Tamiya's now-old 1/35 scale British Chieftain with the Berlin Brigade urban camo scheme. I bought this kit in the late 70s. I had it about 80% done with the boxtop's yellow-green paintjob, got bored with the look, and put it back in the closet.
In the Fall and Winter of 1981, I was in Berlin off and on, such an odd place back then: the Wall, black-clad war widows, punks, Turks, dirty snow, tanks sitting on streetcorners. The West, bright and lively; the East, gray and suppressed.
So this diorama is a memory of bits of Berlin, with the added plus of a quirky local camouflage that didn't yet exist when I was there, although it came out shortly after.
The tank is all handpainted, mostly with craftstore acrylics; and weathered a bit with a pencil and dry pastels. I have not applied any decals, I like the plain look. Likewise, no snow. The Wall is scrapwood, topped with a piece of water pipe. Most of the graphics and text are taken from online photos, plus a few quotations that are relevant to my time there. I don't remember any large-scale graffiti art, and show none.
Snow is baking soda. Smut is local charcoal, ground fine with a file. Sand and slush is a combination of diluted paint and table salt. All were sprayed with a fine water-mist to make them settle down.
The base is a piece of whiteboard, gray side up, which shows through bare spots in the ice and snow.
