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miniart M3 Lee (interior)


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Ooooh, I'm liking this a bit too much. You're doing a great job MM. I know that I'd never finish this if I had one, I don't think I've ever finished an interior kit or even got close to where you are now.

I wish I hadn't seen that engine, it's given me an itch that might need scratching...

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for all the feedback folks – I’ve struggled to keep the enthusiasm up for this one a bit, and most of my time has been spent on my scratchbuild project, but your support keeps me going!

I’m really not far off paint (and base/diorama) and that is something I’m really looking forward to, so hopefully it’ll spur me on to finish.

 

Not much actual progress to report to be honest – I got busy with the (kit supplied) etch, but shied away from the tiny tool holding down handles. The tools will cover them anyway and they’re unbelievably fiddly. I’ll paint the tools separately and fix them on after the main paintjob. Sorry about the crappy photos - my photoshop is out of operation at the moment.

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The tedious tracks are nearly finished – they are a right faff, even with a homemade jig and seem to grow at a painfully slow pace.

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All the hatches are just dry fitted (most pretty much snap into place) and will be glued temporarily using Klear while I paint it, which will be soon. After the paint’s done, I’ll be opening most if not all the hatches in an effort to get a squint into the interior!

 

As for the base, I have Miniart’s gun-cleaning crew, so plan to have them doing their thing to the 75mm while their mechanic mucks about at the back, looking at the engine. It’ll probably be a minimal steppe-grass base just big enough for the tank and crew.

 

 

 

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Great job so far!

 

Just a quick heads-up, and apologies if you already checked this, but I did the Academy Grant a few years back, and I found to my cost that the sprocket wheels were not wide enough for the Panda tracks I had bought to replace the rubber bands in the kit. Fortunately I was able to gently prise the two halves of the sprocket wheel apart, and glue them back together at the required greater width.

 

It's possible, of course, that the MiniArt version is better in that respect!

 

I wish I'd seen this sooner, I could have sent you my own home-made track jig :D

 

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2 hours ago, clive_t said:

Great job so far!

 

Just a quick heads-up, and apologies if you already checked this, but I did the Academy Grant a few years back, and I found to my cost that the sprocket wheels were not wide enough for the Panda tracks I had bought to replace the rubber bands in the kit. Fortunately I was able to gently prise the two halves of the sprocket wheel apart, and glue them back together at the required greater width.

 

It's possible, of course, that the MiniArt version is better in that respect!

 

I wish I'd seen this sooner, I could have sent you my own home-made track jig :D

 

I test fitted a section of track on the sprocket before I glued the halves together, but funnily enough, it did seem a bit tight... I guessed this was down to the fact that the sprue attachment points for the sprockets leave a bit of a stub on the back, and carefully trimming these made everything fit ok. I've not much experience with link tracks, but hoping these will go on ok in the end.

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Paint time at last!

 

I fixed all the hatches on using a drop of Klear as a temporary glue and masked the insides of the etched grilles.

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I sprayed a black enamel pre-shade coat.

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And followed this with some white highlights, limited to the upper panels

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Then on with the olive drab. Tamiya acrylic this time. I coated the whole lot, then lightened it a bit with some light yellow/green and highlighted the upper panels and turret.

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The pictures look a fair bit lighter than the real thing, and I went back to the airbrush after these were taken to touch up the wheels where they’d spun ‘round; I’d made an effort to keep the wheels spinning when I was gluing it together to make painting the tyres easier.

 

It’s since had a gloss coat of Klear ready for decals, sponge chipping and oil washes, which will be the next thing to do.

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I sprayed the whole thing with a couple of coats of Klear (50% diluted with water) and then got the decals on. They are super thin and settled down perfectly with a drop of micro-sol – probably not necessary, but a force of habit. I’d love to try this one with a hairspray-chipped winter whitewash, but some of the gun cleaning crew have their tops off and I doubt they’d be sweating and sweltering away in a Stalingrad winter, so plain green it is. I picked the version with the funky graffito on the glacis of course; couldn’t resist.

 

I’m really rather disappointed with my chipping. As someone mentioned previously, I do tend to go a bit overboard with this sometimes. I’ve been using the sponge method, but the trouble I seem to have is that I get hardly anything from the sponge, so press a little harder and before you know it there’s a dirty great splodge of grey acrylic that can’t be removed (or at least not easily) and this then “sets the bar” for the chipping everywhere else and lo and behold, I end up with a totally knackered look. I’ve had greater success doing this on a white background where the chips can more easily be seen as it progresses, but on dark colours like this, it’s really hard to see how it’s going.

 

I saw zliu013’s excellent Tiger….

 

 

…and read that he’d used pencils – plain old HB for the grey stuff. I may have to give this a go. I’ve tried it in the past on hairy-planes, but found the pencil would slip pretty easily and it often ended up looking like I’d just scribbled on it – which of course I had. I would also consider hairspray, but it seems a bit excessive to undercoat and hairspray a whole tank just for a few localised chips.

 

Anyway, live and learn – I’ll persevere with this one as it is at least for now and try something new next time. The inside is chipped and weathered to buggery, so I guess the outside would be in a similar state and there’s always drybrushing, mud and dust to hide the multitude of sins.

 

If anyone out there has some useful hints and tips on how to perfect the sponge method (because when it works, it can look great and it SHOULD be quick and easy), I’d love to hear them.

 

I viewed a night-shift chipping tutorial online and he mentioned that if your acrylics are a bit heavy, they can be scratched off using a toothpick. I gave this a go and it came off pretty easily – unfortunately so did the gloss coat, the base green and the preshasde. In other words, I scratched back to the grey plastic – grrr! Oh well, it’s an improvement over dark grey splodges, so I’ll carry on. I think washes and dirt will help it blend in ok.

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Looks great, does that. I see you are doing Soviet markings? Apparently the Russian crews referred to these vehicles as 'a coffin for seven brothers', an indication as to the perceived likelihood of survival!

 

For what it's worth, my own experience with sponging is somewhat hit-and-miss, however my treating it as an extension of dry-brushing - ie dry-spongeing - was where I started to get better, less splodgy results. So, applying a small amount of paint to a bit of soft, clean sponge material, then dabbing most of it off on a paper towel, then apply it in a stippling motion to the model for a few seconds. Then stop, and examine the area you just attacked - if it looks ok, then great, however if you think it needs a little more then repeat the stippling motion.

 

One thing that you might find useful (if you haven't already of course!) is to keep at hand an old model that maybe would otherwise occupy your own 'shelf of doom', and use that as a paint mule for any such activities, to see what works and what doesn't without trashing your current project.

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This is amazing to watch and a little bit horrifying as I have one lurking in my wardrobe!!!!

 

Concerning chipping, may I tell you of an error I made on my recently built Tamiya Grant so that you don't repeat it. I heavily chipped and battered the rear fenders, the bits with the strengthening ribs. They looked great until I read more of my references and discovered that the fenders were made of RUBBER. Then they just looked silly. Oops! 

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1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

This is amazing to watch and a little bit horrifying as I have one lurking in my wardrobe!!!!

 

Concerning chipping, may I tell you of an error I made on my recently built Tamiya Grant so that you don't repeat it. I heavily chipped and battered the rear fenders, the bits with the strengthening ribs. They looked great until I read more of my references and discovered that the fenders were made of RUBBER. Then they just looked silly. Oops! 

Ahh! - top tip, thanks. I assume they were a rubber colour (grey) too?

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Just now, Model Mate said:

Ahh! - top tip, thanks. I assume they were a rubber colour (grey) too?

 

They don't stand out as different to the OD painted hull in my black and white photos so probably painted green? I'm thinking that the rubber would be the colour of a tire and that under heavy use the paint would flake off.

 

I plan to paint mine with green enamel and then rub most of it away again to reveal a very dark grey/black acrylic undercoat representing the heavy rubber, then highlight the ribs and edges with a lighter grey. Am I sure that would be an accurate representation? No, but it seems logical and that's good enough for me. It will be an interesting local variation to the chipping back to metal I'll use elsewhere. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/5/2021 at 2:25 PM, Model Mate said:

I painted a drop of dark grey into each dial and used a pin to scratch marks onto them, revealing the white below, before a drop of gorilla clear glue was added to each for “glass”.

 

Brilliant idea. Thank you!

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On 29/07/2021 at 17:38, dov said:

Nice!

I have to build two of them.

Is the kit ok? Good to build?

Graet job you did.

Happy mopdelling

It's a great kit - the best armour kit I've ever seen (mind, you, I haven't experienced that many recently). It's got fantastic detail and a good fit. The only thing to watch for are the fragile pipes and so on. It's a challenge to get them off the sprues without damage, so many are best replaced with wire.

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On 8/3/2021 at 4:17 PM, Model Mate said:

It's a great kit - the best armour kit I've ever seen (mind, you, I haven't experienced that many recently). It's got fantastic detail and a good fit. The only thing to watch for are the fragile pipes and so on. It's a challenge to get them off the sprues without damage, so many are best replaced with wire.

 

Thanks for that summary. I have one to build too and will now be well prepared to wire everything using the kit parts as templates

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Update at last!

 

I’ve painted the tyres dark grey acrylic, then applied a burnt umber overall wash and a black pin wash, plus a bit of brown pastel mud – more to come later after a matt coat (but not too much).

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I finally finished the tracks and painted the pads dark grey, and an earth brown for the connectors. These then got a burnt sienna oil wash – it’s still wet in this picture.

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Another update! ….I’m on a roll here.

 

After a coat of W&N matt varnish, I drybrushed everything using Vallejo Russian uniform green. I love drybrushing, and this colour was an ideal highlight for the olive drab base colour. The rear (rubber) mud flaps and the ends of the gun barrels got a drybrush of dark grey.

 

Next I tried a bit of dust and dirt. I’ve seen lots of builds using pigments for this that look great, but it’s a new technique for me. I took some of the earth brown pastel dust I’d already used and added a bit of light grey. A drop of water was added and I ran it into all the nooks and crannies.  Once dry, I scrubbed it with a small cut-down brush, blew off the excess and blended it in with a large, flat brush (the same used for the drybrushing) and a wet finger. I only knocked a couple of fragile bits off…. It's mostly pretty subtle, although the turret for some reason looks a bit heavier. I may re-visit this and add a little more to the hull.

 

I fitted the tracks, but I’m not convinced by my guide horn colour – a bit too red I think. I’ll add a black oil wash and a bit of mud/dust and hopefully that’ll calm it down.

It’s looking nearly done, but I’ve yet to pop all the hatches open, paint their insides, add the tools and get the base and figures done, so a little way to go yet.

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