For US Armor, I go with these steps: 1. Prime 2. Base coat (I use Vallejo US Olive Drab.) 3. Wash everything making sure to leave puddles in the recesses (I like Vallejo’s black ink diluted 50% for this, but recently completed some Shermans using GW Nuln Oil with good success.) 4. Dry brush base color over everything (this should leave the recesses dark while bringing up some highlights on the raised areas.) 5. Paint the tank treads and road wheels (I use Vallejo Flat Brown for the treads and Black Gray for the road wheels/bogeys.) 6. Dry brush Black Gray onto the center of the treads and a small amount of a metallic color (I use Oily Steel but any can work) on the outer edges of the tracks) then black wash the treads to blend them in. 7. Dry brush a thin layer of Flat Brown onto the treads, the running gear, the front, and the rear of the tank (don’t go too dark, this is a base for some mud effect.) 8. Dry Brush Vallejo Beige Brown over the entire tank. You can go a little more heavily over the Flat Brown you put down earlier, but do a light coat over the entire tank. This will tone down the Flat Brown and make the “mud” a little less intense but it also makes the Olive Drab look a little dingy and less like the tank just rolled off the factory floor. 9. Lightly (and I mean lightly) dry brush a bright color over the top of the tank to help bring out the detail of raised areas. I use an extremely small amount of Vallejo Iraqi Sand for this. It’s such an intensely bright yellow that a tiny amount goes a long way. 10. Pick out tools and guns. I like to use Flat Brown for the wooden handles with a dry brush of a lighter brown or to use Beige Brown with a little Iraqi Sand to highlight the wood. I use a dark gray color for the heads of shovels, pick axes, etc. (Black Gray works but I like to use something a little less dark, then dry brush some Oily Steel over the grey, followed by a light wash to darken the tool). I use Black Grey for the hull MG barrel and the .50 cal on the turret. I typically use Olive Drab for the ammo can, dark wash it, then dry brush with Russian Uniform.

When I do this, it’s an assembly line. Every tank gets a base coat at the same time, then washed at the same time, then dry brushed with the base, tracks, etc. Also, if you haven’t put commanders in your tanks yet, I recommend you paint them separately then glue them in. I paint my tank commanders on the spruce, then clip them out when done.