Here are the edges and the recipe. The first thing i did was paint the tracks with a very dark brown mix, nearly black infact. Then a light over spray with Tamiya flat earth XF-52 in a random pattern followed by the pastels. I use standard chalk artists pastels from the art shop that I grind up into dust. I used three colours here, a bright orange, chocolate brown and black that I mixed into 3 little piles. The first 50/50 orange with chocolate the second a 50/50 chocolate and black and the final pile was pure orange. I started with the choc/orange colour mixed with lots of water, I dabbed it randomly over the entire track. I did the same thing with the choc/black and by the end of it over 85% of the track had been hit with the diluted pastel mixes. Now comes the orange colour, this I diluted much more than the other colours, much much more. I kept the orange to the edges and between each link then I dobbed a few sparse random splashes on the tracks themselves. Voila.

Now the front view, as you can see I've managed to break off a mud guard in the process of painting the tracks!! I'll add a coat of dust and some other weathering when I do the rest of the tank, then I'll finish off with a touch of graphite on the ice cleats and edges, that should be about it, I reckon.

Tracks, I've made a start, about 3 times now!! but they are nearly there I think?

I had to add this one although it is out of turn, because i a extremely happy with the little bucket i made for the back of the tank. I must be absolutly mad the thing is 4 mm tall and took me over an hour to make. But it does look good.

The last shot for the day. I didn't want to put a lot of paint on the thing and I wanted the paint to be patchy as from all the photos and film I've seen of the real things this is how they were painted.

I'm pretty happy with the paint so far, not to heavy not to light. I've used Gunze Mr Colour H318 Random (semi-gloss) for the dark yellow then Humbrol 113 Rust for the red-brown and finaly Tamiya XF-58 olvie green. I used a retarder in the Tamiya and Gunze paints as i find they dry so quick in my HG Superfine airbrush that it cloggs the nozzel with in a few seconds... very frustrating! The retarder did the trick and i only got a few areas of over saturation. The Humbrol is another matter, I've decided I can not use my airbrush with this paint, regardless of how thin or thick the mix it always clogs the nozzel.

Another view, I've added some damage to the rear deck screens, but i think i need add damage to the storage bins too. Since this tank was attacked by fighter bombers just a few days before and the attack caused some damage to the open engine compartment I think there would have been some machingun damage to the upper rear of the tank? And maybe a bullet hole or two in the storage bins i reckon.

Here we go, the paint is flowing. Thanks very much to Kent Wiik from Sweden who graciously emailed me some very fine photos of tanks of the 4th company in Normandy and also 3 colour plates of Barkmann's tank as it was in July 1944.