SoftScience

Hi all, I'm finally ready to begin my small contribution to this GB. This is Tamiya's 1/48 scale Matilda. It's a fairly simple kit, and I'll be adding a few scratchbuilt details. I'm currently unsure about paint and markings yet. The options provided by Tamiya are each missing a few markings (and the color call outs seem way off), but also, I'm not sure I got it in me to mask and paint a caunter scheme. I'll be on the look for other, perhaps simpler options. Not quite, Tamiya. Not quite. I don't know. There's something classy about a solid colored Matilda. One thing I'll need to add is the rack that was found on the back of most Matildas (Matildae?) I've seen. I don't know that I've seen any photos from the North African campaign showing tanks with the big fuel cylinder that Tamiya includes in the kit.

Well done, and good luck with your studies. But don't forget to have fun, too.

Each one of these is gorgeous!!! The figures look great too. The pilots in the cobra are especially striking. Are they scratchbuilt?

That does sound rather convenient. Which version do you have? I'm really floored by the quality of the photos compared to my latest Google pixel phone, which seems to have worse depth of field algorithms than my earlier phones did. As for photography on cloudy days; that's one silver lining to your UK weather, I suppose. But I do agree. Back when I lived in the Pacific Northwest, about 11-12 years ago (my, how that time has flown), I used to get incredible outdoor photos on cloudy days. We don't get too many of those in the DC area, now. More frequently in late fall and winter, but even then, this is a really sunny part of the world. Not a bad thing, mind you, but certainly not as good for photography. Anyhow, I'm going to see if I cAn find a second hand iPad for a decent price. I think I'd prefer that to a complex dslr camera.

this is fantastic!

Always excited when you have a project. I've been meaning to ask; what do you use for your camera? You always take such nice sharp closeup photos.

The setup is simple but very effective. Do you add any kind of retainer for the brass tube into the model?

I really like this. The aardvark looks so cool with it's wings spread, and all that red interior flappage showing. I only wish the Hasegawa kits weren't so impossibly hard to come by these days.

And now back to armor. All this masking and precise line keeping reminded me why I stopped building planes.

Here is my build of Eduard's little Z-37 Čmelák (bumble bee) agricultural aircraft. Mine is built as a machine flown in what was then Czechoslovakia, as a seed-sower and crop-duster during the 1980s. It is a fairly simply kit with near perfect fit. The only thing I would have designed differently would be the main gear legs, to make it possible to instal the wheels into the completed and painted leg/spat assembly. Some of the paint schemes call for multicolored legs/spats/hubs. The whole assembly is so tiny, requiring you to either prepaint the differently colored parts before assembly, or try to get a brush loaded with bright colors in between some very tiny spaces. The kit was painted with Tamiya Lemon Yellow, and Gunze Shine Red, both over a white primer coat. Beneath was a white primer to enhance the brightness of the colors, but beneath the white was a second black primer layer, laid down to add some depth and definition to panel lines without having to rely on washes. I think I like this approach more for small scales. No clear topcoats were applied to this model. This was also my first experience with Eduard's new decals with the unintended stick an peel "feature". I found it worked fairly well. I lost only a few patches of ink on the Czech flags on the tail. I don't really build a lot of aircraft anymore, but this was a fun, bright and clean palette cleanse after several months worth of drab dirty armor model projects.

I'm totally doing snow on a future build, and I'm copying you.

Thanks all for commenting throughout the build. It was much appreciated. I finally wrapped things up. A few pics here, and glamour shots in the GB gallery. I'm really proud of the wheel and track weathering. And while I don't love the overall look of the tow cables, I like how the battered end, showing some civilian colors coming through, stands out from the boring around it. If you're wondering how I finally made the special teams markings - I just used MS Powerpoint to draw orange octogons and used size 11 Arial fonts, then printed it in color on regular copy paper. Cut out and white glued on. The real ones were pretty basic too. Again, thanks for following along. Thanks to the GB hosts for giving us tanks fans a fun activity.

Every column of Leopards needs some defense from helicopters and other flying nasties. So here we have a Flakpanzer Gepard, built from the Takom kit, in 1/35 scale. The model is a composite based on photos of gepards from the Reforger NATO wargames in 1984. Very fun kit to build and paint. You can view my build thread and more photos of the finished model here.

Educated, and reasonable

What do you use to get those consistently thin strips of masking tape?

That is one rusty tank! How well is your paint sticking to those vinyl tracks? That's always a point of anxiety for me.

Cheers, Stix. The model is ostensibly finished now. There are some final touchups and I stil need to add the wargames team badges. I'm trying to determine what font those need to be printed in (on orange paper, and cut out). Ideas? Meanwhile, a bit of a preview.

Thanks, man. I'm just copying a bit of this and that from the excellent guide written by @Andy Moore for his Leopard build on The Modeling News page, while choosing colors to more or less match the weathering visible on the links I posted on page 1 of this thread.

Hey all, I was a bit lax in taking progress photos during the mud-making stages over the course of the last week and so can only present the 90% completed results. I basically did all this with two Mig earth effects products; Dry Steppe Splashes and Dark Mud. These are very highly thinned enamels with texture particles suspended in the paint, so they dry kind of powdery and pigmenty. I daubed on the dry steppe color first, let dry, then scrubbed with a hard brush. I then mixed both colors, about 3:2 and stippled that around recesses and elsewhere, where the mud might still be a bit more damp. Finally, I flicked the dark mud color off brush bristles with a toothpick, to represent splashes of fresh mud higher up the hull, and in a few select locations. Finally. I applied small dots of both colors and scrubbed them into the paint, on the rear deck, and in other high traffic areas to represent mud tracked by the crew. All of it still needs a little neatening up now. Just because it's dirt, doesn't mean it can be done sloppily. also pictured: the only good use for those little Testors paint bottles really need to blend in the darker mud colors on the rear plate. time to start adding on all of the missing final parts, soon. some fuel and oil stain effects and the weathering should be all done.

what exactly do you mean by "mapping"?

Not much advice I can offer, as you have a very well developed and beautiful weathering style all you own. One thing I'll say is don't sweat the shine in the paint. The semigloss contrasted under dead flat earth effects will probably look realistic. I looked at photos of Canadian leopards and they're not entirely non-specular.

That's going to be fun to simulate that mud. Actually fun, not metal tracks fun.

What is it about Aussie camo that makes any tank look instantly cooler? It looks great on your leopard. I also had no idea that Australia uses (used?) The leopard. Learned something new.

I like the drab color you achieved. It captures the tone of an early 80s era photograph. Very appropriate for the subject.

That's such a cool, weird looking variant! Glad you found some good barrels. This needs to get built!