CROUCHING TIGER, FINISHED AND IN RFI.

[SleeperService]

It's worth going back and redoing stuff you're not happy with, it may annoy for a while but if left would bug you for years.

 

Turned into a weathering masterclass, I'm close to trying it myself but think I'll use Stix's summer method from the Patton STGB first.

 

Great work all round though, Rover should have encouraged your attitude among their staff.

[Badder]

13 hours ago, SleeperService said:

It's worth going back and redoing stuff you're not happy with, it may annoy for a while but if left would bug you for years.

 

Turned into a weathering masterclass, I'm close to trying it myself but think I'll use Stix's summer method from the Patton STGB first.

 

Great work all round though, Rover should have encouraged your attitude among their staff.

Hi and thanks SleeperService.

I really wanted to design cars, rather than be a Quality Engineer so in the end I left my apprenticeship. I don't regret it. A life up and down the  country and staying in hotels didn't appeal to me.

 

As for my 'weathering masterclass', I'd say this:

 

1. At many stages of the painting and weathering, certain parts of my Tiger have looked excellent. But I am always aware that my 'messy method' means that very few parts will remain as they are.

2. I have 'nailed down' certain techinques to get a certain look, and often experiment as well, discovering how to create 'new' effects.

But sometimes they go wrong, and can ruin what's gone before. OR they may look great but don't fit in with the character of the overall appearance.

3. I get many nice effects with my multiple layers and rubbing them back with wet, damp or dry brushes.

But it's time consuming, and sometimes only tiny bits of the underlying layers are left exposed in the finished model, so I wonder if viewers think 'well, he's gone and covered it all up, what a waste of time' or 'i preferred it how it looked 3 days ago'.

For example, today I've been working on the wheels of my Tiger which have remained unmasked and have been covered in many layers of spatter, overspray and cr@p. They ended up an overall and uniform shade of grey, So, I took them right back to their initial stage: very worn whitewash over 3 colour camo. It took next to no effort, just a large wet brush and slapping it on, letting it soak in and then rinsing, rubbing and blowing the sludge off. However, during this process there where times when the wheels looked great. They just didn't look right for the rest of the tank.

 

So, thank you for your kind comments, and for calling this a 'master class'. If you DO ever try to copy my techniques, then I'll be humbled, but a little embarrassed, because it'll be like the blind following the blind. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't really know what I'm doing, I just keep doing stuff, and other stuff until it looks right. haha!

 

Pics as proof to follow.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[Badder]

Earlier today I kinda finished the chipping of the engine deck and thought I'd call the weathering finished, even though it probably isn't. I replaced the Balkencruz on each side and then moved on to adding more whitewash and washes to the front deck. I was going to do some more chipping on the frontal area, but instead thought I'd tackle the wheels.

 

As you can see, I left them unmasked during 90 percent of the painting stages and so they've ended up a uniform shade of grey:

 

 

The wheels were given a going over with a large, soft water-loaded brush, the grey seen above mixing with the yellower colours underneath.

 

 

 

And after some more washes with water and rubbing back with a stiffer brush:

So, they were pretty much back to how they were near the start of this thread. There were stages during the 'rubbing back' process that the wheels looked rather good, but they didn't suit the character of the rest of the tank.

 

 

I did think I could just apply fresh whitewash to the wheels above, and then rub that back, but instead I decided to give them an all over thick wash with dark earth weathering powder first, like so:

 

I figure I can apply targetted whitewash, let some mix with the dark earth and get the look similar to that along the side skirts. Time will tell.

But back to the rest of the Tiger.  As can be seen above, I dirtied the balkenkruz, painted, chipped and added an instruction sticker to the fire extinguisher. The tow cables (dry-fitted) were dirtied with whitewash and received some chipping.

 

The tops of the external air filter units were given a horizontal 'scrape' with whitewash loaded on a the side of some plasticard. This applied whitewash to the flat areas but left the depressions/dents in their darker colour.

 

The exhaust cowls have been toned down, were given a whitewash and a rub back. The air filter 'boxes' were given a dry-brushing with white, to bring out the dents and bullet/shrapnel holes. I haven't bothered drilling out the holes in the ends of the air nozzles on the engine cover as the cover will be raised to the vertical and the nozzles ends won't be visible. I have yet to weather the nozzles as I need to check what they were made of - whether they would rust. Meanwhile, the exhaust shrouds have been whitewashed to match the res, and basically need be weathered again.

 

 

The front of the Tiger got some more whitewash streaking. The MG was cleaned up - somehow Maskol had gotten onto it, and into the embrazure. The deck area was whitewashed dirtied in patches and streaked along the lateral edges. The shovel on the front was rubbed back

 

 

And the plan view:

 

I will continue work on the exhaust shrouds and get them finished. At the moment they are showing whitewash on their interiors. I'm not sure if anyone would have bothered to do that, and I may just dirty them up and possibly add rust. Then I'll move on to finish the chipping at the front of the tank.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Badder

[PlaStix]

Hi Badder. Hope you and yours are all well.

............I'm not going to say anything!!! By the time I get back to your thread anything I would have praised or mentioned will have disappeared or changed beyond recognition.

I'm still convinced this is going to be an absolutely awesome Tiger..........when it's finished........

Looking forward to more developments.

Kind regards,

Stix 

[Badder]

23 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Hope you and yours are all well.

............I'm not going to say anything!!! By the time I get back to your thread anything I would have praised or mentioned will have disappeared or changed beyond recognition.

I'm still convinced this is going to be an absolutely awesome Tiger..........when it's finished........

Looking forward to more developments.

Kind regards,

Stix 

Thanks Stix,

You may rest assured that the basic body is done, barring some pin washes, and the 'surprise' which I mentioned at the beginning of the thread. It's not a big surprise, but it's not something I've seen done on BM. I have to get the wheels looking right, and of course, get the turret painted up, but I do feel I'm nearing 'the end'. I am going to skip the cooling fans for the time being, but I will make them at some point in the future.

 

I have, been better, but I have been worse, thanks for asking.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

[Badder]

I've nearly finished the exhaust shrouds, having made some dents around the top edges, and having applied red and dark earth washes to the inside surfaces. The patch of very bright red will get toned down. I could have used red earth ink (a superb rust colour) but in artificial light, late at night, I picked up the wrong bottle!

 

 

Here, evertything looks nice and white. The shroud on the RHS will of course be removed and placed on the ground in the diorama. I will have to drill a couple of holes in the Tiger's rear hull plate where the shroud is bolted on. The bolts can remain in place in the shroud's flanges.

 

 

I think I'm going to drill a larger hole in the exhaust and a corresponding one in the shroud, the damage to the exhaust being checked by the crew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also added the MG gunner's hatch, and finished painting and weathering the pioneer tools on the deck. The sledgehammer will be in the hands of a crew member and so it won't appear here. I will have to make a couple of fastners for where it should be stored. The large dark grey chip on the back of the spade is a real chip where I accidentally scratched the paint off with the ferule of a paint brush while scrubbing back. I did start to repaint it, but then thought it looked fine as it was. I will tint it with a pin wash.

 

 

The glass in the MG gunner's periscope was filled in with a black Sigma Micron pen.

Yes, I've known all the while that there are ejector pin marks in the hatches, but the areas were too cramped for me to be happy to fill and sand them down. I figure non-modellers will figure they are supposed to be there!

 

Work has continued on the wheels. I've decided to go for a well-whitewashed look which has surived surprisingly intact. This is down to the fact that the whitewash was last 'touched-up' in minus 20 degrees C weather conditions and mud and water were not an issue in regards to their subsequent weathering, but more on that later.....

 

 

I have to say that I'm very pleased with how things are looking (yes, dirty and rough) but to me it looks fairly realistic. This is one of the advantages of portraying an AFV in winter camo.  Whitewash, when applied with a broom, brush or mop, will become contaminated with dirt, grease, mud and such-like as it is applied, so it will never look consistantly nice and smooth and clean.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Badder]

With the work on the hull more or less done and the wheels on nearing the weathering stage, I decided to take a break from all that gubbins and set about the turret with Sigma pen, brushed white ink and lots of rubbing back with brushes and a cocktail stick.

 

The cocktail stick is one fo those important tools used in this technique, which I'd completely forgotten about until the other day! Doh! A damp cocktail stick can be used to rub and even scrape back top layers, and either reactivate them for redistribution, reveal lighter or darker layers underneath, or remove stubborn unwanted crud prior to re-application of layers. Often (now that I remembered having done it before) I use it wet, and simply scribe down the panels, cleaning off the 'dirtier' top layer and revealing the brighter layer beneath... in essence, streaking, without a brush or paint!

 

Anyhoo, a couple of 'starting shots'

 

Rememeber those decals that I painted over, then couldn't get all the paint off, and thought I'd probably have to use other decals in the kit, incorrect for the type of Tiger? Well, it turns out that another session of wetting and rubbing back brought them back entirely!

 

Preliminary chipping with Sigma Micron pen and the first of the streaky whitewash.

 

And then it was a case of adding more chips and streaks, rubbing back, re-chipping, re-streaking and repeating until achieving the desired effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The difficult thing here is trying to match the style of weathering with that of the hull. yet not to be as dirty. I quite like the look achieved where some parts are of a different tone/colour/cleanliness/dirtiness than others.

 

TFL

Badder

[Badder]

Right, this is as close to 'The Look' that I think I'm going to get.  With regards to 'painting' there's a few little bits that need touching up; the gun barrel, the MG embrazure, air pipes and of course, the wheels, but this is basically the look I was after.

 

 

 

 

The air pipes were bent out of the way to allow the engine cover to open. I don't know if this was even possible on the real Tiger. I have searched for information regarding any metal pipes that might have been inside the tubes, but could find none, so I've assumed the tubes were completely holllow.

Testing revealled that bending the tubes caused them to collapse and kink at the bend, so to stop this happening I inserted lengths of Cotton Bud sticks (Q-Tip) up the tubes. This allowed me to bend the tubes without having them distort horribly. A donor Cotton Bud can be seen bottom right of the photo above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A scalpel was used to score large scratches in the air intake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below, I cut the kinked section of tow cable away and replaced it with a better piece. I will join the cable together when I come to fit the upper hull to the lower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by Badder

[BIG X]

WOW - Outstanding!!!

[Badder]

47 minutes ago, BIG X said:

WOW - Outstanding!!!

Hi Steve,

I didn't recognise you without your Vorderman head on.

Thanks for the big bold lettering.  It saves me from having to squint.

 

I am humbled to find you think that highly of it.  I myself am quite pleased with it, but as with all of us plastic-gluer/painters I can see all of the things I could have done better, so to me it's not 'Outstanding'.

Still, I class it as one of my top two or three models. Which 'medal' it gets is up in the air until I've finished it.

 

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

 

 

[Ozzy]

Top job mate looks fantastic, 

[Badder]

36 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Top job mate looks fantastic, 

Hi Clive,

Thanks, some might say the chipping is a bit overdone. I've done minimal chipping in the past, but wanted to try a more extreme style. After much faffing around I got the look I wanted, but can think of ways to make the job easier and quicker in the future!

 

BTW, I haven't checked the post yet, as I'm away from home, but I will be back tomorrow.

Cheers,

Badder

[FrancisGL]

Hi Badder,

Curious to document myself, I have seen your model, a little hidden, because now what I see just in the RTI section of Armors, and if I'm not mistaken, it is not there.

I see that as always you have had some problems, with tests and some experiments, but the result, although you say you are not 100% satisfied (I know that feeling ... sigh), has been very good. You can see the power of the beast, with its victory rings (this time they are perfect), and the mud on the side is very well achieved IMHO.
With a winter base, it would be very well integrated, in your case it should not be a serious problem (it costs me too much, although I will try again).

In short, I think it is a model worth keeping. Which beast will be next on your capture list? ...

Cheers Badder 👍

[Badder]

3 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi Badder,

Curious to document myself, I have seen your model, a little hidden, because now what I see just in the RTI section of Armors, and if I'm not mistaken, it is not there.

I see that as always you have had some problems, with tests and some experiments, but the result, although you say you are not 100% satisfied (I know that feeling ... sigh), has been very good. You can see the power of the beast, with its victory rings (this time they are perfect), and the mud on the side is very well achieved IMHO.
With a winter base, it would be very well integrated, in your case it should not be a serious problem (it costs me too much, although I will try again).

In short, I think it is a model worth keeping. Which beast will be next on your capture list? ...

Cheers Badder 👍

Hi Francis,

Thanks for dropping in. I've missed your comments and appraisals.

 

The Tiger is not in the RFI because it's not finished yet. There are still a few bits to attach: the air ducts, S-mine dischargers and a couple of latches for the engine and fan access hatches, and I have to make the underside of the engine cover and replace a wiggly bit of water-piping for the engine (which snapped) Also, although the Tiger appears to be finished in respect of the painting/weathering, I'll be tidying up a few areas and adding more mud/dirt etc.

 

When I've finished this Tiger I'll be returning to work on one of my dioramas. The 'Pit Stop' one was always going to be a winter dio, so I may work on that mostly, and maybe dabble with my Ever Evolvin' Dio as well.

 

With regards to 'beasts' I do have a few things in the stash,  and the one I am most looking forward to making is the German 7 tonne half-track with the flakvierling AA guns on the back (The very old Tamiya classic) So, that'll probably be my next piece of armour.

 

Hope you are well,

Rearguards.

Badder

 

 

 

[FrancisGL]

Hi Badder,

 

Then I hope to see it finished, and if possible at its base.

 

The comments about your work are is it not for lack of interest, of course friend, it's always a pleasure to see your work and read your comments, but here we have had problems, which for now are solved more or less, and the mojo, between that and the very poor acceptance of "Stuggy-piggy", I It makes it difficult to return to the hobby.

 

 I was thinking of entering the GB of the Tiger, because I have the least 3 kits that would fit, for the aforementioned, I was not able to "enroll" and what I have in the stash very suggestive kits (too many for my taste ...).

 

I hope that there if everything goes better.

Cheers Badder 👍

Edited September 22, 2019 by FrancisGL

[Badder]

On 9/22/2019 at 6:02 PM, FrancisGL said:

but here we have had problems, which for now are solved more or less, and the mojo, between that and the very poor acceptance of "Stuggy-piggy", I It makes it difficult to return to the hobby.

 

Hi Francis,

'Life' affects many arts; some, like poetry, music, painting and literature can actually be inspired by 'bad times'  but our hobby is not so obliging. No one should ever try to build and paint a Tiger tank when they are angry, upset, or emotional in any way. So everyone understands your lack of mojo.

 

However, you also mentioned the poor acceptance of your Stuggy Piggy. I don't know why you think it wasn't accepted. It was fantastic.  I (and others) wouldn't say anything we didn't mean.  If you've had any criticism, such as 'the fuel cans should be crushing the grass flat, not leaning up against it (I jest, I know you'd only placed them there temporarily for the photos) it was from people who care about your work and want to see the very best from you - as we all know how good you are.

 

If by 'poor acceptance' you mean not many people 'liked' or commented on it, then that's no reflection on your Stuggy. Sometimes some good things just seem to slip through the net.

 

So chin up mucker! I hope to see you back on the muddy, wet, leaf-sprinkled path some time soon.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[FrancisGL]

Hi Badder,

 

Thank you very much for your words of encouragement. Strongly agree with how your surroundings can affect this hobby so negatively.

 

For me it is a bit like "the curiosity that killed the cat", which then the satisfaction restored it, because during the process of creating the kit, I have realized that sometimes it looks a lot like a job (excluding professionals, of course), you need to do your best, so that it was worth the effort later, and it really is, since in many moments, especially when everything that can go wrong, it does, that feeling so "sketchy" ", but if you manage to continue, when you see the finished model, sometimes I say to myself," Francis, have you done it again ... ", or" Did I really do this? ... ", still thinking that no it has just been good enough, something that can be a double-edged sword, or it encourages you to improve, or quite the opposite, because in my previous stage, it got to frustrate me so much that I left the hobby all (the airbrush was to blame ) ...

 

The only negative comments to Stuggy-Piggy I think were the "jerrycans", which were more than justified, and had no importance, because you yourself realized that they were for the photo.
Rather, the lack of comments, and that this time, I tried the "complete set", AFV-Fs-B.

The rest of the feedback, I have the certainty that it was sincere and in good faith, because of almost 2,500 glances, that only 25 people dedicate a little time to give a like or leave a comment, makes it have to be so without a doubt.

 

You are absolutely right, in this also, there are really superb models that I wish were mine, that go almost unnoticed, or with a level of comments, just the same or even lower, to fairly "mainstream" models, something that negatively surprises me, not because of that in itself, but because of IMHO, a forum I think is for that, see, read, comment, chat, and based on that, learn and have a good time.

 

I hope my mojo will return soon, because I know he is there, hidden, "anesthetized", but looking forward to returning, since I can't stop glancing at the models of others, and my own ...

 

Cheers Badder👍👍

[Badder]

11 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

of almost 2,500 glances, that only 25 people dedicate a little time to give a like or leave a comment, makes it have to be so without a doubt.

Hi Francis,

What I think you have to remember is that '2,500 glances' does not mean that 2,500 people have looked at your Stuggy, or any other piece of work. I know that I've viewed your Stuggy many, many, times on separate days, weeks, months and even the following year/s and so do others. And of course, we can't hit 'like' or comment any more than we already have.

 

And finally, your OWN viewing of the thread also counts. My Ever Evolvin' Dio has over 42,000 views but I reckon 10,000 of those were me, when I was replying to comments, adding photos, descriptions and checking back through the thread to either tidy it up, or remind myself how I did a particular thing.

BTW, I'm not sure if reading several pages counts as ONE view, or several views, but if the former, then someone reading all 50+ pages will ramp up my 'views' quite quickly.

 

So again, I wouldn't worry about a low percentage of 'likes' or comments compared to the number of views, it's probably people like me returning to the thread multiple times, to examine your fantastic work, and pick up tips, and learn!

 

 

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[FrancisGL]

Hi Badder,

A very accurate reflection, the percentage, is merely indicative, as you say, it is assumed that the interested partner has a certain topic as a favorite, and visit as many times as you want / need, as I do, for simple pleasure or to document as much as possible.

I hope to see progress in your Tiger soon, and to see if I start to move my "mojo", because I'm dying of envy when I see some models in the forum ... lol, I can't disconnect! (Nonetheless).

Cheers Badder 👍

[Badder]

2 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

 

I hope to see progress in your Tiger soon, and to see if I start to move my "mojo", because I'm dying of envy when I see some models in the forum ... lol, I can't disconnect! (Nonetheless).

Cheers Badder 👍

I know that feeling Francis!

 

Work has continued on my Tiger. I've mostly been readying it for 'closing up': fixing the upper hull to the lower. So, I had make a new crenulated water pipe for the engine (the old one napped) the interior needed paint (black for the floor, dunkelgelb for the rest) fix the 'seats' in the turret and clean up the engine a bit. With that done, I added the last of the S-mine dischargers and closed the Tiger up.

 

I could have moved on to fixing the air ducts in place, but as is my habit, I got distracted by the wheels again and started messing about with the weathering.... and inevitably ruined one side. From experience I know it's virtually impossible to repair it and get it looking similar to the wheels on the other side, so I am now having to repaint BOTH sets of wheels again. Doh!

 

Having said all of that, there's not much left to do on the Tiger, except for the fixing of the aforementioned bits and pieces, and some structure to the underside of the engine cover, so I fancy there will be a bit more meddling with the weathering/whitewashing!

 

Rest assured, there will be photos of significant progress/changes to come.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

[PlaStix]

Hi Badder. When I sometimes drop into your threads - the way the photos load up these days - I sometimes get several of yours loading up and jumping from one to another before it settles down. These glimpses while I'm waiting quite often suggest that you have uploaded some reference photos of the actual thing. Checking them over once they have all loaded I can see why what you have done looks so realistic. It's the combination of all the effects you have done and re-done. As I have mentioned before - you do produce some of the most realistic weathering effects around. I'm looking forward to seeing the next photo update........I think/hope!!!

Kind regards,

Stix 

Edited September 27, 2019 by PlaStix

[Badder]

8 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. When I sometimes drop into your threads - the way the photos load up these days - I sometimes get several of yours loading up and jumping from one to another before it settles down. These glimpses while I'm waiting quite often suggest that you have uploaded some reference photos of the actual thing. Checking them over once they have all loaded I can see why what you have done looks so realistic. It's the combination of all the effects you have done and re-done. As I have mentioned before - you do produce some of the most realistic weathering effects around. I'm looking forward to seeing the next photo update........I think/hope!!!

Kind regards,

Stix 

Hi Stix,

Yeah those flashy grey squares do my head in, and I'm not epeleptic, so gawd knows what trouble they have!

 

Again, thanks for appreciating the amount of effort that I put into the weathering. As you know, with this project I basically started weathering it before putting the paint on!

 

And again, I do sometimes think 'ah that's about right, that'll do' and later on, for reasons of madness, or where I've accidentally ruined something by fiddling with it, or where I've achieved a lovely look on the right hand set of wheels, and a lovely look on the left hand set of wheels.... but they don't match each other.... I have to yet again add, remove or in some way get my brushes, toothpicks, inks, water, scrubbers, etc etc, and equalise the looks again.

 

Being a 'perfectionist' or at least wanting to achieve perfection, is a bit of a pain TBH. but I figure it's me who is going to be looking at the thing for the rest of my life so I want to be happy with it. My sub-standard models generally get broken up for spare parts or wreckage in dioramas (not that I've actually done a wreck yet)

 

Thanks again, and as I said to Francis, when I've made significant progress I will post pics. Really, all I have left to do is sort out the wheels. I'm having probs visualizing what look I'm after and then translating that in ink/paint/mud/weathering.  It's a case of whitewashing them and getting the mud stain/mud spatter and clods right. Usually, I'd leave all that until the dio is ready and match the mud on the vehicle with the mud on the ground, but this time I thought I'd do it the other way round and match the diorama mud to the mud on the Tiger. I can then also muddy up the Nashorn and Sherman in the same way.

 

 

Anyway, I'm waffling.

Now, where's my homemade mud gone?

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[Badder]

After making and fitting the replacement crenulated water pipe, I closed the Tiger up. With that done, I could finally fit the air pipes:

 

The engine cover is just balanced roughly in place.

 

The new crenulated water pipe is just visible at the foot of the engine cover:

 

 

I had an idea to make the weathering of the wheels easier: turn the Tiger on its side and add whitewash to the wheel hubs. Gravity will pull the whitewash towards the centre,  staining the hub more densely there. Once dry, I will then add a dirt wash to the centre, then flip the Tiger over so that the wheels are face down. Again, gravity will make the dirt wash travel outwards to the rim where it will gather more densely.

 

 

 

 

I haven't done the dirt wash and flip yet.

But here's a couple of photos taken a week ago in the sunshine.

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

[Ozzy]

Looking sharp Badder

[PlaStix]

Looking very impressive Badder! It does look fantastic in the sun.

Kind regards,

Stix