I have painted a lot of stuff over the years, learned to paint cars in the mid 70's. The goal was always to make stuff look good. A lot of those skills apply just the goal is different. You want it to look good just not in the same way. Once I got a good way through the process it still seemed lacking something. So back to searching what was missing. It was the added items. None of the pictures I had saved were bare tanks. They all had stuff like supplies on them. So I started to look for ways to ad the things in the pictures. First thing I made was the gun brush. Its 1/8" tubing with a piece of pipe cleaner in the end. Then came the log. I walked around the yard (8 acres of woods) and looked for something that looked like birch. Cut off some small branches and settled on the one I used. So then I needed something that looked like a tent or tarp. I did not have anything green but there was a picture of a tank in winter camo so I had something that would work for that. They are the cotton bags for putting hardware in that have the tags sewn to them. Off with the tags and tie string and rolled em up. Added some dirt as I added it to the tank and it worked out fine. The tow cables I used 3/32 galvanized wire rope that had been hanging on the wall for years. Pulled the copper right out of the fittings and drilled them to just over .100" and did a little countersink on the end to make the cable go in easier. Slipped them on the ends of the cable with a little super glue and they worked out good. Mixed up a little rust colored paint with water to make a wash and put a couple of coats on the cable to give it some age. The bucket is a plastic cap off a 1/4" pipe fitting with the lip cut off and a piece of safety wire for the handle. It has a little brown stuff in the bottom and a few shreds of white paper towels. The process of making the added items was a lot of fun. I have a big chunk of 1 1/2 bar stock and plan on making some fuel drums to go with it.
Jimmy