Today has been full on at the bench. I started by giving the Rhino a blast of mat varnish after finishing off the oil fading & streaking last night. The effect is very good and shows a nice amount of wear without going over the top. I then carefully removed the masking on the drivers windows and turret cupolas.
I then moved onto the Husky and painted all the shiny bits like the rams on the hiab and fitted all the lenses. I also added the bars on the rear light casings using fine lead wire then picked them out with the hull colour. All the periscopes also got a coat of gloss varnish to finish them off.
So the Husky is now ready for final mud & dust which I'll do using a combination of airbrush & pigments. The Rhino now needs all the lights added & painted before loads of dust!
I have spent most of the day building the tracks and what a tedious job it was. However that's now out of the way and I can concentrate on the fun stuff. No idea how many links I used per side but I was getting close to running out of guide horns as a few disappeared into the carpet.
Each run had a bit of sag added but not too much. I may leave the side skirts off as there are plenty of references showing this to be the case. Once the tracks have dried I'm hoping to remove them in one piece for painting, well that's the plan!
Stuck at a loose end yesterday whilst waiting for paint etc to dry on my other three models on the bench at the moment I decided to get stuck into this one. I just could not resist the very appealing camo scheme and the sheer weirdness and size of the model. The only fly in the ointment is the tracks, you all know my loathing of single plastic tracks & this kit is no different in that respect.
Every link needs a separate guide horn added. As there are no alternatives, even spade ace my usual saviour when it comes to PLA vehicles does not make a set, I just stopped grumbling and got stuck in. By gluing the guide horns on the tracks whilst still on the sprues and doing this in small chunks I have so far managed to save my sanity.
Saying that I still have 103 links per side to sort out, bugger! Luckily the rest of the kit is really nice and the main hull builds up really well with only a few areas needing a smear of filler later on. Anyway enough of my waffle, here's the progress so far.
And the real thing with the very fetching camo pattern.
Whilst the spay booth was out this morning I went and gave the model a blast of primer. Now the difficult decision needs to be made regarding the colour scheme. I'm leaning towards a fictitious camo pattern but have yet to work out the pattern or colours I'll use. However I'm looking forward to that stage as it's a bit of artistic license.
I've now completed the oil dot fading & streaking and this morning have sprayed the model with Matt varnish. I'm very pleased with how the fading & streaking has turned out, it adds more depth to the single colour finish. I've also sorted out a pallet and load to sit beside the model on the base.
Once the varnish has had a couple of days to fully cure I will then start adding all the light lenses and paint the hydraulic rams chrome. Then it will be onto pigments to finish the weathering.
I've now added a few filters and a couple of pin washes to the models. A long task due to the rhino's massive size but the details are now starting to stand out. The next stage once the latest pin wash dries will be some oil dot fading and streaking.
I'm still searching for a suitable figure to go with the rhino but I have plenty of time as the weathering is going to become more involved as I progress.
I've spotted a couple of new items soon to be available which I'm very pleased to see. The first is a new weathering product from Wilder called aqualine. It's a acrylic/water based range of weathering colours which can be reactivated with water. They look very interesting and being acrylic have none of the smell or toxicity of normal enamel based washes or filters. They are not out here in the UK yet but I have been told that www.scalemodelshop.co.uk will be stocking them once they are. I'll be getting some of these when they are to try out. Wilders web site has details of the range, AQUALINE.
Also a very nice set of releases are due from Accurate Armour to convert the Takom FV432 into four different versions. The sets are a peak turret, MCV, as used in the Berlin brigade, Swingfire & ambulance conversions. I particularly like the peak turret & swingfire sets and they all look to be very easy to use conversions. Also a bonus is the inclusion of decals. Lets hope AA bring out more conversions for the 432 in the future.
