Finished AVRE and progress on 6 pdrs.

I managed to finish up the 2 AVRE Churchills and one MK VI variant.  Ill pick up where I left off.
Once the varnish dried I was able to apply the decals.  Varnishing helps to smooth the surface out and goes along way to eliminating the tiny pits, scratches and imperfections that water can sit in behind your decal.  The effect of which we call "silvering"  I tend to use Matte spray varnish but I know Gloss is even better.  You go over the whole mini at the very end with a final matte coat which will get rid of the gloss effect once your all done.

I used a combo of BF british decals and some I special ordered from Dom's.  I will be reviewing the Dom's decals in a later post.
I refrenced the british tank markings chapter in Turning tide and also the article British tank markings in Normandy on the FoW site.  From what I could tell the AVREs where apart of the 79th AD.  But were attached out to support various other units at the D-Day Landings.
The Loyd carriers for the 6 pdrs are from my wifes Guards armored division.  And so I marked them with 77.  For the anti tank regiment.

Once the decals were dry I brushed over them with gloss varnish to seal them good.  I used the vallejo gloss varnish.
The next step was the wash.  I like to do basically bathe my tanks in it.   Although I do dilute the wash with some water and a few drops of flow aid.  Flow Aid can be purchased at Michael's in North America or Im sure any artist or craft store.
After the wash its time to go over all the raised parts with a dry brushing of Russian Uniform and 25% Green grey to lighten it up.  Using white to lighten sometimes results in a lime color.  Be sure to pick out all the raised  details and corners/edges here.  I use a wider flat brush.
If the details dont seem to be popping enough add more Green grey and do another pass.

The next thing I did was add some rust pigment to the tracks.  I put a healthy amount on.  Later you can tone it down if you want.  These tanks probably wouldnt have had much time to rust yet but some would be apparent from their training in England Im sure.  

After the rust I went over the entire model with a light dry brush of Iraqui sand.  Hitting everything.  This further brings out the details and also simulates dry dust.

As mentioned I wanted to tone down the rust pigment on the tracks.  To do that you can dry brush Gunmetal along the tracks.  Or use the side of pencil.  

Once your happy with all the drybrushing its time to hit up all the details like shovels, tow cables and tarps etc.  For all the shovels I used Beige brown for handles, Black for the metal followed by a gunmetal drybrush.  You could skip the black and just use gunmetal though.  All the tarps I used Grey Green mixed with Khaki 50/50.  There are also some stowage crates that I painted Flat brown and then drybrushed with Beige brown.

Once all the details were done I hit them with a final coat of Matte Varnish.  All thats left is my crying when the wife rolls these out on me!
Oh and the 6 PDRs.  Just have to base them and the crew.

Thanks for looking.  And don't hesitate to ask about anything.  Im new at posting things up so Im sure I missed stuff.  :)