Israel

It went something like this: - The Paint: for airbrushing, I use (almost) exclusively Tamiya acrylics thinned with 95% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. Vallejo (thinned with tap water) is my preferred brand for brush painting. - The Color: usually I don't make a fuzz about the exact color. I just eyeball it, then mix and match till it looks (more or less) like the right color according to my references. Because of the scale effect, I tend to use a base color which is about 20-30% lighter than in it would be in reality. - The Painting: unlike most AFV modelers, I like to work in sub-assemblies. Because of the small size of the kit, I've departed from my usual approach and assembled it fully before painting. I'm also a big fan of color-modulation, especially when it comes to monochrome-schemes like this one. As far as I remember, the base color was XF-20 (medium grey) mixed with XF-23 (light blue), about 1:1 ratio. I've mixed some coarse and fine salt with a little bit of water and covered some parts of the running gear, the dozer blade and the hood (I think I've repeated this step a few times...) I've added some more XF-23 to the base color and sprayed the vertical surfaces. For the horizontal surfaces I've added some more blue, as well as some white to lighten up the parts where the natural light would fall. Then I've carefully removed the salt with a brush and kit the was ready for weathering. - The Weathering: I'm totally old-school when it comes to weathering. Despite all those fancy weathering products available nowadays, I stick to oil-paints and artist's chalks. The kit was filtered with a mixture of some kind of brown (cant' remember which one exactly) and black oil paints thinned with odorless turpentine to about to 1:10, applied to the whole kit with brush. To my humble opinion, matt surfaces absorb filters more uniquely then glossy ones, resulting in a more balanced appearance. After letting it dry, the kit received a coat of Future/Klear to seal and protect the work and prepare the surface for the pin-wash, which again was done using oil-paints, slightly darker and thicker (about 3:7) than the filter. To enhance the chipping-effect even further, I've applied some scratches with a very small pointed-brush using my ultimate chipping-color, Vallejo's "German Camo Black-Brown". Since I was after a dark-dusty appearance rather than a muddy-one, I've applied lightly the appropriate "home-brewed" pigments (artist's chalk) direct onto the lower parts of the kit (without any fixer), followed by a light coat of similarly-colored acrylic paint (which in turn, fixed the pigments) resulting in further enhancement of the dusting-effect (frankly, I think I've slightly exaggerated that part...). Finally, the kit received a coat of matt lacquer. I know, it's a lot of steps, but painting/weathering is my favorite part of the hobby and I think those slight differences do show their added benefit on the finished product, even when the kit is as small as this one (half of my palm). I've used similar techniques during this build:

Thanks, mate! Unfortunately I don't have any WIP photos, but I can write about the build if you're interested...

Thank You Sir, much appreciated!

Beautiful, love the fading!

Superbly realistic! Well done!

Thanks, Mrs. PlaStix. You've done a great job with yours. Now I'm just gonna have to build an equally beaten up Zero for companion...

Thanx Stix, you're way too kind... Weathering was 100% old school: no fancy powders, special washes or other sci-fi formulas, just good ole' artists oil paints and home "brewed" pigments from artists chalks... Cheers, Israel

Thanks guys, much appreciated!

As for now, I'll pass on Pands's kits: almost every one of them seems to have serious issues. Despite this, yet you've managed to build a piece of art out of it. Now, that is class I do not have...

Yet another masterpiece...fantastic build!

WOW!!! Instantly reminded me of this: "An alternative form of vertical take-off"...

Simply stunning. It can easily be mistaken with the real thing...

Masterpiece! Agree with your opinion on the latest Tamia kits 100%.

Excellent build, great diorama! How did the kit go together? Looks quiet OK OOB...

Beautiful little chap!