nests that guns COULD go in, sigh, with the right budget.
Maybe one of them has what's left of a sponsoon that obviously took a hit, half the thing ripped away, and the hole patched with platting armor that looks like someone just cut a piece of thin plastic and slapped it on over the open hole with GW glue. Then painted it with silver primer, and then painted it over, thinly, to try to match the tank itself. (A metal primer under other colors gives a really ugly looking tank, fyi. I have done that and ended up not using it because it looked bad, but if your purpose is to look like this was the spot the eldar blew this tank to hell, and now its back in service, well, you got a nice zombie tank look going.
Viola, you have a tank that is obviously mispurposed a bit.
Maybe even put 4 spotter troops on the sponsoons with binoculars and commo gear with tiny, tiny wires going back into the tank itself, and a similar guy up on the main turret. Now you have a tank that REALLY looks ghetto, I mean, orcs might now not even steal the thing....

This is a great idea, and it'll be hard for my creativity to match it.

Maybe have old faded markings of whatever IG unit it was, and then have your units marking poorly painted over top of it? (I'm thinking have it in black, then drybush over with your turquoise colour, then dry bush in black a new marking in a slightly less professional way.

Dukeofstuff wrote:
I do, actually.

When it got down commisioned, someone stripped the guns out of its sponsoons, leaving them as sort of empty nests that guns COULD go in, sigh, with the right budget.
Maybe one of them has what's left of a sponsoon that obviously took a hit, half the thing ripped away, and the hole patched with platting armor that looks like someone just cut a piece of thin plastic and slapped it on over the open hole with GW glue. Then painted it with silver primer, and then painted it over, thinly, to try to match the tank itself. (A metal primer under other colors gives a really ugly looking tank, fyi. I have done that and ended up not using it because it looked bad, but if your purpose is to look like this was the spot the eldar blew this tank to hell, and now its back in service, well, you got a nice zombie tank look going.
Viola, you have a tank that is obviously mispurposed a bit.
Maybe even put 4 spotter troops on the sponsoons with binoculars and commo gear with tiny, tiny wires going back into the tank itself, and a similar guy up on the main turret. Now you have a tank that REALLY looks ghetto, I mean, orcs might now not even steal the thing....

Exalted! Those are really good ideas- I can’t not get the tank now!

I particularly like the spotters, I’ll have to think about those...

416_SpaceWolves wrote:


Maybe have old faded markings of whatever IG unit it was, and then have your units marking poorly painted over top of it? (I'm thinking have it in black, then drybush over with your turquoise colour, then dry bush in black a new marking in a slightly less professional way.

That was pretty much my plan... great minds think alike, I suppose

Doing some more thinking- I looked at what happened in WW2 with re-purposed tanks (cool link here: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/08/08/repurposing-german-vehicles-by-allied-troops/)

Below is how Americans re-purposed a Panzer (two US Star flags draped over the tank) - doing something like this might be cool.. instead of painting over cadian IDs, you could just hang a green stuff banner of your regiment's colours on-top-of where the previous ID would be.

416_SpaceWolves wrote:
Doing some more thinking- I looked at what happened in WW2 with re-purposed tanks (cool link here: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/08/08/repurposing-german-vehicles-by-allied-troops/)

Below is how Americans re-purposed a Panzer (two US Star flags draped over the tank) - doing something like this might be cool.. instead of painting over cadian IDs, you could just hang a green stuff banner of your regiment's colours on-top-of where the previous ID would be.

Lol I actually have that tank in WoT. It's pretty bad, but it was free so... Anyway, that is a great idea in my opinion. They also repainted it standard army green (edit: Nevermind, it just had a German camo with some green on it. I believe it's Hinterhalt Tarnung, but I may be wrong.) before hanging the stars and it still had a lot of battle damage no doubt gained in the capturing, so maybe something easy like that could make your tanks less of a hassle. Just a base coat of your unit colors over some battle damage and some improvised insignia to show a quickly -if only partially- refurbished tank pushed back into service.

The tank in WoT is the King Tiger (C) if you want to look it up for ideas. (C) is for captured. They also have an actual 40k themed conversion tank skin called Ragnarok for the KV-2 (R). (R) is for Ragnarok as it was a special premium tank specifically for the skin. Both of those might hold some kind of inspiration. I know the KV-2 specifically has inspired some of the 3rd party 40k vehicles and conversions.

Here's the funny release trailer for the KT (C) from WoT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP9j0Wph8L4

416_SpaceWolves wrote:
Doing some more thinking- I looked at what happened in WW2 with re-purposed tanks (cool link here: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/08/08/repurposing-german-vehicles-by-allied-troops/)

Below is how Americans re-purposed a Panzer (two US Star flags draped over the tank) - doing something like this might be cool.. instead of painting over cadian IDs, you could just hang a green stuff banner of your regiment's colours on-top-of where the previous ID would be.

That’s another good idea; I’d been considering having some flags flying from the turret, but I like this. Thanks again!

So, the baneblade is big enough to have a guy from the heavy weapon squad next to a small pot (I am sure you can find those) full of yellow paint .. put "PDF-01" in that color on one side of the turret and the letters PDI" on the other side -- have him riding along frantically painting the name of the new tank designation while 3 of the spotters watch the horizon and one sort of looks at the idiot painter.

Dukeofstuff wrote:
So, the baneblade is big enough to have a guy from the heavy weapon squad next to a small pot (I am sure you can find those) full of yellow paint .. put "PDF-01" in that color on one side of the turret and the letters PDI" on the other side -- have him riding along frantically painting the name of the new tank designation while 3 of the spotters watch the horizon and one sort of looks at the idiot painter.

LMFAO Oh my god that is too funny to picture. I would love to see a diorama of that. Perhaps a Leman Russ squad sitting nearby receiving a similar treatment. A few Guardsmen sitting around a fire charging laspacks, others standing and enjoying a good tea/coffee while a commissar glowers over the scene struggling with accepting this clear but necessary breach of protocol.

Dukeofstuff wrote:
So, the baneblade is big enough to have a guy from the heavy weapon squad next to a small pot (I am sure you can find those) full of yellow paint .. put "PDF-01" in that color on one side of the turret and the letters PDI" on the other side -- have him riding along frantically painting the name of the new tank designation while 3 of the spotters watch the horizon and one sort of looks at the idiot painter.

I LOVE THIS AND WILL DO IT. GENIUS.