Model Mate

Here’s my latest scratchbuild - it took around 6 months in total which is pretty quick compared to my last one which took a year. It was a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. WIP can be found here…. Carro Veloce CV35 1/16 scratchbuild - Page 7 - Work in Progress - Armour - Britmodeller.com Built as usual from plastic card, nail caviar rivets and a bunch of plastic tube, rod, wires and so on. The only departure from my normal MO was the 3D printed tracks which are sublime, and thanks to tellell - I really couldn’t have done this without your help Tony, and I think I may owe you something for these - my girlfriend tells me you might have refunded her PayPal transfer. Please let me know if that’s the case and I’ll get a fresh payment to you. The props are, err, propped in place just for now; they’ll be fixed in place once I get the diorama underway. This part of the build is done, but the saga will continue with the figures and diorama, which will appear in due course in the relevant sections here on BM. That said, I’m still plucking up the courage to commit clay to get them started in earnest, so will have a palate cleansing kit or two done in the meantime. Finally, although this was 1/16 scale, it’s such a little vehicle that it’s only about the size of a “regular” 1/35 tank – here it is with my recent Panzer IV for comparison.

Last post (for now)…. I sprayed a very light Tamiya buff coat over the bottom half of the whole thing, followed by some yellow ochre and white mixed water colour paints washed into the recesses on the upper hull. Once dry, this was scrubbed back with a damp brush to leave a little build up of dusty dirt in various locations. Then onto pastels - a Sandy coloured mix of yellow, white, brown and black with a little pinch of tile grout mixed in for a bit of additional texture. I then sprinkled a few strands of autumnal static grass over the pastel patches. This lot was fixed using a white spirit wash with a drop of Naples yellow added. The roof hatches were glued in place - they’re supposed to open more than this, but the pry bar prevented them opening the whole way. Never mind; I like them up in the air like this as the rear deck is a bit more exposed to view. The tow cable and ropes were strung around the rear end to tie down the stowage and that was that. And that’s it - finished pictures arriving in RFI very soon. Mario and Luigi need some attention next. They’re looking decidedly undernourished, so I’ll be putting them on a diet of mamma’s good’a old’a spaghetti to fatten them up over in the figure section - come visit! It’s really not that far away!

Lovely paint work!

Lovely work on this one. When I did it, I made the mistake of trying to paint the tools and cable etc. separately and then stick them on after the main paint job, resulting in little tiny bits of painted photo etch pinging all over the place when I came to getting it all together, so I think you’ve taken the right approach by fixing them on first. Very smart.

Tips for airbrushing…. Well there are lots, but first is ventilation - you’ll need to be outside, or using an extractor. Aside from that, Tamiya acrylics are my go-to, using Tamiya thinner. You’ll need a compressor, preferably a quiet one with a decent sized tank, not a really tiny cheap one - they pump and won’t give a reliable air source. I use a pretty low pressure - around 5psi and a double action airbrush. Mine is Iwata and it’s fabulous, but there are some really nice cheap double action brushes around now. Have fun!

Stunning build, beautiful weathering and superb figures - the full house! Brilliant.

Thanks Steve - feel free! but don't expect professional results. I did a pair of 1/12 WW1 figures a while back (over in the "figures" pages). The WIP pictures are long gone unfortunately, but I think the RFI ones are still there.

This really will be the penultimate post before I finish this vehicle off, pinky promise. The tarps and bag got a spray of various Tamiya tarp/sack colours, a Sandy drybrush and some black and brown oil shading. I wrapped some of my rope around the bundles and painted the apples a base coat of yellow ochre. This was followed by some thin yellow, green and red glazes/blobs. Strangely, the apples stuck in the bag have come out better than the solo ones. The whole lot was superglued in place and the apples got a coat of undiluted Klear to give them a rosy shine - tasty! The guns (not these ones, but I painted them all at the same time) and the tow cable and hooks got a coat of rub’n buff mixed with Revell dark grey. I say dark, but the mix was pretty light and ended up more like pewter than gunmetal, so it was followed by a pretty dense black oil wash. Once it had dried, the cable hooks had a hairspray and Tamiya paint job, chipped, oil washed and silver dry brushed. The leather bucket and the water bottles were painted up next. The leather was done by painting the whole thing Revell leathery brown, dry brushing white on edges to show a bit of wear and finished off with a heavy burnt umber oil wash. All the straps are khaki - webbing. The actual guns I’m going to use had their wooden parts painted a creamy enamel colour (awful, oily, glossy and barely opaque gloop) followed by the usual dry application of streaky burnt umber oil paint. Following sage advice from Bullbasket, one of the apples has had a bite taken out of it…. I’ll do the sandy, dusty weathering, add the rest of the stowage and fix the hatches and the few little bits that snapped off earlier and that’ll be it.

I haven't caught up on this for a bit and you're storming ahead with some amazing detail John. I guess with 1/48 there's a temptation to treat it like 1/35 in terms of detail, but everything's that bit smaller. Brilliant work.

haha! that might test my sculpting skills a bit too much! Italian tankers in baggy trousers should be do-able, but a saucy hitch-hiker? Could be a bit too challenging!

yes - I might well do - the sitting chap might be tucking into a nice pink lady...!

Stowage time… I want to do a light dust spray on the lower section of the tankette before final pastel and water colour dirt and mud, but figured that I should get the stowage in place before this. I tend to add stowage after the main painting is done rather than before or during and also prefer to make it rather than rely on aftermarket – besides which, I don’t think there’s a thriving market in 1/16 stowage, though I could be wrong. Making it is really easy and something I thoroughly enjoy too. I wrapped the rear deck on the vehicle in clingfilm to protect the paint, and then soaked pieces of cut up tea bag fabric in a mix of diluted PVA with a few drops of black acrylic paint included. The soaking material was folded and rolled to create the blankets and tarps, held in shape with black wire. I also made an open bag/sack. On reflection, the rolled blanket is a bit small – closer to 1/35 scale or alternatively a 1/16 scale large hanky or picnic rug maybe – oh well, nevermind – little tank, little blanket. I then made some milliput apples with wire stalks to fill the bag. There were a couple of apples left over so I’ll paint them separately to scatter around the scene, and I also used milliput to make a couple of water bottles. I knocked up some fearsome looking towing hooks with twisted wire cable, some rope using three strands of embroidery thread, soaked in PVA and washed in burnt umber oil paint, and a leather bucket from wine-top foil. And that’s it for now – all the stowage bits ae ready for priming/painting. Oh, and I added a tiny copper chain and cap for the rear drive housing.

Lovely camo, and the colours look spot on. I really like the foliage too - top job!

Absolutely sublime work as usual - brilliant detail. The fact that you can even see, let alone contemplate refining sausage fingers at 1/35 is frankly beyond me!

22 quid! Wow, zvezda really are good VFM. Looks nice. I’ve only done one of their armour kits - 1/72 T35, and it was very nice. Your Sherman should be pretty good too I’m guessing.

Ahh, yes. There are a lot of “bargain” knock offs out there…..

I’ve seen some cracking builds of this - it does seem to be a lovely kit. I’m sure you’ll do a great job. you’ve got a couple of others to finish off though….

Thanks Dmitriy; it’s been a pleasure to do and share too!

Yes - sort of. I used to have a narrow boat, but upgraded to a 12’ wide beam (70’ long). It’s pretty big, but display space is a bit limited.

What's next? Well I've got the figures and diorama to do - they'll take me a while. After that I've got a bunch of smaller scale kits (not much display space on the boat!) that I picked up at Telford.... Not sure about the next scratchbuild to be honest.

Big update….. Once the Klear coats were dry, I applied my usual Burnt Umber slosh-wash, followed by burnt umber and a little black pinwashes. Just a note on oil washes; I know a lot of folks recommend leaching the linseed oil out of paints on a piece of cardboard, but on my last build, this caught me out a bit, so I reverted to my usual “out of the tube” oil paints. The reason for me is that the linseed oil increases the drying and therefore working time, allowing me to blend washes and clean them up much more effectively, with the paints remaining workable for a day or so. This really helps where the underlying paint is as gritty (actually, more like pebble dashing than paint!) as in this case, and the washes spread really badly across the surface. For pin washes, I apply and then leave for around ten minutes. They can then be wiped clean using a Mk1 pinky, occasionally moistened with white spirit, cotton bud and/or using a drybrush technique with just clean thinners. I tried putting the wheels and tracks in place to check the fit – I’m happy, and here’s how I might arrange the figures. I took it apart again and with that done, it was chipping time, and a bit of a departure for me – it’s nice to try different approaches. Normally, I’d just apply dark grey “Kevin” chipping before the oil washes, but this time I figured that lighter yellow plus dark grey would suit. Partially because I’m guessing the green and brown camo would have been applied over yellow on the real thing, partially because it’s 1/16, so justifies the two-tone chipping detail, and partially because the base colour (or thereabouts) will contrast nicely with the now darker, oil-washed surface. Next I added some rain staining by streaking off-white oil paint over the upper and lower hull. The clamps, once painted and Klear’d were glued in place along with the shovel and pry bar. The clamps then got some oil washes. The number plate was carefully given a couple of heavy, neat Klear coats to seal the paper, followed by the usual burnt umber. I stuck it and the clamps in place with little balls of green stuff and superglue to allow a bit of movement while I jiggled the tools in place. Meanwhile, the jack was hairsprayed and air-brushed with a sandy (but deliberately not matching) Tamiya yellow/sand colour. This was then chipped and oil washed. I’d been really happy with the tracks and their rusty staining, but they need some dust, so I used the highest quality water colour I could lay my hands on – joking! – the cheaper the better for these. After washing them in this mix, the dry paint was scrubbed back using a toothbrush. I also splashed a few stains on the hatch tops and a bit of the upper bodywork. Just a test really; I’ll do more on the rest of the bodywork later. Water colours have an indefinite working period, as they can be re-activated with water anytime, using cotton buds, fingers, brushes etc. to blend, scrub, clean etc. I stuck the wheels and tracks back on after applying some graphite to the sprockets and idlers, using copper wire pins to secure them to the body. The guns were painted using grey enamel/Rub n’ Buff mix, and buffed a little and the headlights stuck in place. In other news, I ordered some hands from Royal Model, and heads and guns from Reedees miniatures. The heads and guns have arrived, and very nice they look too. I finished off the camo of the first of my Tamiya test-bed chaps. Not brilliant I confess. So not far to go with the little tankette now – a dust spray, some stowage and more mud and dust generally.

I don’t think the employment situation regarding emotional support was quite the same back then, but he does look like he could do with an arm round his shoulder. What was up with the Stalingrad figures? - they’re normally up there with the very best. I love the streaking, particularly on the storage boxes.

Some very nice scratch work on this one . Excellent! Looks like a decent kit to start with too.

Well I’ve splashed a couple more coats of Klear on, with an added drop of Vallejo yellow ochre. I’m not sure it’s made much difference; maybe a tiny bit, but it’s not really noticeable. No matter – the oil washes and dust will blend it all in time. Meanwhile, I got started on the figures. A while ago, I drew some figure charts and templates for a variety of scales, so I made up the armatures to suit 1/16 and added milli-green sections for the main body parts. This is for a few reasons – 1. So the legs/arms etc. don’t bend along their bone length, but only at the joints 2. to prevent the clothing creases “eating into” the poor chap’s actual leg 3. holding the shoulder and hip connections together I don’t bother with a neck; I find that adding a head later is easy enough and a neck pin just gets in the way at this stage. I also continued with painting the first of the Tamiya chaps. They won’t appear in the final diorama, but they’re good practice and a good guide for my sculpting. I like these boys – unlike a number of resin figures I’ve see in the past, they’re not sculpted “over the top” with madly sharp and deep clothing creases and exaggerated facial features. I find it interesting that figure modelling often seems to adopt the “looks great” as opposed to “looks real” approach. A bit like Hifi systems sounding “nice” as opposed to “accurate”. We wouldn’t countenance this in our vehicle models, so I wonder why we do for figures? – hmm. Anyway, I spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening painting his base uniform colour, puttees and boots. I bought some Vallejo retarder recently and it makes quite a difference, allowing some degree of blending for shadows and highlights. I also added a bit of oil washing (hence the shiny – not yet dry – boots). Figure painting is an area I really need to work on, but I’m pretty happy with this so far. That’s it for now, except to say that I’ve decided to go to Telford on Saturday, so if any of you chaps are there, hopefully we might bump into each other.

I’ve got this in my stash - actually, it IS my stash; I don’t tend to collect kits, and I’m taking plentiful inspiration from what you’re doing here - great stuff, and I’m really looking forward to starting mine!