What's on my desk? Part 79.
Greetings!
I've made some good progress on both the Tortoise and BT last week, so let's get right to it.
The Tortoise received a matt coat and some oil dots. This week I've attached the spare track links and exhaust, and have dusted the model with pigments.
Here's a picture of the same angle as last week. You can see the dust on the fenders and slightly more dirty look of the green base coat (yes, the cops are outside my window; no, they weren't there for me :-) ).
I went around the vehicle, depositing 'Europe Earth' pigments in the corners and panel lines and rubbing them in with an old, formerly fine paintbrush, then blending and cleaning them with a wide flat brush. Here's a pic with better lighting:
I also found a picture of the little exhaust thing on the back of the casemate (a heater?), showing it wrapped in heat-insulating tape, so I cut off fine strips of cheap masking tape and did the same on the model. It stands out a bit too much, so I'll give it a brown wash later:
The tracks received a liberal dusting with the mixed pigments out of my 'dirt box', followed by a metal drybrushing over the protruding parts which would have made contact with the ground/road. They didn't break off this time!
In all, the weathering is kept pretty light.
Not so on the BT-42. This is a wartime vehicle, having seen heavy use. I'm trying to show a wet muddy tank here. Using just one colour would not look very realistic, so I used three Ammo Mig Heavy Mud effects. Starting with 1701 Thick Soil and 1703 Moist Ground, as a dry-ish undercoat, with 1705 Wet Mud over this as a glossy wet texture.
This was then splashed with 1754 Damp Earth, using a toothpick and a stiff brush to create irregular spots and splashes. I'll do this again with 1755 Wet Ground to build up the colours and effect. This is how it looks like now:
I find it pretty difficult to make this look realistic. I'll look up some photos of dirty BT tanks to check how the mud slides off and where it stays mostly behind. Of course, the BT tanks have big wheels, so a lot of this will be hidden later.
Speaking of the wheels, here they are assembled and painted:
Obviously, these too will need an application of the same mud colours and effects. Tracks also have been painted and drybrushed (although the metal colour chosen may be too light and shiny):
Alright. To do this week: tow cables for the Tortoise, maybe some last details/repairs/fixes/improvements.
Further weathering on the BT, installing wheels and tracks, start weathering the topside, because of course that has to be done as well. I'll need to look up some pictures to see how and how much these things got dirty in the field. Thank Tim Berners-Lee for the internet!
That's it.
See you next week!