SPA Modeler

Look at the vision blocks on the commanders cupola here, they pretty much just reflect whatever light is coming upon them. In the shadows, blackness, and out of the shadows whatever is most prevalent around them, sky, foliage, etc... periscopes reflect light in the same manner... just for explanation, vision blocks are direct vision armored glass, while periscopes are indirect vision armored glass, offering the using viewer greater protection.

Maybe a steel color base with a top coat of clear green or gray smoke, one of those clear tint colors. And those are the last applies after the final flat coat but before any final weathering.

Now this only applies to armor from the pre late 80’s with untreated optical glass. From the late 80’s onward, optics glass started to receive an anti laser coating. That glass has a very distinctive look in that it has a reddish purple appearance and can appear iridescent golden metallic under certain lighting angles. And thermal sight optics look completely different than plain glass or anti laser coated stuff....

A friend of mine made some nice clear colors by mixing some clear gloss with food colorand.
You get them in sets with yellow, blue, green and red. So nearly any shade is doable.

mostrich wrote:A friend of mine made some nice clear colors by mixing some clear gloss with food colorand.
You get them in sets with yellow, blue, green and red. So nearly any shade is doable.

And by doing that you can control the amount of tint to just a hint, or heavy...

Here is a great shot of the anti laser coating, and of the thermal sight optics at well...

If you look at the gunners “dog house” on the left turret top, you can see just a slight purplish film across the glass caused by the anti laser coating, while inside, you see the mirror lens of the thermal sight. Down on the drivers hatch, on the forward facing periscope you see dark, with no real light reflected, while the two angled periscopes very clearly show the reddish purple iridescence of same anti laser coating... real fun to try to replicate...

Excellent tutorial on the vision blacks and periscopes. For my tiny scale, I use a chrome color under a metallic red for more modern vision blacks, For something older, I tend to use the same chrome underneath some metallic blue or green; sometimes both. It captures the essence in my scale well enough. I surely need some extremely thin and pointed brushes to achieve this; not to mention steady hands...

Right.... no coffee, and toothpicks are often in order for me...

I tried the light blue as a base for periscopes once.... once...