This die-cast Corgi van is 1:43 - a little on the large side for 28mm (even heroic), but it's very difficult to find a more appropriate scale. 1:43 seems to be the standard. Anyway, given that most 28mm figures have a head about twice the natural size, I think the difference is acceptable. As a bonus to the lazy gamer, they come ready painted, but a bit more work can make them look less toy-like, and more grittily real.

Most of the paints used on the van came from Wargames Foundry. The brush was an old size 3 - which is about 3mm or 1/4" in diameter where the bristles come out.

First I used Granite Light, which is a slightly yellowy brownish mid-grey

Applying the paint almost neat, I painted into all the grooves and corners. As I went along I rubbed off the excess with my fingertip and the sponge backing out of a blister pack. This left the majority of it still unpainted, but a nice grey half-shadow/half-dirt look in the recesses.

While I had the grey out, I also drybrushed the black bumper, tires and radiator grille.

The boundary between white and grey, even with the smudging, was still a bit stark for my liking, so I mixed the Granite 50/50 with white.

This mid-tone was something like this.

I then went over the van again, smearing on the light grey over the border between white and grey, which softened it up nicely.

Now it was time for some dirt.

First on was some GW Bleached Bone.

I watered this down slightly and put a very light coating on over the lower half of the van, with a few odd patches higher up. It didn't obscure the shading, because as well as being a thin coat, it was mainly on the unshaded areas.

The next stage was to add some 'proper' mud. For this I used Rawhide 11A from Foundry.

Watering the paint down slightly, I brushed on streaks diagonally upwards to resemble mud, concentrating on the bottom of the van sides. Last of all, I painted the door handles and indicator lights black. If I get round to it, I'll paint the indicators and lights silver, and then go over them with transluscent glass paint.