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Tamiya 1/35 M1A2 SEP TUSK


GazB

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Well, I've decided to try a WIP of my new M1A2 SEP TUSK (or Abrams Acronyms :P).

So far I've assembled components for the lower hull, minus the wheels, some components on the upper hull and turret, the reactive armour on the skirts, and the main gun. I then masked off the appropriate areas and gave it a coat of Rust-Oluem Terracotta effect for the anti-slip coating. Came out better than expected, but I think I'll need to lay some primer over it soon since the little grains in the paint seem to flake off fairly easy. Anyway, here's some pics of my work so far.

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That's all I've got for now :)

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Looking good. Is rust oleum a US brand?

Cheers :)

I think it is. Where I originally saw it, it was called American Accents. But I found this in my local Homebase and it appears to be the same stuff more or less.

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Update.

Primed the pieces and then gave them a coat of black, before spraying the NATO green (subsequently emptied all three cans in the process :o). Seems to be the odd spot where the green didn't hit or coat, which is a pain. Thankfully, most seem to fall where the camo pattern will be applied. You may have noticed even the ERA tiles are green. I understand these are usually sand coloured and even the Tamiya plans refer to this if you use 3-tone. I like three-tone better, so I decided to do the panels with that as well (and because it was cheaper than buying a can of light sand on top :P). I really should invest in a cheap but good airbrush. Seems like it would so much more cost effective than these cans, which empty in next to no time, have difficulty with coverage (the anti-slip needed spraying from multiple angles), cost £6 a pop, and stink the house out.

Anyway, here's some pics of my work so far. The figures need a little bit of touch up as well.

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Gaz

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BUY YOURSELF AN AIRBRUSH!

Regards,

Badder.

lol :P

I've been looking at a Revell set that comes with the compressor (About £80). Don't want to spend loads because I'm not going back into modelling on the scale (no pun) I originally was.

Edited by GazB
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lol :P

I've been looking at a Revell set that comes with the compressor (About £80). Don't want to spend loads because I'm not going back into modelling on the scale (no pun) I originally was.

I used to make models as kid, but couldn't afford an airbrush. I swore by brushes anyway. But later in life I took up doing artwork and an airbrush was a brilliant aid. Now I'm back making models again. The moral of the story: BUY AN AIRBRUSH. You can do more than paint models with them.

Regards,

Badder

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I used to make models as kid, but couldn't afford an airbrush. I swore by brushes anyway. But later in life I took up doing artwork and an airbrush was a brilliant aid. Now I'm back making models again. The moral of the story: BUY AN AIRBRUSH. You can do more than paint models with them.

Regards,

Badder

Indeed :)

I'll probably invest in one. Spray cans are too much of a pain to use (and expensive). Being able to use a little £1.44 jar for spraying would be awesome.

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I could not agree more with Badder, get an airbrush, you will not regret it.

I paid about £60 for a compressor and a badger copy airbrush. It transformed my painting over night. Smooth even coats with no brush marks can be achieved with not too much practice.My tip would be to buy some Cleaner and thinners from Ultimate. They are amazing for keeping everything moving and cleaning between colours and at the end of a session. You can spray acrylics and avoid the smell issues. I would buy a face mask to keep any airborne paint.

Buy one and ask questions on here if you get stuck

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I could not agree more with Badder, get an airbrush, you will not regret it.

I paid about £60 for a compressor and a badger copy airbrush. It transformed my painting over night. Smooth even coats with no brush marks can be achieved with not too much practice.My tip would be to buy some Cleaner and thinners from Ultimate. They are amazing for keeping everything moving and cleaning between colours and at the end of a session. You can spray acrylics and avoid the smell issues. I would buy a face mask to keep any airborne paint.

Buy one and ask questions on here if you get stuck

Yeah, the advantages seem to make it a no-brainer. I think I'll definitely be getting one :)

Thanks for the recommendations! :D

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Update.

Tank is ready for its camo. I've done some minor detailing (inside of the commander hatch needs a better coat) and dry fitted the side skirts, as well as the tracks. Gonna have a bit of a job masking off around the turret behind the ERA panels, but it should be manageable. I did a test with Maskol yesterday on the rear of the skirts to see if it affected the paint, which was sprayed on the day before. After the fifteen minute drying time, no effect. No effect after thirty minutes or an hour either, so I feel a bit more confident about using it. I also have an airbrush on its way. Just wish now I'd picked up some jars of NATO Brown and Black instead of the cans, heh :P

Anyway, here's a few pics of it currently. Camera keeps picking out some spots that missed the spray :(

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Gaz

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Good news on the airbrush.

As far as your paint goes you can decant some into a jar, let it off gas for a while to let the propellant leave the paint and then use the resultant paint in your airbrush. Yo may need to thin the paint again to use it. I would have a practice befor hitting your kit but it would save you wasting the cans. You'll have more control with the airbrush as opposed to the can.

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Good news on the airbrush.

As far as your paint goes you can decant some into a jar, let it off gas for a while to let the propellant leave the paint and then use the resultant paint in your airbrush. Yo may need to thin the paint again to use it. I would have a practice befor hitting your kit but it would save you wasting the cans. You'll have more control with the airbrush as opposed to the can.

Thanks for the advice, I did wonder about that :) The airbrush I'm getting comes with some thinner (Revell) suitable for acrylics. Presumably this would work with Tamiya stuff, although I am considering getting some of Tamiya's own at some point.

EDIT: If I were to use this method, would the Revell airbrush cleaning liquid be suitable, being that the canned paint is a lacquer?

Edited by GazB
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I would stick with thinning like with like. Tamiya can react strangely with other thinners. I haven't used revell cleaner, so it may be worth checking on the web before trying.

I kept it really simple when I first started with my air brush. I stuck to Vallejo for paint, thinners and cleaner. I got some tip drying which I sorted with some flow improver. Since moving over to the Ultimate thinners and cleaner I have not looked back. I have no idea what is in them, but they are supposed to work with anything. I think it cost me £12 for a bottle of each and they are both lasting well.

My routine is back wash with a few drops of cleaner, rinse with water, paint. When I finish I fill the cup with water and then pour it out rather than running it through the air brush. I repeat this until the cup looks clean.next I take the needle out, and clean it with some cleaner on a cotton bud. Always work away from you and be careful with the needle as it is very sharp. I then run some cleaner through the brush , reinstall the needle and do the back wash routine until everything comes out clean. Finally I run some water through to give things a final rinse. You can do a bit less when you change colours but I tend to err on the side of more cleaning.

It sounds like a faff, but you soon get into the swing of things.

Most people advise a full "strip clean an assemble" at the end of the session, but I avoid it since I snapped the tip off my neo airbrush. I only strip things down if I start having problem and since using ultimate cleaner things work really well.

Have fun when everything arrives

Edited by Yeoman1942
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I would stick with thinning like with like. Tamiya can react strangely with other thinners. I haven't used revell cleaner, so it may be worth checking on the web before trying.

I kept it really simple when I first started with my air brush. I stuck to Vallejo for paint, thinners and cleaner. I got some tip drying which I sorted with some flow improver. Since moving over to the Ultimate thinners and cleaner I have not looked back. I have no idea what is in them, but they are supposed to work with anything. I think it cost me £12 for a bottle of each and they are both lasting well.

My routine is back wash with a few drops of cleaner, rinse with water, paint. When I finish I fill the cup with water and then pour it out rather than running it through the air brush. I repeat this until the cup looks clean.next I take the needle out, and clean it with some cleaner on a cotton bud. Always work away from you and be careful with the needle as it is very sharp. I then run some cleaner through the brush , reinstall the needle and do the back wash routine until everything comes out clean. Finally I run some water through to give things a final rinse. You can do a bit less when you change colours but I tend to err on the side of more cleaning.

It sounds like a faff, but you soon get into the swing of things.

Most people advise a full "strip clean an assemble" at the end of the session, but I avoid it since I snapped the tip off my neo airbrush. I only strip things down if I start having problem and since using ultimate cleaner things work really well.

Have fun when everything arrives

This is probably gonna turn out to be something really simple, but what's a back wash?

I also ordered some Tamiya thinners today, which I hear can act as a cleaner as well :) (did consider the Vallejo stuff, but I didn't want to spend too much more [already spent a small fortune re-equipping myself]). I'll still have to look into what can clean out the canned paint that I can get my hands on. Don't want to mess with stuff that's too nasty since I don't have too many places to work with it safely.

Anyway, here's hoping everything goes to plan when I use it, heh :D

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Don't worry it took, me while to figure out out what it was.

Put your finger over the end of your air brush, turn on the air and gently pull back to put the paint will get bubbles in the cup. It seems to work by sending the cleaner back into the cup and cleaning the hard to reach parts of the tip chemically rather than by scraping

Edited by Yeoman1942
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Don't worry it took, me while to figure out out what it was.

Put your finger over the end of your air brush, turn on the air and gently pull back to put the paint will get bubbles in the cup. It seems to work by sending the cleaner back into the cur and cleaning the hard to reach parts of the tip chemically rather than by scraping

Aha, I see. Thanks! :)

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  • 1 month later...

Hey, long time no see :)

This is my first update for a while on account of me being a little nervous about using my airbrush for the first time. However, it seems those fears were unfounded. The process of thinning the paints correctly, spraying them and cleaning up afterwards was very simple. In fact I sprayed the entire scheme within maybe two hours, although I've done the odd touch up here and there and a little is still needed. I originally sprayed the tank with a can of NATO green, but once I put on the brown and black with the airbrush, the green had too much of a sheen to it (despite being matt), so I resprayed the green as well, thinning some of the camo down a little. I initially tried to mask off the brown with maskol, effectively ruining a brush (d'oh) but this left too hard an edge and an uneven coverage lead to random spots around the actual scheme. Cue me free-handing it, which turned out surprisingly well. Vehicle isn't completed yet, of course.

There's still a number of parts that need to be fixed in place, like the cupolas, skirts, forward HMG and CITV, as well as the light lenses and hatch windows, but I'll get started on that soonish :)

So I hope you enjoy the progress. I'm also curious if anyone else has seen a fully armoured TUSK completely painted in NATO scheme (could it be the first? :o [probably not :P]) Oh, btw. Does anyone know how to get a glue smudge off a clear part? Not entirely sure how it got onto it, but one of the commander ballistic shield windows got a mark that's quite prominent.

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Gaz.

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Welcome back Gaz.

Glad to see you have got on well with the airbrush. You were gone so long I was worried I had given you some duff advice :-)

I like your scheme. I have only seen TUSK in desert colours as it was the anti IED fit for Iraq.

As far as getting the glue Mark off I have had some success with rubbing down with ever finer wet and dry finishing with 6000 grit or finer. Then a dip in gloss varnish normally brings it back. I have seen some guys polishing marks out with a polishing disk on a Drexel tool but have never tried it.

If it all goes wrong you can always cover it up with a scale commanders map draped strategical over the smudge

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Welcome back Gaz.

Glad to see you have got on well with the airbrush. You were gone so long I was worried I had given you some duff advice :-)

I like your scheme. I have only seen TUSK in desert colours as it was the anti IED fit for Iraq.

As far as getting the glue Mark off I have had some success with rubbing down with ever finer wet and dry finishing with 6000 grit or finer. Then a dip in gloss varnish normally brings it back. I have seen some guys polishing marks out with a polishing disk on a Drexel tool but have never tried it.

If it all goes wrong you can always cover it up with a scale commanders map draped strategical over the smudge

Hehe, nah. Just nerves :D

I'll give that a look :) I had thought about using my pin vise to put a tiny hole in the centre of it to make it look like a bullet had cracked it, heh :P

Thanks for the tip and words, Yeoman :)

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