Colorizing History

I recently became aware of a Facebook entity named "Colourising History". It's a site that displays historical B&W photographs "re-imagined" in color by people who digitally paint them.  I did this myself manually, with special tints, back in the day of actual photographic film and printmaking. It lends a peculiar aspect to the picture, since the palette is extremely limited and the technique relies on existing line and shadow, which show through the tint.

I actually found Colourising History through another entity, called "Tank Lovers." I've been a military history nut from of old, and yes, I love tanks! Tank Lovers shared pictures from Colourizing History that spoke to its focus area.

Since I like photography, tanks, and digital techniques (in that order, by the way), I resolved to try this out. A question regarding "how" was answered by this video:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwnuhpI6c_I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Armed with that and my copy of PhotoShop Elements, I've made these, among my first tries.

Abandoned StuG, photo by Staff Sergeant Robert E. Mingus

The photographer was the father of a longtime friend of mine, Scott Mingus, who, among his many attributes, is a Civil War historian & author.

I don't know the provenance of this photo, but the plight of these tankers spoke to me! I guess that since the
driver got them into this mess, he's elected to bail them out of it.

But he'll need more than his helmet!