What's on my desk? Part 16.
Hi all.
This week I've been making calls with a supplier of certain wargaming figures... More info to follow.
The Mercedes 300SL is finally, completely done. Even though I'm not entirely happy (there's way too many dust motes left in the paint), in the end the model looks great. Here's some pictures.
First off: outlining the trunk. If I hadn't done this, it would not be immediately apparent that there is a hatch there. I used some old Mig Neutral Wash, which may be a little bit too dark. A grey Panel Line Wash might have been better. On the other hand, the engine bonnet outline is also quite dark.
The doors and engine bonnet can be posed open or closed.
The gullwing doors allow for a detailed look inside the interior.
I added the '300 SL' license plates.
In all, I enjoyed making a car model for once. It made for a nice change. It's a good addition to my modelling experience and knowledge, something I feel I need in order to advise my customers better.
Back to the other end of the paint finish spectrum: weathering! More specifically: chipping paint. I've been thinking I went about it the wrong way with the ARL. You're supposed to chip the paint before you apply mud and dust. So this is what I did on the still-clean side of the tank.
Chipping is relatively easy to do, but takes some time to do right. There are several ways to do chipping. One of the easier ones is using a sponge, or better: some black packing foam.
Tear off some small pieces, then using tweezers, dip them in a lighter shade of your base paint, wipe most of it off, and push it on the surfaces of the tank that would see the most paint damage. This is the first layer. Once dry, take a small paint brush and add a small dark brown patch of paint on the inside of the larger sponge-applied chips.This makes your model look like it's made of steel, instead of painted plastic.
I actually made a mistake at first and used the dark colour on the sponge... I went back with Tamiya XF-82, which is a nice bluish grey complementing the French blue of the base coat, then used Ammo-Mig 0044 for the dark chips.
Here are some areas where the effect turned out pretty good:
Turret corner and mantlet:
Glacis plate, especially the top corner:
Side plate:
The largest spots can have some rust streaking down, carried downwards by rainwater. That's something for next week.
Some shop news: I'll be taking some days off at the beginning of May. Thinking of opening May 1 & 2, then close until May 8. I'll put a message on the website and socials.
May 11 (a Saturday) we'll be organising another wargaming session: Napoleonic era this time.