Model Mate

Gorilla clear glue has become my go-to for dials and lights too as well as fixing canopies - it's good stuff for this sort of thing.

Nice start - I love a Whippet! I scratchbuilt one a while back, so it'll be good to see how the pros have tackled it in detail.

nice chipping, and top tip, thanks!

The white drybrush did help to tone down my oil washes as hoped, but also at the same time really helped the rivet heads “pop”, so I’m pretty pleased with it. I added a black oil wash to the ammo boxes and drybrushed them with a lighter green and then a buff colour to help them stand out in what will be the gloom at the back of the ‘car. I also painted the dash a buff colour and then some undiluted brown oil using a stiff brush to get some woodgrain effect. I added a dial from a spare decal, applied a little black oil wash and picked out details in grey acrylic and gold sharpie pen for the bezel. I was keen to get the interior done and the body fixed together, so glued the wall panels together and started on the external detail. Firstly, the extensive handrails that run around the sides of the car. Followed by a few handles and hinges. I gave the seat and controls a lick of brown and washes/drybrush and started to make up a steering wheel. I’d tried using plastic rod for this, but it just wouldn’t hold the circular shape, so I’ll try using copper or lead. This needs to be in place before the floor can be fixed on. I made up the bonnet/nose section and this allowed me to pull it all together for an overall mockup – getting there!

looking really great now! Will you be sculpting hands?

Ahh! - top tip, thanks. I assume they were a rubber colour (grey) too?

It's only very slightly squishy - it takes a bit of force to mark it - squeezing with fingers won't do anything, but a metal tool will mark it pretty easily compared to "solid" plasticard for example.

I’ve been working in the smaller return wall, to test everything out before I tackle the main facade, and after a few more bits of plasticard and paper, I’m happy that this is pretty much done. Here’s how it looks connected to the front. And so on with the front…. First carve the bricks where they’ll be exposed. 2mm horizontal lines and 6mm vertical. Then 0.5mm plasticard vertical strips and paper (the spray mount has bled through a bit, but not a problem). ….cut out the doors and windows. Here’s the current mockup on the base after I glued on some sills. I’ve started cutting out the joist support holes on the inside, but there’s a fair bit of exposed brick to be carved out on the inside wall yet. I’ve already done this for the return wall, but the main one still needs doing.

Very brief update, as I’m separated from most of this project for a little while and I need to let oil paint dry – extra boring to watch, as it takes forever. After the white enamel dried, I sprayed a couple of coats of Klear, diluted 50% with water (and a tiny drop of washing up liquid). This was followed by some dark grey acrylic sponge chipping, concentrating mainly on the doors and handles and which I managed to keep relatively restrained thankfully. Due to the rattle-can primer and the very matt nature of Humbrol white enamel, the best I could get was a satin sheen, and unfortunately this has a tendency to “grab” oil washes and stain the whole lot rather than allowing a nice sharp detail pin wash. Not so much of a problem for the brown oils as they’re useful to provide overall dirt staining, but a bit of a shame for the black, which would be better just running neat lines and rings around rivets and straps. Once the oils are fully dry (which will take a while), I’ll try a Vallejo dry-brush as I did with the gun – it worked rather well for that, so I’m hopeful it’ll tone these panels down a bit as well. In the meantime, while I wait for the oil washes to dry sufficiently for a drybrush, I’ll paint the fantasy dashboard acrylic tan colour followed by a brown oil wood-grain streak/smudge and a drop of black for the single dial – maybe a left over dial decal if I can find one that fits.

I sprayed the whole thing with a couple of coats of Klear (50% diluted with water) and then got the decals on. They are super thin and settled down perfectly with a drop of micro-sol – probably not necessary, but a force of habit. I’d love to try this one with a hairspray-chipped winter whitewash, but some of the gun cleaning crew have their tops off and I doubt they’d be sweating and sweltering away in a Stalingrad winter, so plain green it is. I picked the version with the funky graffito on the glacis of course; couldn’t resist. I’m really rather disappointed with my chipping. As someone mentioned previously, I do tend to go a bit overboard with this sometimes. I’ve been using the sponge method, but the trouble I seem to have is that I get hardly anything from the sponge, so press a little harder and before you know it there’s a dirty great splodge of grey acrylic that can’t be removed (or at least not easily) and this then “sets the bar” for the chipping everywhere else and lo and behold, I end up with a totally knackered look. I’ve had greater success doing this on a white background where the chips can more easily be seen as it progresses, but on dark colours like this, it’s really hard to see how it’s going. I saw zliu013’s excellent Tiger…. …and read that he’d used pencils – plain old HB for the grey stuff. I may have to give this a go. I’ve tried it in the past on hairy-planes, but found the pencil would slip pretty easily and it often ended up looking like I’d just scribbled on it – which of course I had. I would also consider hairspray, but it seems a bit excessive to undercoat and hairspray a whole tank just for a few localised chips. Anyway, live and learn – I’ll persevere with this one as it is at least for now and try something new next time. The inside is chipped and weathered to buggery, so I guess the outside would be in a similar state and there’s always drybrushing, mud and dust to hide the multitude of sins. If anyone out there has some useful hints and tips on how to perfect the sponge method (because when it works, it can look great and it SHOULD be quick and easy), I’d love to hear them. I viewed a night-shift chipping tutorial online and he mentioned that if your acrylics are a bit heavy, they can be scratched off using a toothpick. I gave this a go and it came off pretty easily – unfortunately so did the gloss coat, the base green and the preshasde. In other words, I scratched back to the grey plastic – grrr! Oh well, it’s an improvement over dark grey splodges, so I’ll carry on. I think washes and dirt will help it blend in ok.

Very ambitious, and very successful. Great work all round!

lovely and dusty - great result, and it looks much bigger than I suspect it is - a sign of true realism.

HaHa! No, they're duds - no explosives on this build.; well, apart from glue and thinners I guess. Thanks for the positive comments - scratchbuilding can be a bit funny when it comes to detail, especially where there's very little info about what the various parts look like. Making it up can be challenging, but freeing at the same time.

Paint time at last! I fixed all the hatches on using a drop of Klear as a temporary glue and masked the insides of the etched grilles. I sprayed a black enamel pre-shade coat. And followed this with some white highlights, limited to the upper panels Then on with the olive drab. Tamiya acrylic this time. I coated the whole lot, then lightened it a bit with some light yellow/green and highlighted the upper panels and turret. The pictures look a fair bit lighter than the real thing, and I went back to the airbrush after these were taken to touch up the wheels where they’d spun ‘round; I’d made an effort to keep the wheels spinning when I was gluing it together to make painting the tyres easier. It’s since had a gloss coat of Klear ready for decals, sponge chipping and oil washes, which will be the next thing to do.

Minor update – I broke out the airbrush and fist sprayed some black enamel pre-shading on the interior panels. This was followed by a coat of white enamel. And while I had the Tamiya olive drab out to spray my M3 Lee, I painted the ammo boxes. Chipping and washes next….