Occasionally it happens that as I am sitting in my modelling den I get tired of looking at some of my old shelf queens and bring one back on the bench. This was the case of Somua recently. I always loved French WWII tanks, but have never finished single one. Somua was also one of my favorites (there is number of others, cool looking French tanks that I would love to see in 1/35 scale) so once Tamiya has released it few years ago, I have got and built one. That was 2015, almost 3 years ago. The model got in the meantime primed and preshaded and was patiently waiting for its turn.

This model was one of the cases when I felt intimidated by the painting scheme and never felt I want to start it as it will take some time to get it finished. Until some day ago, when I said to myself: screw it, let’s get it done…

For the colours I did not stick to the kit’s instructions fully. I have used recommended Tamiya’s Sky and Light Blue paints, but for the two other colours I decided to go with Linoleum Deck Brown (XF-79) and NATO Green (CF-67) as they looked bit more “lively” colours than the ones recommended.

I have easily cut the masks from Tamiya masking tape using super handy gyro cut tool, which made the painting so much faster. All in all I was able to get the model painted in one evening.

For the lines on the turret I have used Pigma Micron archival ink pen, but I think there may be better solutions. Since the turret has nice casting texture molded on the surface and ink pen has rather stiff tip, the final line is not as smooth as I would want it.

Overall I am quite happy with the look of it, I have applied first thin coat of wash on the lower hull, but decided to go with the decals on the top before completing the wash. The decals are just being finished, so I hope to get the pictures up soon.

See previous part