Painting.....Circus Style (*update*)

With the 'All-Tank' tournament at a local store next weekend, my paintbrushes have been hard at work getting my Elefants ready for the table in case we have an odd number of players. I love to play in tournament events, but I don't mind sitting on the sideline to run an event either. I have no issues walking around tables, taking in games, having a look at army lists or taking pictures for DiceDevils.com. I'd rather have all my attention on the games at hand and be there for rules questions, which most would admit I know NOTHING about.....but as the tournament organizer, at least having a rulebook in hand will help, should a question or dispute arise.

Fits like a thong on a fat stripper.....

I can not wait until next weekend to see what others have brought, it took a long time just to get the wording right so there would be NO question as to what I am looking to accomplish with 'May Madness'. The madness in question has been mostly about how I can run the ALL-TANK tournament while maintaining a balance, so I decided that all the lists would have to be Tank Company lists, and you are only allowed one platoon in your army that does not have tanks in it. This includes, but not limited to aircraft, recce, infantry, AT-Guns etc.......
A tank as defined by me for the tournament basically means completely armored, has a turret or fixed main gun and has tracks. There are a ton of different interpretations, tank teams of course being the main one. Some will fit into that role and some will not, for what I had in mind. It was tough to explain in plain english, that it's a simple all tank tournament, except for that one other platoon.....and that's only if you want to have one. If you want to have all Tigers running around blasting huge 88mm rounds at people, go nuts!!

Yes, decals are wrong, I wanted them to stick out.

Base coat of black, with armor paint to match desert German armored vehicles. German Medium Brown to add camo. A quick wash, CGR Magic Mud (new brown one), or I used War Painters wash (darker auburn color) with a quick drybrush. After which, I went with German Med Green Camo for the 'line' camo style wrapping around the subdued brown 'blotches'. Another drybrush and some camo netting and you have one Elefant capable of hiding in plain sight.......if there is a large barn or trees to take cover in that is.....these models are massive and hopefully me choosing to go with the black identification numbers, they turned out alright and manage to hold their own, should they see the table this upcoming weekend. You can see the other ones in the background waiting for the same treatment. I used different washes (not on the same tank) to ensure that they all don't look exactly alike. I'm starting to get away from the normal painting mentality where, just because you paint them all at the same time, you don't have to use a cookie cutter painting style to make them all look alike. I will be getting a better camera and hopefully soon, start showing off my models and I can use my cellphone camera for simpler activities, it has never really shown off any models the same as a regular camera. I've got a Panther platoon in progress and will be posting on their progress shortly, they kind of took a back seat to the Elefants....

willkommen im Zirkus!!

Rather than create more posts containing my Elefant project, the platoon is now complete and I have added some pics below for your enjoyment. Thanks for all the comments and feel free to critique or suggest any changes so I can become a better painter! Thanks a lot!
Matt -01 May 2014-

Getting some sun, Platoon I/C in the foreground.

Out and about, the netting looks greener in this pic than it actually is. I dry brushed it a LOT!

All angle view of the platoon.

Taken right after the platoon was completed.