Pegasus Hobbies KV-1 and KV-2 - My first 1/72 painting

Here they are, my first 1/72 miniatures!  I've got to say, that I am loving this plastic revolution and I'm loving the larger size.  It was fun to have a little extra "canvas" to play with on these (having come from 1/285 and 1/100) and I'm looking forward to what's up next...  I've got lots more plastic 1/72 kits :)

KV-1:  I've always loved this beastly tank.  While it didn't always perform the best in the early years of the war, it certainly gave the Germans a shock at times (and at other times it was a big flop!).

KV-2:  Another "shock" for the Germans, although these had less of an impact than the KV-1.  Pick yourself up a book on the KV series and you'll read several accounts where these tanks held up entire German divisions in some parts (Leningrad).  It's pretty amazing to look at photos of KV-2's that took a real beating; covered in dozens of shell impact marks.

These KV's by Pegasus Hobbies are a good solid kit; they are quick and easy to assemble and the detail is pretty good at 1/72.  They aren't as good as the best kits obviously but for a quick assembly kit I was happy. I started off by coating them with Vallejo Grey Polyurethane Primer (I love this stuff!) using my airbrush.

Next, I coated them with Vallejo Russian Green and then followed up with 2 successively lighter coats of Russian Green + White.  These highlight passes were sprayed with the intention of giving a faded look.

Another shot of the base color and highlights; notice that I sprayed in the center of the panels and left the darker colors on the edges.  After this was completed, I sprayed everything with a coat of Vallejo Gloss Varnish.  Once the gloss varnish was dry, I used Vallejo Black and Brown washes mixed with a little water to darken the panel lines and details.  The Vallejo washes aren't as easy to use as say MIG washes...  but they are not toxic either :)

At this point it was all downhill really...  just the weathering and the decals.  Unfortunately, I was too forgetful (or lazy) to take step by step photos.

I used a mix of I-94 and Battlefront Miniatures decals for the turret markings...  even though these decals were 15mm scale, they seemed to match better with the period photos I used as reference.

The mud is a mixture of Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark and Light Mud colors; I added putty to provide volume.   This was all sponged on lightly with a little soft blister pack foam.  You can't see it the pictures but I waited to mount the wheels and tracks until after I sponged the lower hull with mud.

I added a little black weathering to simulate exhaust and then used diluted Vallejo Black Wash for the oil stains.  Once I matte varnished the vehicle I had to go over the oil stains with a little clear gloss and satin varnish to give it a light sheen.

That's it!  This was a fun project and I've got several more vehicles and figures waiting for me to paint (all 1/72):  Panzer III J, Soviet BA-6, Tiger I, German and Soviet Infantry...  so many hard decisions to make.

I'd love to hear your comments both good and bad so please feel free to post.  If you're interested, here are a few product links for tools used during this project: