Jump to content

Personal WW1 Group Build: MkIVs & Whippet


Kingsman

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Das Abteilung said:

I hope you mean thumb up!  Finger up can have an entirely different meaning here .................😲😁

 

It all starts out promising, then has a habit of going a bit wrong.

 

😀 I'm sorry I realized the double meanings.....Definitely I was thinking on this 👍

 

Going forward with this project is really promising do not stop😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really need to get these 4 finished: they've been hanging around for a while.  This one is the most complex with the camo.  The other 3 are essentially painted except for details and stowage.  I've done some washing and detail painting this afternoon since I posted the pictures.  More pics tomorrow, maybe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I think the tank proper is about finished after some washing, drybrushing, slight wear and chipping with a brown pencil (NOT graphite!) and a bit of oil staining.  Washed overall with MiG Neutral Wash, which is a mid grey, with their Cold Grey wash applied around the detail while the Neutral was still wet.  Oils stains are Mig's Oil and Grease Stains.  Several shades of rust paint on the exhaust.  Fuel stains with LifeColor Tensocrom Fuel.  Drybrush with Buff and Naples Yellow oils.  The pistol ports wore little arcs in the paint where they opened: brown pencil again.  Wooden boxes are a Vallejo pale wood colour, swirled with Revell's darker wood colour then washed with brown ink.

 

Time for tracks and mud.

 

b4dvhFn.jpg?1

 

SB3HXkm.jpg?1

 

tn8yYCn.jpg

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

This is a very delayed post. Like 3 weeks or more!  I thought I'd posted it, but apparently not.

 

I think I'm calling this one "done" after some mudding with one of the Vallejo mud-in-a-pot type products and brushing over with pigments.  I like the Mud and Grass (73.826) in Vallejo's Environment range as it has little bits of "vegetation" in it.  Many of the mud-in-a-pot type products just look like paint with sand in.

 

Tracks are dark brown, washed over with AK Interactive's Track Wash.  Spuds are rubbed with Vandyke Brown Metallic oil pastel, but it doesn't really show under the mud.

 

More pics over on "Ready For Inspection".

 

eoL1PDP.jpg?1

Edited by Das Abteilung
correction
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to prove this thread hasn't completely gone quiet (notwithstanding my very delayed post above!), Central Workshops are still in full effect on the remaining 3 tanks.  I was hoping to finish them for Sunday's anniversary but I won't get all 3 done.  The Male is last in line because of the complication of attaching the fascine correctly.  Whippet is at the front of the queue because there's less left to do.

 

ECNi9Uw.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Marco said:

I love the mud with plants and stuff in it. 

 

That's actually a product straight from the pot.  Mud And Grass from the Vallejo Environment range.  In this case, dusted over with some dry pigments too.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'm calling the Whippet "finished" and moving it over to the Ready For Inspection forum.  I kept the weathering light as Whippets were really only used once the muddy trench warfare had been left behind and are usually seen more dusty than muddy.

oqtyfT2.jpg

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

More progress on finishing the last 2 MkIVs.  The female needs the unditching beam and some loose stowage attached, plus a bit of mudding as it has the grousers fitted. 

 

The male needs the unditching beam and the fascine attached.  I was hoping to avoid gluing the fascine to the cab top, but I'm not sure I can secure it strongly enough just with miniature chains.  The rope (sewing thread) bindings on the fascine I used for building it should really be removed, but I have limited confidence that the chains will be strong enough to hold it without bursting at some inconvenient time.  It's based on I.51 photographed on a train, IIRC in the build-up for Cambrai.  I was looking for markings for a genuine fascine carrier: not all MkIVs could carry one.  The sponsons are retracted and sheeted-over and no serial number is visible in the photo, so I'm not entirely sure if it was a male or a female.  I can't ask the audience or phone a friend, so I'll have to go 50:50.  As it will be fresh off the train it won't be muddy or very dusty.

 

 

ORFBNVl.jpg

 

O1M4lcc.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Despite the arrival of a plethora of assorted new products, I still go back the the old-school Naples Yellow oil paint for highlight drybrushing.  IIRC that was a Verlinden innovation.  It has an almost magical property of working on pretty much any base colour.

 

Both had a good brown MiG enamel wash, brushed down with a serrated brush dampened with Abteilung matt effect thinners once dry.  That looked too brown on the male so I went over again with MiG's deep green wash and more thinners.  On these 2 I didn't use oil dotting for streaking.  But during detail painting I deliberately didn't take too much care over handling as that can add some random effects.  Before drybrushing, obviously.  I use a brown primer undercoat so any wear-through of the top coat from handling looks passably like the bare metal. 

 

Strangely, and uniquely so far in my experience, brushing down the enamel wash on the Whippet caused the acrylic paint to come off in some areas - despite a coat of matt varnish over the base colour.  As it was fairly random I just left it as areas of worn paint: I couldn't really repair it so I had to make something of it.

 

The soft and wooden stowages were washed over with various brown and green acrylic washes from the Warhammer Citadel range before drybrushing with shades of green and brown oils and then the Naples Yellow.  While not commonly used outside this genre, these paints can be really useful.  They also do some specialist drybrush and texture paints which can be useful too.  I use a 0.1mm sepia artists' pen to draw on wood grain over a base wood colour before washing.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Redcoat, I think that drybrushing is always appropriate for both picking up the edges and tops of details and for fading and streaking effects.  Paler shades of the base colour can be mixed up instead of using Naples Yellow, but I find that this is often much harder to see.  On the soft stowage I used several shades of green oils to bring out the folds, getting lighter and finishing with a little of the yellow.  Yes, one has to watch out for breakable bits..............

 

Yes, Soeren: it was a MiG Ammo colour and it had been thinned.  Seems to be a problem there.  I agree that oils are by far the best for drybrushing: although the dry time can be troublesome it has the advantage of giving time for re-work.  Remember to varnish over your enamel washes first or the oils will blend with them and remove them.  I put blobs of oil paint along the edge of a cartridge paper pad and leave them a couple of hours for some of the oil to soak out.  The textured paper is then used to brush off excess paint before going to the model.  Once you've done that a few times the paint will build up on the paper and you can then rub the brush over that for more subtle pickup.  Some oils seem to be particularly "wet" and need longer soak-out time.  Sometimes a lot of oil base comes out of the tube before any real paint: soak this away on tissue paper first.  I have a mixture of brands, mostly artists' oils I picked up at reduced prices in my local Hobbycraft reductions section.  I find the Abteilung paints to be very solid in the tube and sometimes very hard to squeeze out and I sometimes end up scooping paint out of the tube with an implement.

 

I find that the problem with drybrushing with acrylics is that they just dry too quickly unless you use retarder and a wet palette.  This is why Games Workshop came up with their special drybrushing paints in the Citadel paints range, which are almost solid in the pot.  The colour range is limited, but they do a sort of equivalent of Naples Yellow: Terminatus Stone.

 

I do like the latest Games Workshop painting system.  Colour primer, layer (base colour), colour wash and drybrush.  That basic principle, and indeed some of their paints, seem to work well on things like soft stowage.  I can't paint figures to save my life, so I don't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm trying to put together the unditching beams, but I'm having a little trouble working out the track attachments,  There are no clear photos and none of the surviving tanks have them as far as I can see.

 

This photo shows the basic configuration.  Larger chain for the stem of the Y with a shackle at each end.  Smaller chain for the arms of the Y with a ring in the centre to attach the shackle.  That chain was not large enough to go over the shackle.  This is all easily done, but I'll need to cut the kit plastic shackles to slip the chains over.  It is usually overlooked that 2 different chain sizes were used.

FWmfY0E.jpg

 

But as this picture of the beam on the Bovington MkIX shows, a special one-piece attachment was later used to join the Y.

OeyC1L1.jpg

 

The track attachments are not entirely clear, nor the method of attaching the chain to them.  The kit etched brass attachments are very weedy, certainly by comparison with the - probably overscale - grousers.  They scale out at 1/5": too thin.  I imagine they were at least 3/8" if not 1/2" plate as they would be subject to considerable stress in use.  They must also have had a loose end to facilitate attachment to the tracks, like the grousers.  So I'm thinking I'll make some new ones from spare grousers.

 

0RAttVG.jpg

How the chains attached to the track plate piece is trickier.  They do seem to attach to some sort of loop or ring at the end, but how exactly?  You can't cut high-tensile chain links and re-join them, then or now.  Shackles are commonly used, but I can't see one.  Another method is a hammer link, pictured below, but I can't find out if these were around in WW1 times.  This was basically a 2-piece chain link (or is it a double shackle?) joined with a hammered-in pin.  The last (and worst) option is to loop the chain through an eye or similar and then bolt the links together.  Remember, there was no welding back then.  The only options for joining metal were riveting or bolting, or hot-forging and hammering - which would destroy the strength of a chain even if it were practical for that use.  'tis a conundrum.............

BApIZSG.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is some impressive research and it continues being an extremely interesting blog!

I really like your WW1 series. If you need more stuff, I bought that WW! equipment and weapon set (the one u used by mistake) can post it to you, as I won't ever need it.

/Stefan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Stefan, but I've got more spare weapons etc than I know what to do with!  In fact I've cleared out some unopened packs of things I thought I'd probably never use on eBay.  Moving house shortly made me cast an eye over the stash: do I really need all this stuff?  Once these and the yet-to-be-started Lanchester are done I'll be leaving WW1 alone for a while.

 

I'm not an uber rivet-counter.  There's a fella on other forums who has done a very extensive re-work of a Takom MkIV, replacing lots of parts he felt were incorrect or which could be better detailed.  My skills don't extend that far: if I can't make something better, then I leave it alone.

 

But I am inquisitive about how things worked.  Often you look at something or read something and think "OK: how does that work, then?".  The fascine and unditching beams are cases in point.  I haven't seen one single MkIV or MkV model with a fascine or crib that has got the securing and release arrangements right.  Wrapping chain around the unditching rails would clearly not be practical and could only be released by crew climbing up on top - right on the edge of an enemy trench full of angry enemies with assorted weaponry!  But the information is out there.  Same with the kit unditching beam parts: they don't look right and have no chance of working.  So I thought I needed to do some more research on what they should look like.  Came up empty this time, but came to some better conclusions about how they must have worked.

 

And to my mind the whole point of forums like this is to share and encourage, not just to show off our skills.  And explaining "why" is just as important as explaining "how".  How else do we learn and pass on our knowledge?  And yes, that does mean pointing out errors and inconsistencies in models for the avoidance of others and the development of all.  Politely, of course.  I like this forum site because it doesn't seem to get into the angst-ridden (and sometimes, frankly, insulting) arguments that seem to pop up on some other forum sites.

Edited by Das Abteilung
correction
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'm calling this one "done" too and moving it over to Ready For Inspection. 

 

I took a big gulp before attempting the weathering.  My muse tank that I sort of copied (in the photo) had seemingly been through a lot of very wet mud - really just muddy water with very few lumpy bits.  That gave some interesting run and splash patterns, particularly running down from the top runs of tracks.  Not sure I got it really right but I don't think I can improve it now.

 

The few lumpy bits are Vallejo Environment Mud and Grass and the mud effect is AK Interactive Dirt and Dust Deposit in Sand Yellow.  There was a lot of yellow clay about that area and I wanted something that would stand out against the brown.  Very thin watery mud often dries to a very pale colour.  Those are my pre-prepared excuses ...........!  I tried a couple of ideas and different products for the runs but enamel seemed to work better than acrylic.  Something to do with surface tension, I imagine.  So I applied random areas of the enamel wash along the top edge and then "chased" them down the sides using an airbrush with just air.  The lower areas were done with a wide soft brush and the splats and splashes by flicking from the bristles of a stiff brush.  In that order.

 

"My" tank in the photo is completely unmarked (surprisingly many were) and I suspect might be green rather than brown.  But I went for the brown with the horn stripes.  The only other marking is a serial number: 2719 was a MkIV Female, and by sheer chance while looking for lettering I found a T number decal including "2719", so on that went.  The fuel can colours are speculative.  Officially, fuel cans were supposed to be black and water cans white, but most WO fuel cans seem to have been khaki.  Commercial cans were certainly used in their normal colours, and that's what I've done.  There are many images of vintage fuel cans on the web, although working out the date/period isn't easy.  The Panzer Art cans include Esso, Shell,  and Pratts brands.  Their Texaco ones are no good: not in the UK at that time.  As far as I can determine, Shell were red, Esso were blue or black and Pratts were bottle green or blue.  Branded cans were also painted khaki.

fYPx0Ou.jpg

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Calling the last one done now too.  More pics over on Ready For Inspection.  Kinda glad to see the back of them.  Note to self: don't do 4 at a time again!

 

The MkIV Male with a fascine.  Most of the build has been covered already.  As noted above, I.51 was photographed on a train at the railhead prior to Cambrai: at least I believe that's when.  No other markings.  So this was a real tank, was almost certainly green and really was a fascine carrier.  The others in this build have been grubby so I decided to keep this one "clean off the train" before moving up to the assembly area.  So it's been unloaded from the train, had the sponsons extended and the guns returned to battery and had the fascine changed from its transport lashing to the operational setup.  I read that the fascines were especially heavily fastened for the rail journey and moved further back on the rails.  For operation, the timber baulk at the bottom of the fascine rested on special rests attached to the front of the cab placed so that the fascine was balanced to roll forward on release.  The front chains were held on open-ended hooks on the hull front and the rear by a hook release mechanism at the back of the cab, through the central pistol port.  When released, it just rolled off taking the chains with it.

 

"Why are the tracks weathered black?", I hear no-one ask.....  Because railway yards were often surfaced with cinders, an inevitable and otherwise-useless and freely available by-product of steam traction.

rBI7bVY.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...