After much masking, painting and waiting for it to dry the paintwork is now finished on the model bar a few little touch ups. Very happy with the tones of each colour, some oil fading & dust washes later will work a treat to lighten the tones slightly. The figure also works very well with the model & I've made a start painting him.
After a blast of primer I've started the paintwork on the model but immediately hit a bit of a snag. After spraying the first colour I masked up in preparation for the second colour and found that the paint lifted off with the masking tape! Bloody annoying so I had to strip the model back to bare plastic & start again. Luckily VMS clean slate easily stripped the paint off very quickly.
So this time around I added a few drops of tamiya clear to the paint in the hope this time it doesn't lift once masked. I'm using the Starmer mix for the caunter scheme & the first colour of Portland stone is made up from 6 parts XF2, 1 part XF3 & 1 part XF57. The figure for the model has also arrived and here I spent a fair bit of time cleaning up seams and pin holes. However I think it will work well with the model on a nice base.
The masterclub bolts arrived yesterday which meant I could get the build finished with the simple application of them to the turret. It looks loads better now & the model should be in primer by the end of the day.
Well that's the model essentially finished apart from adding the bolts to the turret. The brackets for the front headlights were quite fiddly to clean up due to the delicate nature of the parts and I did manage to break both parts but luckily glued them back together. Some lead wire for cables finished these and the fender lights off nicely.
A quick delve into the spares box sorted out some stowage in the form of flimsy cans and a couple of german jerry cans as well. Some plastic strip then made up some racks for the flimsy cans on the running boards and that's about it. I've also found a nice figure to go with the model which should be here soon.
Very swift progress on the model yesterday with the main body and associated parts all done. In the end leaving it in sub assemblies proved to be a non starter due to the way the running boards and front fenders are fitted so I fixed it all in place so it all lined up correctly.
Spent a fair amount of time adding woodgrain to the rear sections and improving the two stowage boxes. These on the sprue have some bad casting blemishes so I sanded them back and then added new lids and hinges etc with plastic card. Finally I've had a look at the turret and found some bolts that need replacing next to the amour plate joint lines. An easy fix which I'll tackle once some new masterclub bolts arrive.
Next on the bench and being built partly for a GB over on Modeller's haven online forum is this rather smashing armoured car. As you know I do have a thing about these cars having built the Lanchester & Romfell from Copper State Models. There is just something about them that ignites my imagination so to build this kit in a later paint scheme really floats my boat.
I'll be building it as an early WW2 version as seen in the desert campaign so it will be in the caunter paint pattern which is one I really enjoy painting. I started last night and already have a rolling chassis to show for a few hours work. I'm hoping to build this in sub assemblies for ease of painting later on as well.
This morning I made up a small simple base for the model. Nothing fancy just some groundwork and grass painted up and finished with pigments. However it shows off the model nicely and brings this build to an end.
As usual the kit was simple to build straight out of the box with no additions made at all. The fun for me was in the painting and weathering which really help to bring out the superb detail engineered into the kit by tamiya. It's also helped to reignite the modelling mojo which is a good thing!
Finally I've got round to applying the final weathering with pigments. It's taken a while due to other more pressing matters and yet again a massive dip in my modelling mojo!
So first I started by applying some VMS pigments to the tracks then added some worn metal effects with graphite powder and a pencil. The lower hull was then lightly weathered with pigments before fitting the tracks in place. The rest of the model has again been finished with a light application of pigments. Just a little bit more needs to be done before I can sort out a small base for it.
Finally got the matt varnish on this evening after a few sessions of oil fading. Again keeping it subtle I mostly worked on fading the horizontal surfaces using light grey oils. This has lifted the areas worked on giving more interest to the monotone colour. A few days to cure now before pigments & final assembly.
