Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 7 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: For what its worth Badder im 🤞my fingers hoping the airbrush comes back. Thanks CFFU,  I left the airbrush to soak overnight, with air bubbling from the nozzle (I set the compressor at maximum 6 bar. This morning I tried to get it to work again, but still no joy. I swapped needle assemblies and, as previously, they were even worse. I thought I'd give it one more go, soaking the whole thing in almost pure bleach. 20 mins later I put it all back together and hey presto! It's now working properly! I guess there was some gunk in there somewhere throwing a spanner in the works.  However, this episode has convinced me to purchase a new airbrush - something I have been thinking about for quite a while now. So far I've been unable to put aside any money. I'm looking at something around the 200 quid mark. With my stash now totalling a mass of plastic that should last me until my death, (I'm not expecting to live much past 65)      I'm thinking that if I stop buying models I can afford an airbrush in a few months!  Now then, let's see if this Aztec really has risen from the dead so- I can crack on with the assembly of the lower hull!  Rearguards Badder   2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfingers Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Aye up Badder.  Good result with the Aztek!  Regards  Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 9 minutes ago, fatfingers said: Aye up Badder.  Good result with the Aztek!  Regards  Steve It is indeed Steve!  Including an overnight soak, that was 18hrs of trying to get the thing to work properly but actually making it worse. This morning I'd basically given up, but gave it one last try with the bleach. If that had failed I was planning on breaking the thing apart to see if there was some internal mechanical fault! No doubt that would have been the demise of my Aztek So, it's a good job I rarely give up!  Badder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 Okay, I'm going to disappear for most of the day, painting all those bleeding rubber tyres! Â I'll be using the old 'Stick the wheels on the end of a cocktail stick, paint the 'treads' then use thinned paint to paint the tyre walls and allow capillary action to draw the paint around the rims' technique. Â Boring, boring, boring, tedious, tedious, tedious, dull, dull, dull, yawn, yawn, yawn, will this never end, sigh, sigh, sigh...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Hi Badder. I'm glad you managed to get your airbrush sorted and good luck with the afternoon's tyre painting!! I took a photo of the spare lifting rings from my kit but they aren't really suitable anyway - they are uneven - so they fit onto the mantlet: They are yours (if you want them) if the sprue stretching doesn't work - but I'm sure it will. Kind regards, Stix  1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 2 minutes ago, PlaStix said: They are yours (if you want them) if the sprue stretching doesn't work - but I'm sure it will. Kind regards, Stix Cheers Stix,  The one I lost fits centrally, from the turret top to the front edge and is curved slightly more on one side than it is the other and with a thicker 'weld'. I am not worrying about making that just yet, but will bear your offer in mind.  Thanks again, Badder,  Now, do I paint this rubber flat black or make up a grey-black? hmmmmmmm.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Hi badder. I paint mine with Revell's Anthracite first then weather with various washes of medium and light greys. Kind regards, Stix 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 @PlaStix I mixed Tamiya's Flat Black with Imperial Japanese Navy Gray XF77 at a ratio of 4:1. That seems to be about right to my eye anyway. Not too worried about the accuracy as there's going to be a lot of filth on this build!  And I've got the tyres painted extraordinarily quickly! Job already done, barring the 6 smallest return rollers which are still on the sprue and untouched. I'm just about to do them though. Should be a simple and quick job!  Rearguards, Badder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 (edited) Rubber tyres painted. If you can't read the post above due to your dirty screen, I used a mix of Tamiya's Flat Black XF1 and Imperial Japanese Navy 'Gray' XF77, in a ratio of 4:1.  Most of the wheels were on cocktail sticks to aid the process, painting the 'treads' first and then using a thinner mix to run around the tyre walls and 'capillary-in' to the rims. Eeeew! Some messy bits in the photo above. No worries though because this lot is going to get 'well filthied up!'  Meanwhile, the road wheels with the 'axles' were placed in the HVSS units and painted in-situ.   TFL Badder Edited January 30, 2018 by Badder 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 (edited) Dry-fitting of HVSS units, the larger return rollers, sprocket wheels and idlers.    Someone complained how fragile and insubstantial the mounting points for the HVSS units are in the Dragon kit. Well, I don't think the Tamiya ones are much better. Okay, the actual vehicles had these very small areas of 'contact', but there's no reason why Dragon, and indeed Tamiya, couldn't have made stronger joints by using a pin and receiver arrangement between the mountings and the suspension units. That's my only complaint about this kit, and it is a minor one.  Once I've got the smaller return rollers done, everything will get a coat of gloss varnish in preparation for the first of the washes.  TFL Badder  Edited January 30, 2018 by Badder 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfingers Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Aye up Badder.  Great tyres. Really like the paint mix you've used  Regards.  Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 2 hours ago, Badder said: Someone complained how fragile and insubstantial the mounting points for the HVSS units are in the Dragon kit. Well, I don't think the Tamiya ones are much better. Okay, the actual vehicles had these very small areas of 'contact', but there's no reason why Dragon, and indeed Tamiya, couldn't have made stronger joints by using a pin and receiver arrangement between the mountings and the suspension units. That's my only complaint about this kit, and it is a minor one.  Yep, that would be me. I agree with all that you say. Mine is an early Dragon, so I don't know what the later Dragon HVSS units are like. They should be OK, so long as the tracks aren't tight and pull on them.  John. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefy66 Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Coming along very nice and neat for now when do you get to the muddy bits   beefy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Looking good.....Another advantage of the Bralle 'build the lot, spray it black, then patch in the colour technique', no fiddly tyre painting! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted January 10, 2018 Share Posted January 10, 2018 Nice going Badder your motoring along nicely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 2 hours ago, Bullbasket said: Yep, that would be me. I agree with all that you say. Mine is an early Dragon, so I don't know what the later Dragon HVSS units are like. They should be OK, so long as the tracks aren't tight and pull on them.  Hi John, I bought my first Dragon kit about 18 months ago.... a StuG IV. I assumed it was a fairly recent kit, but when I got it home it turned out that the 'Imperial Series' of Dragon AFVs was well over 20yrs old and I'm pretty sure that the box (on a shelf which needed a step ladder to reach) had been in that shop for all that time. It wasn't a bad build at all, except for the spoked idler and the sprocket wheels. The inners and outers on both failed to match up, so the spokes on the idlers and the teeth on the sprockets went out of synch. It was impossible to rectify the sprockets, but I managed to hide the worst of the out-of-synch section inside the curve of the tracks, while I filed down the misaligned spoke-halves on alternate sides and got them looking okay, if a little on the thin side! , It did put me off Dragon for a while, even though I knew mine was an old kit. I know Dragon make some great kits nowadays, but I think I shall stick with what I know and trust. Good old Tamiya.  Rearguards, Badder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 1 hour ago, beefy66 said: Coming along very nice and neat for now when do you get to the muddy bits   beefy Hi Beefy, I've just got to paint the centres of the smallest return rollers and that'll be the lower hull ready for the start of weathering tomorrow. The hull section will get varnish and washes to start with, then mud, snow, ice and bits of straw/grass. The HVSS units will get a similar treatment 'off the model', and then all will be assembled. More dirtying up will hopefully tie everything together. .  I'm looking forward to it TBH!  Rearguards Badder     Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 3 hours ago, fatfingers said: Aye up Badder.  Great tyres. Really like the paint mix you've used  Regards.  Steve Cheers Steve, It was a bit of an experiment TBH. Looking at photos of Shermans 'on display' the rubber has degraded a bit and appears a lot greyer than Tamiya 'Rubber Black' . Washes will obviously alter the colour a bit.  Or a lot.  Rearguards, Badder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 33 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: Looking good.....Another advantage of the Bralle 'build the lot, spray it black, then patch in the colour technique', no fiddly tyre painting! Ah Sarge, but what about the times when the rims stick out a fair way? The rims have to be painted on the outside as well! Far more accurate and easier in that case to spray the whole wheel the base colour then paint the tyres up to, but not including the rims.  I'll be going back through all your builds to find examples of your 'laziness'.  Rearguards Badder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 39 minutes ago, Ozzy said: Nice going Badder your motoring along nicely. Cheers Ozzy. I've got a fair bit of PE to do yet. I'm putting it off because it's going to slow me down to 1/35th speed!  Rearguards, Badder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 3 hours ago, Badder said: I'll be going back through all your builds to find examples of your 'laziness'. You won't have much luck.....Photobucket saw to that.  I've got pictures of two models, maybe three on an old Picturetrail account and I think my Iraqi Bf.110 may be on Imgur, other than that it's all gone.  BTW I sort of do as you describe, but I just let a bit of thinned greyish brown flow around the wheel rim from a fine brush, it stains any OD overspray sufficiently that the eye/mind will do the rest at typical viewing distance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 Nice bit of painting there badder, i shall try that paint mix, it looks pretty good from here, I'm doing the same as sarge on mine and painting after assembly, may regret that though on the wheels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 11, 2018 Author Share Posted January 11, 2018 8 hours ago, Hewy said: Nice bit of painting there badder, i shall try that paint mix, it looks pretty good from here, I'm doing the same as sarge on mine and painting after assembly, may regret that though on the wheels. Thanks Hewy, I considered that, but as most of my wheels were on cocktail sticks it was easy to paint the tyres there. It's a case of holding the brush on the tyre and rotating the stick. You can do the same with the wheels assembled on the HVSS units so long as you glue the inner and outer wheels together, but not to the unit, thus leaving the wheels free to rotate. The reason I didn't do that is because I want my wheels to be non-rotatable and I didn't fancy getting the glue where it needed to be. Far easier to glue them permanently fixed during the assembly stage. Having said that, I did use the HVSS units to hold those wheels with the long 'axle' during tyre-painting, simply because those wheels don't have holes in which to stick the cocktail sticks.  Rearguards, Badder  1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badder Posted January 11, 2018 Author Share Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) HVSS units and hull assembly glossed with Winsor and Newton Galeria Gloss Varnish in readiness for the first of the weathering. First, I'm going to fade some of the OD using yellow-green enamel washes. Â Â TFL Badder Edited January 30, 2018 by Badder 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 2 hours ago, Badder said: Winsor and Newton Galeria Gloss Varnish  Looking good. Aha, another Winsor and Newton user  Unfortunately possibly bad news for you on the Atzek (looks very similar to the A430). I had an A470 years ago and the sticking pin problem (that pushes the nozzle pin) has become infamous. I know of 2 other modellers who had the same problem, it's a design fault in the body and I'm not sure whether body can be prised apart. Aztek (aka Testors I think) had a lifetime guarantee and one of my friends got it mended under guarantee only for it to break again. All I can say is don't force the trigger if it won't move, I did and it broke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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