Cobra H.I.S.S. Tank

This is the second HISS tank I've done (see the first one here) and it is a project that has been underway for a couple of months. My son had a red HISS tank from the Target Ultimate Battle Pack. After he saw the Crimson Sabotage version, he liked the way the drive covers were painted red. Who am I to deny him?

So I ended up spray painting the entire tank a much more vivid (bloody) red. The black areas were done with Testors flat black. The treads and drive wheels were drybrushed with Testors aluminum to give them a worn look. I also hollowed out the barrels on the cannons using my trusty Dremel.

Adam likes things red, and he apparently likes them shiny, as well. When I asked him to choose between Dull-Cote and Gloss-Cote, he didn't even hesitate to say GLOSS! The decals came from Rick at the 334th Joe Company. They cost me $3 with the shipping included. All in all, I think the whole thing turned out pretty well, and Adam is ecstatic about it!

Cobra H.I.S.S. Tank

I was one of the lucky folks who recently picked up the G.I. Joe Ultimate Battle Pack for a whopping $13.87 at my local Target. Since I never really cared for the red version of the H.I.S.S. tank that came with it, I decided to repaint it. And then... because I was repainting it anyway, I decided to try something different. The upper half of the body was spray painted with a dark OD green. The then applied thin strips of painter's tape to mask off some erratic lines. Then, I spray painted it again with metallic green flake. After peeling the tape off, I re-assembled the entire tank. You may notice that a couple of the stickers are missing. This is because they were removed for painting and then did not cooperate entirely when I tried to put them back on. Overall, I am pleased with the way this turned out. Part of my keeps wanting to replace the dual cannons with a large caliber-machine gun (something with cooling holes drilled in the barrels). I consider this to be finished for the moment, but if the right idea strikes me, it'll be back to the workshop!