How to paint modern Chinese PLA woodland-camo vehicles

Today I am going to share how I do paint modern PLA armor camouflage for woodland areas. I don't claim my way of painting this is right, nor do I say my colour selection works best (but I took the colour table from a 1/35 kit producer). However, given the amount of questions in different forums it seems like people like my vehicle's look. So here is a quick tutorial on "How to paint modern Chinese PLA woodland-camo vehicles"!

What do you need?

-model (obviously *LOL*)
-Tamiya's Grey Basecoat coloured primer spray
-Vallejo's Model Color Iraqi Sand (70819), Saddle Brown (70940) and USA Uniform (70922),
-Games Workshop's Chaos Black, Boltgun Metal, Chainmail, (Foundation) Mechrite Red, Blood Red, Hawk Turquoise, Enchanted Blue, Blazing Orange, Vomit Brown, Bestial Brown, Graveyard Earth, Scorched Brown and the washes Devlin Mud and Badab Black,
-Tamiya's NATO Black,
-Mr Hobby's H321 Light Brown, H303 Green (=FS 34102), H309 Green (=FS 34079),
-matt varnish spray
-Tamiya's weathering master (set A)
-brushes (sizes 2-3 down to 0)
-"drybrush" brushes (one with flat tip, one with round tip)

Step #1
Assemble the kit and put it on your base (if you prefer to). Use Tamiya's Grey Basecoat primer spray and give it a full coat. Allow the primer to dry completely, then start painting the base with GW Bestial Brown. Drybrush the base with GW Vomit Brown afterwards and add a drybrushed layer of Vallejo's Iraqi Sand on top.
Paint the whole vehicle (apart from tracks or wheels!) with Mr Hobby Light Brown. I normally tend to paint the sides of the bases with GW Graveyard Earth. But that's a personal choice, you don't need to.

Step #2
Time to apply the outlines of the camo pattern. I paint all areas that later will be green (no matter which shade of green) with Mr Hobby H303 Green. These colours do require some thin layers. Don't blotch huge amounts of it at once, rather go with more thin layers!

Step #3

When the first green camo pattern has dried, use Mr Hobby H309 Green (which is slightly darker) and add those blotches of the pattern. At this time you could basicly also start painting the wheels with Tamiya NATO black and paint areas that will get a metal surface with GW Chaos Black, to make sure the metal tone looks alright.

Step #4

Step #4 is by far the longest and takes a tremendous amount of time. First you will have to pinwash around all panel lines and recesses. Use GW Devlin Mud to do so. It will help to break the flat bright brown surfaces and add more realism to your model. Use the Badab Black wash to add dirt to the engine grilles on top of the vehicle.

These washes need some time to dry, so don't paint anything else until they are (otherwise you will touch areas of still wet wash and have your fingerprints all over the model!)

Step #5

The last step requires a lot of paints as we obviously need to paint up all details.
The lenses and windows get a base layer of GW Enchanted Blue. Once dried, add a thin line of GW Hawk Turquoise.

Drybrush the Light Brown areas of the camo pattern with Vallejo Iraqi Sand. Be careful and try not to touch the green areas. For the green edges use Vallejo USA uniform and drybrush them as well.

The tail lights I paint with (Foundation) GW Mechrite Red, followed by a center highlight with Blood Red.

All tools (the metal parts of them) and the towing equipment get a layer of GW Boltgun Metal, followed by a highlight with GW Chainmail. I also use this technique for the headlights. Paint them Boltgun Metal, then add a dot of Chainmail to the center.

The wooden parts of the tools need to be painted in a brown tone. I use GW Graveyard Earth to do so.

The exhaust needs some steps for a rusted look: give it a base layer of GW Bestial Brown, then use Scorched Brown to add random dots and lines (I really mean random!). When you are done, add same again on different spots with Graveyard Earth and Vallejo Saddle Brown - if done correctly the exhaust will look like rusted metal (check the entry of the finished ZSL-92 in my blog for a detail shot).

Paint the gun barrels of the 25mm autocannon and the co-axial MG with GW Chaos Black.

Use Vallejo Saddle Brown to add marks of rust on areas that might got shot at or damaged in previous missions. Don't go crazy with this - you don't want to paint a wreck!

Drybrush the wheel houses and their direct vicinity with GW Scorched Brown, Graveyard Earth and Vomit Brown to add dirt for the weathering (don't forget the lower hull on front and back). You can also softly brush over the tires, but I prefer to use pigments and powders for those.

Last step is adding the powder of the weathering master set (A) from Tamiya. I use the applicator to "paint" them on the flanks of the tires and into the wheel houses. Afterwards the brush side of the tool is used to "dust" all lower hull parts and the road tread of the wheels.

That's it. Take a good look at the ZSL-92 IFV article on my blog. The various shots from there will help you to undestand what paints go where.

Chris