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CROUCHING TIGER, FINISHED AND IN RFI.


Badder

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1 minute ago, Badder said:

Thanks Clive.

And congrats on your fantastic dio.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

No worries Badder,

 

im please that my snow effect turned out well.

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Work is continuing on this Tiger. I will get it to the state I originally envisaged.

 

First off, I will get the air filtration system sorted. Here's the photo I've been using for reference:

MX5DnDn.jpg

 

This photo appeared on page 2 of this thread, 'donated' by @Robert Stuart, I believe (thanks old bean). Prior to seeing this photo I had no idea that the Feifel air filtration system caused so much hassle when it came to accessing the engine bay and cooling fan compartments.

 

In order to open the engine cover, firstly, the turret had to be turned 63 degrees to the right so that the cover could be lifted without fouling anything on the turret and even then, the rearmost spare track hanging on the RHS of the turret had to be removed. Next, all four air conduits had to be released from the clamps on the engine cover, and two of them then had to be disconnected from the air intake manifold. All four then had to be moved out of the way of the cover.

 

Now, I've searched all over the web looking for photos showing this having been done, but apart from the photo above I've found none, so it's a bit of a guess as to how it was done exactly. However, in the photo above it can be seen that there is only one pipe coming from each of the filtration units . The uppermost pipe on each is 'missing', so I assume that these air conduit assemblies were disconnected at both ends and were removed completely and set aside. The remaining lower pipes don't have the conduits connected, so I assume that these conduits were unclamped from the engine cover and and were disconnected from the pipes, rather than disconnecting the entire assembly, and again, were put aside.

 

When I first saw this photo, I saw those two tube-like objects which hang down beside the exhausts and thought that they were the metal 'innards' of the air conduits (that these were protected inside and were insulated by the outer lining) and that rather than being disconnected at both ends, they were disconnected from the manifold, had the outers removed and were swung out of the way to hang down off the rear of the tank. I now realise that these two tube-like objects are in fact tow cables!

 

Now that I am more familiar with the tank, I've come to the conclusion that yes, the Tiger's air filtration system was a right PITA, and even more so when it also needed everything disconnecting in order to get to both of the fan bays.

 

Anyway, I always intended to show my Tiger with the engine bay and one fan bay opened up. I did fully construct my air conduits in time to make it into the gallery, but now I realise that I'm going to have to break them up again!

 

So, here's the air filtration unit after some messing about - all dry-fitted. As you can see, instead of removing the uppermost conduits completely, I've 'swivelled' them out of the way to hang down at the rear of the tank. I know they didn't do that in the photo above, but I suspect it was possible - even if it meant undoing them from their filtration units and then bolting them back on loosely (with one bolt) in the 'dangle' position. Surely it was better to 'store' them this way than have them be a trip hazzard on the engine deck/ground etc? Besides, it looks more interesting to my eye.

0dlRZts.jpg

 

And here they are with the engine cover opened.

IgQA9Tl.jpg

 

I still have to make allowances for opening the fan cover on the RHS - and that will probably mean having to remove the bottom pipe completely and put it aside. Oh potty, I've just realised that I will have to stick the conduit back onto its pipe AGAIN!

 

In other news - the commander's cupola is fitted with 7 'vision blocks' which Tamiya would have you paint white.  I wasn't sure what these vision blocks were - maybe they were white blocks with small slots in them corresponding to the slots in the outer ring? But I know now that they were in fact large solid blocks of clear glass. Blimey. And that there were cases of spare vision blocks stored within the turret. Blimey Crikey. I wonder how many 'vision blocks' were damaged by gunfire, shrapnel etc? The physical vision slots are barely penetrable with a chubby finger! Anyway, I didn't think the blocks would appear white as Tamiya would have it. But I wasn't going to replace them with clear plastic, or paint them sky blue, silver, or bottle green. I painted them gloss black.

 

I've got a few bits and pieces left to do (periscopes on driver's and RO/bow gunner's hatches and those s-mine dischargers on the deck perimeter, and then I'll move on to the stripey whitewash.

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

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I've added a bit more mud here and there, mostly packing it under the mud flaps and side skirts.

95yg0Cj.jpg

 

sEtmSlT.jpg

 

dYSfvW9.jpg

 

 

I've also drilled out the air filter nozzles before a final touch-up before whitewashing.
Pr45ncZ.jpg

 

And with regards to the whitewashing, I'm going to leave the S-mines, commander's cupola and the rest of the crews' hatches off for that process.

 

I'm hoping to get a very particular look with the whitewash: that of a more recent application of broad hard-edged stripes with some wear and tear, a bit of staining with mud/dirt and a tiny bit of rust on things like the engine grills. Then the whole vehicle will be chipped, but not so much as to look overdone.

 

I have seen photos and artist's impressions of such camo schemes, presumably where the crews didn't have time to whitewash their vechicles all over, where an old whitewash needed re-doing, or where patchy snow conditions didn't warrant a full whitewash.

 

TFL

Badder

 

TFL

Badder

 

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Before I apply the final whitewash I thought I'd deal with a couple of niggly bits: the RHS tow rope which fouls the cooling fan cover on that side and the underside of the engine cover. Having tried and failed to replace the tow ropes with bicycle brake cables, and having failed in bending the cables with heat, and having then resorted to stealing a replacement tow cable from a Tiger Mid in my stash, I thought I'd yet again risk trying to bend the tow cable out of the way with the aid of a bit of heat. But first, I had the idea to snip the offending loop of tow cable off and flip it over so that the loop hangs outboard of the tank. That would get me half way towards what I wanted without any bending, or heat.

 

Loop snipped off:

q3urB4d.jpg

 

 

 

And flipped over:

gwoFzzU.jpg

Some CA Gel would be used to re-attach the loop to the clamp once the loop had been bent further with the aid of heat.

 

As is often the case, heating and bending tow cables can be risky, as I said, and sure enough, I managed to snap the loop. Hey ho.

But with some more heat, some more bending, and thankfully no more disasters, I managed to get the two broken halves of loop bent into a shape which (although not perfect) looks reasonable. I then Gel'd each half of the loop to the clamp, and, once dry, Gel'd the break in the loop to get this:

 

Zkngs4W.jpg

 

The repaired break is the pale patch of cable directly above the idler wheel and at the height of the bottom of the sponson. The kink in the cable at the clamp is a bit unfortunate, but it's not unbelievable. I daren't risk heating that area of cable again.

 

The Angle of Dangle was the main thing:

WfzbRTl.jpg

 

etqOJ8A.jpg

Not perfect, but I'm going to call that job done. BTW, the turret is turned to the correct angle to allow for the opening of the engine cover, as was the case in real li

 

Now to the underside of the engine cover, a far simpler job!

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

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  • Badder changed the title to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN TAMIYA STILL IN PROGRESS
13 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Nice bending on the tow rope Badder.

Thanks Clive,

I'm in the process  of adding the final whitewash using hairspray technique. I did start off with hard edged camo stripes, but found it a bit difficult masking off all the gubbins on the engine cover, so I've scrapped that idea and am doing soft-edged freehand instead. Progress pics and the final result later today.

 

Hope you are well,

Rearguards,

Badder

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3 minutes ago, Badder said:

Thanks Clive,

I'm in the process  of adding the final whitewash using hairspray technique. I did start off with hard edged camo stripes, but found it a bit difficult masking off all the gubbins on the engine cover, so I've scrapped that idea and am doing soft-edged freehand instead. Progress pics and the final result later today.

 

Hope you are well,

Rearguards,

Badder

I'm very well thanks Badder,

 

I've got a couple of weeks off, good chance to catch up on some jobs and modelling. I struggle with hard edge cammo, can never get it just right. hope you and Mrs Badder are well too.

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15 hours ago, Ozzy said:

I'm very well thanks Badder,

 

I've got a couple of weeks off, good chance to catch up on some jobs and modelling. I struggle with hard edge cammo, can never get it just right. hope you and Mrs Badder are well too.

I've not been too well for the past month TBH, but I've upped my dose of painkillers for the 2nd time and that seems to be doing the trick, thanks. Mrs Badder is her usual lovely self.

As for hard-edge camo, I think I could manage it on a V2 rocket, but anything with details on it is a PITH. Have great time off.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

8 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Looks good Badder.

I like your bending of the cable, that is suitably impressive.  I'm currently fighting a metal cable, trying to get it to hold in the right position - this plastic one may be a better solution.

Hi Robert,

Thanks, it was a case of 3rd time lucky. I have 2 broken/ruined ones in the stash (in case I should ever need very small lengths of tow cable)

I don't know what type of metal cable you're using, but flame-heating the bit you want to bend may help things.

 

BTW, when I bent my bicycle brake cable the problem I had was that the cable would splay apart at the bend. I tried soaking that splayed area with thin CA and twisting the cable back together again before bending it again, and that helped. It wasn't a total cure, but it may work better on your cable, depending on the wire.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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My attempt at hard-edged masking was a bit ropey on the engine cover.....

OkeoulI.jpg

 

And I wasn't sure about the masking at the front of the tank, but I gave it a spray. I didn't like the results, so I abandoned the hard-egde camo. I 'repaired' the duff areas of camo with sprays of Light Dunkelgelb, then sprayed all over with a couple of coats of Silvikrin before re-applying the camo with a free-hand white acrylic ink.

NNaFBWH.jpg

 

I added the Silvikrin'd turret and sprayed that to match up with the deck camo.

7aMB9Je.jpg

 

xntNq9r.jpg

 

 

It was then a case of chipping away with a large soft wet brush, and a small stiff-bristled brush. As the white ink dissolved and loaded the brush, I regularly cleaned it off by running it around the wheel hubs. With the primary chipping done, I applied washes with Dark Earth Weathering Powder.

fVqv68Y.jpg

 

G6BVGC8.jpg

 

4Mn9REn.jpg

 

 

Inevitably, I did soften and knock off some of the mud, but I shall replace it.

qn5Bavg.jpg

 

3onvpko.jpg

 

 

 

And under low-energy lightbulbs:

W7yj0ad.jpg

 

ncWzDSp.jpg

 

As you can tell, a lot of the stuff here is dry-fitted. I cannot close the tank up until I've made the cooling fans and I won't be fixing the tow cables in place until after I've finished the weathering.

 

BTW, the 'repaired' areas of camo (after the first aborted attempt at hard-edge camo) are obviously now back to Light Dunkelgelb, darkened with Dark Earth washes. These areas will have to be washed with white again to get them back to the original 'old whitewashed' colouration.

 

TFL

Badder

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Just wanted to mention a few things about my method for winter whitewash. Firstly, as everyone knows, I apply many layers, often covering up previous ones completely in some areas, but not always. Sometimes I cover up selected areas, as was the case with the Dunkelgelb camo repair. But this repair just becomes yet another layer. Rub it back and I expose the layer o layers beneath, apply yet more washes on top of the new layer and those to can be rubbed back to reveal the repair layer. In other words layers are layers and all have an effect if they are re-exposed.

 

And that brings me to my 'messy' approach to winter whitewash, and specifically, dust: either filed/sanded plastic dust, or homemade mud containing plaster dust or other fine particles. In the photo below, you can see very fine dark speckles on the storage bin on the back of the turret. These are not speckles of paint applied by flicking a loaded brush, nor are they speckles applied one by one by a tiny brush. These were where particles of dust stuck to the turret base coat and remained there throughout the applications of following coats; particles which were finally removed during the chipping process, with the water loaded brush dissolving the dust or the surrounding medium and washing it clear. This leaves tiny pits in the paint, pits which are subequently filled with a dark wash, producing the effect which can be seen below. Sometimes however, the dust may not be released and so it will stand proud of the surface. If a lighter coat is applied over this dust, and is then rubbed back, the dust particles will stand prouid as darker spots. Either way, the effect appears realistic to me, so I never worry about dust/dirt getting onto my winter camo models.

 

G6BVGC8.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

 

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I've got the camo roughly how I envisaged it.

Here's the Tiger. The commander has no idea how he ended up parked here. You could say he was stumped. But whilst he was there he got a spray with Galeria Acrylic Gloss Varnish.

ZKVBmW3.jpg

 

octUQRk.jpg

 

And a few washes with Humbrol Dark Earth Weathering Powder, diluted with water.

 

ntNzgph.jpg

 

 

sxqwn5M.jpg

 

It5QgeH.jpg

 

AFLZl3Y.jpg

 

0wbIvuS.jpg

 

bFppsXt.jpg

 

jgwflin.jpg

 

ofek1sE.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Badder - I've been a little 'distracted' for the last few days with 'computer issues' - but I think I'm on top of them now so I'm just playing catch up...

 

Brilliant work mate - absolutely brilliant!!!

 

Steve

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On ‎8‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 10:14 AM, BIG X said:

Hi Badder - I've been a little 'distracted' for the last few days with 'computer issues' - but I think I'm on top of them now so I'm just playing catch up...

 

Brilliant work mate - absolutely brilliant!!!

 

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks.

I must confess that for the past 6 weeks I've been in considerably more pain than usual and it's played havoc with my life, and as a consequence, my moods, which are swinging about like a stallion's 'man vegetables'. I've got a reputation for changing my mind during my builds (or 'evolving' them, as I like to call it) so it will come as no surprise that my mood swings have magnified my tendency to look at my builds and think 'I'm not happy with this', more often than is usual.

 

So, this afternoon whilst attempting for the umpteenth time to get whitewash look that I was after and getting angrier by the minute, I came to the realisation that the reason I'd been having trouble was because I was going about it all wrong, I'd applied whitewashes as they would appear brand new, and then tried to weather them with chipping, washes, streaking and rubbing back. This would be fine if it weren't for the fact that these processes dirtied the whitewash and made it appear more of a sandy colour. Yes, I could seal the whitewash in first, but then I wouldn't get the interaction between the whitewash and the following applications. I had a long hard think about it and decided to try something different.

 

I am now in the process of 'undoing' the whitewash by rubbing it back with a stiff wet brush loaded with Dark Earth Weathering Powder. This is turning the Tiger back to a dirty Dunkelgelb - and quite nice it looks too, and excellent desert Tiger! But this is a 'Russian WInter Tiger'. I will seal it with gloss varnish and apply a new whitewash using white weathering powder instead  of the ink. This will be applied both wet and dry and will be blended/streaked/chipped/faded with Dark Earth Weathering Powder and darker inks mixed in when required. In other words, I'll be weathering the whitewash AS I GO ALONG.

 

The 'absolutely brilliant!' Tiger pictured above then, no longer exists in that 'garb', but hopefully, the new garb will be even better.

 

Pics later,

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

 

ps. Having said all of that, I'm looking at the photos above and thinking, actually, that wasn't bad!

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  • Badder changed the title to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN TAMIYA. ERM REPAINT!

Re-painting the whitewash.

In the previous photos the whitewash on my Tiger was NOT sealed in by varnish. This meant that it was relatively easy to re-activate with a large stiff brush loaded with water. But rather than have white getting into all the crevices and details, I loaded the brush with small amounts of Dark Earth Weathering Powder as well, and, combined with the reactivated whitewash, created a dark wash.

 

I started first on the glacis, with a hard up-down scrubbing motion and ended up with this:

bcV2Ux4.jpg

 

Dark Earth washes were then applied to the exposed edges:

hjjM2D8.jpg

The whole area was then given a coat of varnish.

 

When the varnish was touch-dry, I added white Weathering Powder washes:

nYpNVoV.jpg

 

 

And then streaked the whitewash, this time using a small stiff brush for the scrubbing up/down motion:

byjmCiI.jpg

Getting there. More whitewash and streaking followed.

 

Once touch-dry, I took my small stiff brush, loaded it with water and scrubbed the whole lot back, very hard, in short up/down motions to get this:

tAaCoxW.jpg

 

h9JrYlt.jpg

 

0H7EIxS.jpg

Another coat of varnish followed.

Note the REAL chips in the paintwork along the leading edge of the mud flap above. There is also a chip in the paintwork of the side flap on the opposite mud-flap: a grey area just to the right of the hinge. This was more prominent, but I've rubbed the paint back a bit and have softened ots outline.  

 

 

 

The whitewash shows up whiter than it does in the photos and the effect is almost exactly what I wanted to get from the very outset of this project. Having said that, once the varnish is completely dry I intend to accentuate the white a bit more with some dry-brushed weathering powder.

 

In the meantime, I've moved onto the Tiger's side panels and skirts, employing the same method as used above.

tercBzQ.jpg

 

oZWmpj9.jpg

 

BTW, the wheels will be scrubbed back as well.

 

HA! This is interesting! The photo above was taken seconds before I started this post., You can see that I applied the white along the top of the skirts.  I guessed correctly that it would sink downwards due to gravity, and so it did. So here's a photo of it now, with absolutely no effort from me.

fWea90L.jpg

 

Okay, perhaps not THAT interesting.

 

 

Anyway, back to the old scrubbing brush!

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

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Hi Badder. Sorry for not commenting for a while - been struggling to find time for life, modelling and being on BM - and it's the latter that has suffered. I have dropped in occasionally but not had time to comment. First off I am sorry to hear that you have had a period where you have been suffering more pain. That is not good and I can quite understand why you have had the mood swings. I hope you are doing a little better now.

With regards the ever changing Tiger's appearance - I am always concerned when I read, at the start of a post, that you have changed something from what, everyone agrees, is a fantastic result last time. I know sometimes you can be less happy with the latest result but I am usually not surprised that you have managed to improve on what you had achieved before. As I have said many times before - your techniques allow you to acheive some of the most realistic real life effects in miniture out there. It really is looking superb - keep going!!

Hope you have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Stix  

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2 hours ago, Ozzy said:

I like the gray showing through, nice touch.

Hi Clive,

Thanks. I have often contemplated chipping models for real, deliberately. The 'leaving dust on the model, spraying over it and then scrubbing the dust off to leave a chip' is, I suppose, just that. But I was thinking more in the lines of using a sharp implement to chip the paint off, then wash over it. I can't see that it'd take any loner than painting chips on, and of course, a real chip is going to look.....er..... more real. It's weird how I'm happy to chip buildings with a knife, but reluctant to do it on a vehicle. Food for thought.....

 

Rearguard,

Badder

 

 

15 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Sorry for not commenting for a while - been struggling to find time for life, modelling and being on BM - and it's the latter that has suffered. I have dropped in occasionally but not had time to comment. First off I am sorry to hear that you have had a period where you have been suffering more pain. That is not good and I can quite understand why you have had the mood swings. I hope you are doing a little better now.

With regards the ever changing Tiger's appearance - I am always concerned when I read, at the start of a post, that you have changed something from what, everyone agrees, is a fantastic result last time. I know sometimes you can be less happy with the latest result but I am usually not surprised that you have managed to improve on what you had achieved before. As I have said many times before - your techniques allow you to acheive some of the most realistic real life effects in miniture out there. It really is looking superb - keep going!!

Hope you have a good weekend.

Kind regards,

Stix  

Hi Stix,

In the past few weeks the doc's have gradually increased my Gabapentin dose from 1 a day to 4 a day.  The one pill a day did wonders for the sudden sharp stinging stabbing attacks, and lowered the constant 'background' pain as well, but they suddenly stopped being so effective (I guess I'm in a period of relapse) Hopefully 4  day will have the same effect as the one a day first did.

As for the evolution of my Tiger, well, yes, it's a case of wanting to be totally happy with it, and not looking at it in a year's time and thinking 'I could have done better'. I look at my Nashorn and my winter Sherman and I have to say that, even now, I am really happy with them. I've never had that feeling with any of my builds before. If there's anything I want to change, it would only be tiny details, like maybe swap-out some kit bags hanging on my Sherman's turret, or maybe replace a broken gun mount, as is the case with my Nashorn.

I'm glad that I spent a lot of time experimenting and trying to get the exact look I was after. I can't think of ANY of my builds which HAVEN'T evolved, and the only one I can think of is a Willys Jeep which was painted to my liking at the very first attempt. Having said that, it's been sat waiting for mud and snow. So even that one doesn't count.

 

As for my Tiger, I've basically returned to the same whitewash technique that I used for my Nashorn. I don't know why I attempted to do the Tiger using a different method. Silly me.

Hopefully it will all turn out lovely now.

 

Thanks for your best wishes,

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

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The side skirts are coming along nicely - with gravity lending a helping hand. The whitewash runs slowly down the hull sides and also down the side skirt panels, gathering at the edge.

https://i.imgur.com/fWea90L.jpg

 

 

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I had a minor accident today whilst continuing with the repaint. I've been sitting my Tiger on a MinArt box so that I can turn it around without having to handle the model itself. Unfortunately, the weight of the Tiger with its Friuls meant that the box sagged in the middle and the idler wheels were actually resting on the outer rim of the box. As you can probably guess, one of the idler wheels couldn't handle the pressure and snapped off. A bit of a pain, but it was an easy repair, drilling out both the idler housing and the ilder hub and inserting a dowel to replace the broken axle.

 

Out with the MiniArt box, and in with a foam mat and repainting continued.

 

Apply some white patches, apply some dark washes. Varnish, rub back. Repeat Repeat and finally, apply white washes, allow to dry and then rub back.

YSuixto.jpg

Notice that the wheels have been spattered. This was the result of vigorous rubbing back of the skirts above. I quite like the effect and am pondering on allowing it to stay there.

 

The 'de-tracked' side, with unspattered wheels.

E4qXoas.jpg

 

With the repaired idler in place. Vertical scratches on hull sides and chipping applied along the edges of the skirts with a Sigma Micron pen

WPrR0Nk.jpg

 

 

The decals haven't survived my weathering techinique. TBH I'm surprised there's anything left of them at all! I will be replacing this one and will weather it to a much lesser extent.

Chipping by pen yet to be done.

Y0qg8js.jpg

 

 

Some Dark Earth and pen chipping.....

jrTAzwC.jpg

 

And finally, to the rear and an more Dark Earth washes and spatter. Lots of work to do here to get 'the look' I'm after/

58vsFb0.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

 

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Hi Badder. I'm glad you were able to repair the broken idler okay. Your weathering looks to be progressing wonderfully. Very inspiring stuff!

Kind regards,

Stix

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6 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. I'm glad you were able to repair the broken idler okay. Your weathering looks to be progressing wonderfully. Very inspiring stuff!

Kind regards,

Stix

Hi Stix,

I just HAD to laugh because, you've guessed it, it's all change again!

I've really been struggling with getting a nice white Whether I've used a varnish or not, for some reason my whites either look to have a sandy or a bluish tint .I can understand the sandy tint, because of the underlying colour, but blue? Anyhoo, I carried on and achieved some fairly nice effects, but when it came to the rear deck I hit problems. due mostly, to impatience I suspect. Whatever, I couldn't get the same look in the 'rubbing back' as I could eslewhere on the tank .I think the intricate structures at the rear demand a more precise and careful technique than scrubbing with a brush.

 

But it was my 'off whites' that were doing my head in I However, I did notice how my whites looked whiter over the darker base colours like Dark Earth, which gave me and idea.

 

CALL ME MAD, BUT I srayed my entire tank black,

Hairspray and whitewash came next and then followed some extremely heavy rubbing back I am now in the process of applying multiple thin washes of white, interupted with more rubbing back when required. Early results are, shall we say, interesting?

I'm either on route to producing a 'masterclass i heavy weathering' or I'm heading for yet another repaint!

 

Time will tell

 

Hope you and Mrs Stix are well,

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

then scrubbed it back to give me a very patchy looking Tiger.

I am now in the process of sc

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Waits an entire 5 mins for all the photos on this page to load up, so I can see which ones I've already posted and which ones I haven't.  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

To my madness then:

Whilst I was pretty happy with all of the effects I'd achieved above, I wasn't happy with the white. It wasn't white enough (the photos make it look whiter than in real life) No amount of overpainting would brighten the white, so I decided to bite the bullet, remove the white and start again, this time with a black undercoat. But first, I rubbed the entire model back, removing all of the layers of whitewash, dark earth washes,varnish and dunkelgelb. The pale colour seen below is actually the grey primer used at the very start of the painting.

RJQs30g.jpg

 

After the black came a spray with white and a coat of varnish. The varnish was then rubbed back with a stiff brush loaded with white ink. Here is the rear half of the tank at the stage when I'd begun to reveal the white and interact in some small part with the underlying black. The result was an overall wet grey.

se0hZ8Q.jpg

 

 

But further wetting and rubbing mixed grey with white and in some places cleaned away the grey to reveal a dirtied white or a 'whited black'

Dp43ZeO.jpg

 

I was rather liking the effect: certainly a very worn and dirty look, and something that I could have continued, but I wanted the fresher whitewash finish.

TIryprs.jpg

 

wBs9rRg.jpg

 

So, on went the dark earth washes along with some fresh mud:

nVrL6N3.jpg

 

gAZ88WS.jpg

 

O5sv2Fb.jpg

 

And then the start of the whitewashing, this time, applied with single brushstrokes as might have been done in real life (most likely applied with a broom or mop in real life)

OKTHZQM.jpg

 

 

And the other side with an extra application of whitewash.

WfZEBRS.jpg

 

At this point, I'd only whitewashed the tank's sides, skirts, rear deck and frontal armour. I hadn't touched the front deck, or wheels. The turret hasn't had any of the previous process applied to it at all.

Work continues on the lower half of the tank (except the wheels)

 

BTW, the tank does look very similar to how it did before, except that the white does show brighter (not so evident in the photos)

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

.

 

 

Edited by Badder
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I had a bit of a disaster with the front decking, with my airbrush set at too high a pressure, and using it to blow some washes around it lifted and blew the dampened paint from the model, Large patches of the underlying primer was exposed - far too large for me to be happy to leave and paint over. I was forced then, to strip the whole front deck back to the primer and start again. I then got it back to its dunkelgelb state, repainted the tools and applied some whitewash with the AB

NUSjgv7.jpg

 

I then continued applying dark earth and whitewashing.

 

0kKuPw8.jpg

 

4EfJftM.jpg

 

gQDDZwj.jpg

 

The engine deck would be treated differently, so I sprayed whitewash all over, followed by varnish, and an all over dark earth wash, which was then rubbed back with a stiff brush.

 

djs2Tin.jpg

 

 

PozhpDf.jpg

 

 

AND THEN CAME

CHIPPING BY PEN   (SIGMA MICRON ARCHIVAL INK)

 

I bought a bunch of Sigma Micron pens before this GB started, having seen them being used in a glossy Diorama book which I  bought. The results looked extremely good, and being done by pen rather than brush, seemed to me to be a lot easier and more precise. The pen used was denoted as an 01 diameter with Sepia ink. So, I bought 3 of these, plus 6 more of varying diameters from 001 up to 008 with black ink.

 

I messed about with the feature pen a bit, and found that whilst it was very good, the ink didn't flow too well. Shaking the pen helped, but patience was required.

 

However, I did stick with it and set about chipping the Tiger. I started on the frontal armour, then the side skirts and hull sides, all of which would receive another whitewashing afterwards, the idea being that the chips were old and happened prior to that final whitewashing. Some chips will be added after this final whitewashing

 

Then I moved onto the decking, starting with the engine deck.

 

As with all forms of art, the early results weren't inspiring, but as more was done, they got better. I must be honest and say that I thought that I was going way over the top, chipping everything, including the 'kitchen sink'. I thought I could tone it all down, or remove some, or whitewash over it if it all looked a bit silly. However, low and behold, and much to my surprise, the 'over the top' chipping actually looked fantastic. Well, to me it does anyway,

 

Here's a collection of photos then, with chipping on the engine deck. More chipping will follow.

 

nRp5PdU.jpg

 

7Uv7pBk.jpg

 

Some pin washes and staining with dark earth were also included. A wet brush was used to remove or spread out errant pen marks.

whSMFMc.jpg

 

R0IFZSp.jpg

 

dyayo0B.jpg

 

QVMIFxD.jpg

 

LHH2qbB.jpg

 

JPOCTuj.jpg

 

Nyk9QRJ.jpg

 

 

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited by Badder
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