My first kit after 15 years
Jan 07, 2007
 

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After a long hiatus I'm back to where I started - Static models.

However I used to do 1:72 scale planes. Now, with a couple of years more and a much worse sight I had to choose something I could actually see. I decided to have a go at 1:35 armor kits.

Why armor? Well, because they are beautiful pieces and in our days the degree of detail is outstanding and the choices on the market are huge. I was amazed with the quality of what we have now. The choices of Photo Etch alone are mind boggling.

Being sort of a perfectionist I could not be happy with an Out of Box build. And after many hours in the Internet looking at other people work and news in the world of modeling (there are a few after 15 years) I found lots of stuff I had to use.

The vinyl tracks on the kit are the correct model for this kit but they look unrealistic. Link by link tracks were very appealing and I ordered a set from Friul. The time it took me to make the first track was enormous but I don't quit.

I had to try all the techniques and tricks on the first model , so that the second could be a masterpiece.

I've never weathered a kit in my life and in this I used pigments, washes and all sorts of tricks and techniques one can use.

The Eduard PE Set

The worst part of it all was the PE set from Eduard. There are parts in there that are almost impossible to see, but I decided that the kit would have ALL it took to look good. And I applied everything on the Eduard set.

The number of small attachment points on the back of the turret is enormous and each one is no bigger than 2-3mm after being bent 4 times!!!. I don't know how many I lost, but luckily the Eduard set has a few to spare.

The rear of the turret took the biggest part of the time spent and I had to make sure that all the detail would not disappear due to being poorly glued. I managed to do that and in this picture you can see the result after applying primary to the turret.

Friul Tracks

The tracks were another daunting task. Link by link, one after the other. In 1 hour I managed to join 5 or 6. The holes were not opened and the pins would not go in. The pins are little pieces of wire that bend very easily. A true nightmare till I got used to handle the process.

The second track took less than 2 hours to complete. Taking into account that the first one was a project in itself and lasted for 6 or 7 hours, you can see what I managed to increase in efficiency.

Painting

Not a problem here. After all I'm very at ease with an airbrush and the tank is one color only. No big deal. The color is from Xtracrylics and it's excellent in covering ability.

Several very fine layers of the base color and after that some highlights of a lighter shade and that was it.

A wash was applied of very diluted acrylic brown to highlight all the recesses on the hull and on the wheels. Very nice to do and creates depth that could not be achieved in other way.

The weathering was done with CMK pigments and since it was my first kit and I was not very sure on how to do it, I kept it light.

I've seen models that are ruined due to excessive weathering and pigments an I don't want to go that way. Nothing drastic, just enough to be credible.

The kit is now waiting some retouches. I've perfected these techniques on my second tank and I want to enhance the appearance of the final product.

Weathering

Pigments... I never thought that a company could sell dust in a small jar so that we could put it on top of our models. The models that took hours and hours to build perfectly are now eligible to be covered in dust that we buy for amazing prices.

However, to make a model credible, to give it little something that differentiates a mere well painting kit from a true miniature some weathering has to be done.

Being my first kit I didn't have a clue on how to go it, and I went looking for answers. I saw the most amazing examples of beautifully weathered kits and some that I wont even want to remember.

The are guys that think that weather makes more damage to a tank in 6 months than the sea makes to Titanic in 100 years. The extreme look on some kits that I saw at least had one virtue. I was SURE I didn't want to anything that could look remotely like those kits.

I used CMK pigments, and pastels applied with brush and in some places with a little turpentine to fixate them to the surface. The wheels were weathered with acrylic paint diluted in water to simulate a more red(ish) dust on the read wheels and tracks.

What was used in this kit

Tamiya Bradley M2A2
Eduard set for Bradley
Friul Tracks
Xtracrylics color
CMK pigments
Raw Umber and Black  oil washes

Photos taken with Canon EOS 60D and Speedlite 380 flash