Model Mate

I don't have any problems with oil washes (lots of white spirit) over Vallejo acrylics....

wow! that's one tatty tank - lovely weathering.

I do like very much....! The Tamiya kit still builds up a very nice model as you've proved - excellent attention to detail, nice stuff.

A slightly hotch-potch update as the little bits get a little bit of attention… The figure got a matt coat and that sees him pretty much finished. I selected a few bits and bobs from my selection of WW1 figure kits; backpacks, binoculars, helmets and so on, and got them ready for paint, adding metal foil strap extensions to allow me to hang the bags from the perimeter handrail. The other ancillaries I need are – Wooden sand boards to hang from the side (a cut-down, trimmed and oil paint stained lolly stick) POW petrol cans Vickers guns. I’d tried using a blue-stuff mould and milliput for the guns and cans, but the results weren’t great, so I broke out the silicone and resin casting kit. I was worried that I might get bubbles trapped in the mould, so I glued thin rod onto the parts to act as breather tubes. I pressed the parts I needed into a block of plasticine and poured silicone over it, inside a rough box made up of plastic (HIPS) sheet. I used too little catalyst, and so it took ages to go off, but thankfully did eventually, and with no bubbles. The mould was reversed and the second half cast, using decanted and brush-applied hairspray as a de-moulding barrier between the silicone halves. I tried to make sure all the rubber was covered, without touching the parts themselves, and it worked! The curing was much faster this time – I probably added too much catalyst this time as it went off very quickly. This is my first attempt at two-part moulding, and it’s been pretty good – certainly better than the blue stuff effort. The gun handle was a failure though unfortunately – it just wouldn’t sit neatly in the mould for the second pour – but it shouldn’t be too difficult to scratchbuild for each gun. I’ll knock out a few more copies and get it all on board before final weathering.

Brilliant work - looking ofrwardd to the paint, though it's a bit of a shame to hide all that great metalwork!

exemplary work - very nice indeed. As others have said, it'll be great to see with some paint on.

Thanks chaps, it’s nearly there…I’ve really enjoyed this build!

I accidentally posted this update in the diorama section - oops..... I haven’t done a great deal since the last update, but I got the wheels on, so couldn’t resist getting a couple of pics up to mark the occasion! I finished the decaling – fiddly! The small numbers on the engine box should have in three lines, but the letters were a little too large for this, so I employed a bit of artistic licence. I added scratches using….scratches. In this case, the grey primer is a slightly lighter grey than the main paint, so I simply attacked areas by scribbling and dabbing with the tip of a scalpel. I’ve found recently that I’ve been using wood to model wood, brass to model brass and so on, so it seems a sensible approach. This was followed by a black oil wash, then a little burnt umber and burnt sienna. A drybrush of slightly lightened grey went on the wheels and a few spots like hinges on the body. The tyres got a lick of enamel dark grey and it’s now ready for a matt coat.

Oops - wrong page..... I'll post this in the armour WIP as intended.

I haven’t done a great deal since the last update, but I got the wheels on, so couldn’t resist getting a couple of pics up to mark the occasion! I finished the decaling – fiddly! The small numbers on the engine box should have in three lines, but the letters were a little too large for this, so I employed a bit of artistic licence. I added scratches using….scratches. In this case, the grey primer is a slightly lighter grey than the main paint, so I simply attacked areas by scribbling and dabbing with the tip of a scalpel. I’ve found recently that I’ve been using wood to model wood, brass to model brass and so on, so it seems a sensible approach. This was followed by a black oil wash, then a little burnt umber and burnt sienna. A drybrush of slightly lightened grey went on the wheels and a few spots like hinges on the body. The tyres got a lick of enamel dark grey and it’s now ready for a matt coat.

I feel your pain, and I'm probably in a similar position re oils/acrylics for figures. At the moment, I've been azimuthal pre-shading (like you) using enamels, spraying/hairy-stick painting acrylic for the block colours and then using oils for shadow wash(es) and this approach seems to be working for me for now. Your Tommy looks pretty good if you ask me - I think with a judicious oil wash he'd look really good - stick with it! Vallejo IJN brown seems to be a decent match for WW1 British uniforms I think by the way. For the flesh bits, I've been using Vallejo "medium flesh" and "basic skin tone". The medium flesh is a bit well-tanned, so I mix with the other (which is a light pink - modeller's sun tan) for the base coat. Then the shadow areas are the medium flesh, darkened a little with some brown, and the highlights are neat "basic skin tone". A burnt umber wash goes quite well over this, which is just as well, as it's also what I wash the uniform with. The uniform then gets an additional wash with slightly darkened burnt umber (or raw umber instead). If you leave it for a couple of hours and then "dry-brush" with a clean, slightly-white-spirit-dampened flat brush, the highlights get cleaned back to the base colour. Finish off with light matt varnish and it all becomes clear. But really, stick with what you're doing; the tank looks fantastic, and the figure doesn't look out of place. I'm sure you'll end up with a brilliant overall result.

Here comes the dust and dirt…. I used a cheap atomiser bottle to squirt very dilute PVA all over the building and then used a tea-strainer to sprinkle grey plaster powder and tile grout all over it. I squirted more dilute PVA all over this to wash off bits and sprinkled cat litter on. It was an incredibly messy process, but quite fun. I’m reasonably pleased with the result.

I sprayed a couple of coats of klear all over the truck, but the grey enamel I used is very, very matt, and a bit grainy, so the best shine I could achieve was a slightly satin finish. I brush applied a bit of neat klear where the decals are to go in an attempt to avoid silvering. And on with the decals…. These have an overall carrier film rather than individual bits around each letter, so careful trimming was needed, but they went down really nicely with a drop of microsol. It seems RAF aircraft don’t use the letter “I”, so these were “L”s with their legs cut off. I used the left-over legs to cut down into dots to apply between each letter. The “OHMS” still needs these applying. It was all very fiddly, so sticking the dots on after the letters seemed a sensible approach after faffing around with the first “C.I.” The figure got an overall spray of Vallejo model air IJN brown, followed by helmet/face/hair etc. detail painting and then a generous wash of very thin burnt umber oils. I’ve found that repeated applications of this, sometimes with a bit of black added, and “dry” brushed cleaning using a thinner-moistened brush between applications do a pretty good job of filling in the shadows and picking out the highlights. It all gets very shiny though so can be a bit hard to tell how it’s progressing until it gets hit with a matt coat.

All as the others have said - very realistic finish, great job

Very, very nice indeed! The weathering really brings what is a simple vehicle and simple colour scheme to life.