Jump to content

1/48 Tamiya IJN Komatsu Bulldozer


Israel

Recommended Posts

Hello Folks,
Gotta love those gem-like 1/48 Tamiya kits: the detail is excellent, the engineering is top notch, the build is completely hassle free. My only complaint is the solid headlamps.
The kit was painted with custom mixed Tamiya acrylics using the salt technique, weathered with oils and pigments. 100% OOB

Cheers,

Israel

 

015_zpsu3x3grfq.jpg

 

 

016_zpsdyyu3s7z.jpg

 

 

017_zpsrlvoakqv.jpg

 

 

018_zps6g4azanm.jpg

 

 

019_zpscbjfh1up.jpg

 

 

020_zpsl2sqt4xn.jpg

Edited by Israel
  • Like 19
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Spitfire31 said:

The 'shrunk reality' force is strong with this one!

 

Artist's eye and marvellous technique hand in hand.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

Thanks again, Joachim. I highly recommend these 1/48 Tamiya kits. They're pure joy to build... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

This has been extremely helpful to me to see just what can done with the kit, I can't really comment on it being a simple kit to build as it's been my first  AFV, but I agree it has been enjoyable. I haven't the skill or facilities to create similar,fantastic, effects, but I wanted it to look fairly new. Thanks for sharing it!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Great work !! I did one last year and it wasn't nearly as weathered as yours is. All of my armor kits are 1/48 scale (mostly Tamiya) so I do try to pay particular attention to the 1/48 builds that are posted here. Maybe someday whenever my skills improve I'll try to do the intense weathering like yours is. Thanks for posting.          Bob H.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another thing of great beauty, I have started mine, if i can get it somewhere close to yours and Mrs P's I will be a happy wee Kiwi. Do you have any WiP photos Israel? 

I am looking for a slightly newer look than yours, back story will be a captured unit "adopted" by RNZAF and recently used.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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:

  

Edited by Israel
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all that, I am experimenting with those "fancy products" (well chipping fluid anyways) then I need to learn about Artists Chalks and where to buy them. This will be my first attempt at weathering so I am not expecting too much.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...