In collecting Roco Minitanks for the last 60 years I have come across some unusual styles of painting Roco vehicles. In the 1960s in the USA the number of flat military color model paints were few, and cans of spray paint and air brushes were most unusual. Reference books were expensive and hard to come by. Plastic models were a rather new invention and most of the people buying them were kids.
Over the years I have purchased used collections of Roco, some of which contained hundreds of vehicles. In this series of articles I will show photos of some of those vehicles that represent rather unusual methods of detailing and painting Roco Minitanks. I have found these techniques to be common, and not confined to any specific locality. I have not been able to find any books or magazines that recommended these painting techniques.
At first glance this seems to be a nicely detailed, painted wrecker truck.
It even has a well applied decal of US ARMY on the boom.
Only on closer inspection does the oddity reveal itself.
Small details like the reflectors, the oxygen tank, and the truck canopy have been painted. But the overall black / green plastic is unpainted.
The paint has been well applied, it shows up nicely even when the photo is enlarged.
The wheels are not painted black, but the spare tire on the side of the boom is painted. Why would you paint the spare tire but not the other tires? There is only one decal on the model, the US ARMY on the boom, no other markings of any kind. It's a nice paint job, the model is complete, even the trailer hitch is there, but the overall model was not painted.
As a side note to this, I have found many collections where the WWII German vehicles are painted primer gray with brush and sometimes spray paint, and the American vehicles have only small details painted. I can only guess that it was due to a lack of an olive drab spray paint.
Bunker Talk
Mike Bunkermeister Creek