What's on my desk? Part 73.
Last blogpost of May. We're getting closer to summer, and as per usual that means wind and rain. :-)
Some service announcements first:
- Thursday 29th is Ascension Day. That means a day off and a long weekend for a lot of people. I'll be opening the shop that day, so come get your supplies for the weekend!
- Sunday June 1st, on the other hand, there's the big KMK ScaleWorld event in Geel. I'll be one of the traders there, so the shop will be closed. If you'd like me to bring along a specific kit, let me know and I'll reserve it for you.
- June 22nd: the first airbrush workshop! It's about time I'd get this going, so I pinned a date (22nd is a Sunday, so we'll get an uninterrupted afternoon of airbrushing). More info on the Workshops page. Registration by email, please.
Allright, time for the build!
The Apocalypse is coming along nicely. With my airbrush setup, I can paint things as I build, not losing time hauling everything back and forth. Here's how that looks like (ignore the old shoes :-) ):
I've got my compressor below on the ground, a big box to catch overspray, and an improvised holder/cleaning pot in the form of a smaller cardboard box stuffed with some tissue paper. The top of the big box doubles as a shelf for painted pieces.
All very improvised, of course. It'd be better to get an actual spray booth and cleaning pot, but those are reserved for you, my dear customers. :-)
Anyway. The lights of which I spoke in the last blog need to be pulled through the hull and inserted into the headlight holders, like so:
The whole thing then clicks back into place, hiding the wires. Just be careful when painting that you don't cover the light bulbs. I did get some overspray on them, but was able to clean it off with some thinner and careful scratching with a wooden toothpick. You can see them here, pre-painting:
Once the lights were installed, I could re-spray the hull. The front received a new coat of primer, followed by a layer of Mig Steel, and then a complete cover over hull and turret of Mig 4BO Green. At this point the tank is a uniform green colour:
The edges of the sickle-and-star on the upper glacis were scratched with a wooden toothpick to make the steel colour show through:
Too shiny and not very realistic at this point. I'll get some dark brown chipping on there to improve it.
On to the turret, then. I'm doing a semi-realistic alternate history paint scheme, using 4BO green and white air recognition stripes. These were seen on Soviet T-34 and IS tanks during the last stages of the Second World War, when the Luftwaffe was all but destroyed and their own planes were more dangerous than the enemy, so it was deemed necessary to be easily recognizable from the air.
I first masked off the sides, using Tamiya masking tape in 6mm and 18mm. I didn't go around the whole turret, because on the back part there will be missile launchers installed and it didn't seem realistic that the crew would paint underneath those:
These stripes were painted on very roughly, using whatever paint (or whitewash) was available. They deteriorated quickly and I tried to represent this by using Mig Washable White Camo on the side stripes. Washable paints from Mig can be re-activated with some water and a stiff brush. You can make fading and streaking easily with these. The chipped paint was done with (again) wooden toothpicks:
Washable paint is better suited for fading and washed off paint. Chipping is better handled with chipping fluid and regular white paint. I masked again on the top:
Then a coat of Scratches Effect was used which, when dry, was covered with Vallejo Model Air Insignia White. This time, it's not the paint that reactivates with water, but the underlaying coat of Chipping Fluid (you can actually use hairspray for this, which is why this method is often called the 'hairspray chipping technique'). Using a brush and wooden toothpick, you can get scratches and chipping paint, like so:
I was a bit hasty and didn't allow the white to dry enough. That's not a major problem, but it allows for a little less control over the size of your chips.
For both methods of fading & chipping, you need to work relatively fast. The washable paint/chipping only remains re-activateable (is that a word?) for less than an hour. When allowed to dry thoroughly, it will be fixed. Which is a good thing, of course. You don't want your layers of paint to wear off even more while applying further weathering.
There's a lot of boxes, fuel tanks and additional parts to be added to the turret and hull. I airbrushed these separately to allow for weathering behind and under them and for more colour variation. I masked off some of these to brushpaint the straps:
The missile launchers were painted in 3 or 4 different shades of green, to provide some variation. They still need a flat coat. The fuel drums were first sprayed in Steel, to allow for some paint scratching. The fourth one will be painted reddish brown.
Finally, I really rusted out the exhausts:
Black primer, directly followed by Tracks Wash, sprinkled with pigments from my dirt box. The pigments were fixed with Streaking Rust and this was repeated with Light Rust Wash, mostly over the shrouds. All done wet-on-wet to allow for the colours to blend in to each other. Once again: colour variation! It may be a little over the top, but hey, this isn't a real tank, right? The challenge will be how to integrate this in the final weathering...
That's it.
See you next week!