First foray into armour - looking for advice

[Jazzy Jase]

Hi,

I've bought myself a couple of armour kits as I fancy a bit of a break from aircraft.

Having never built a tank before can anyone offer any advice? What should I do differently from building aircraft?

The kits I've bought are:

Dragon 1/72 - 7274 - Sherman M4A3 (105mm) VVSS

Dragon 1/72 - 7262 - T-34/76 Mod. 1941 Cast Turret

Dragon 1/72 - 7307 - Jagdpanzer IV L/70 Early Production

Thanks,

Jason

[Mike]

As a recent armour neophyte myself, it's quite a different build process. You can pretty much build all of the superstructure before painting, with the exception of the tracks & road wheels. All you really need to do is remember to mask off things like clear periscopes, and pre-paint any interior parts you might be leaving on display (unlikely on 1:72 though, I'd have thought?).

The basic painting process is a piece of cake... spray on your base color, then any highlighting/lowlighting you want to do in paint. You can add filters here to subtly change the colors, and then move on to highlighting any detal with a wash. Remove any excess wash so it doesn't get that "pointlessly grubby" look, then it might be appropriate to weather it with pigments, oils or both. Don't forget to apply your decals before the weathering, and also don't forget to apply them to a glossy surface. Weathering is done on a matt surface though, so you'll need to matt down after decaling.

I find that adding pieces of personal equipment & stowage is what brings the model alive, and realistic scale aerials... at 1:72 that's going to be tricky, but bear in mind that most aerials are about the width of your thumb, so anything wider than about .25mm will look a bit chunky.

It's a bit daunting to a newbie, so just ask questions as you go. I was lucky having Dan on hand to help out, but as he's got a migraine today, you will have to rely on me (oh no!) and any of the more experienced armour modellers here.

[tornado64]

leave the wings off ??

[Jazzy Jase]

Thanks Mike, I seem to have lost my mojo with aircraft at the moment so I was hoping this would be quite simple and a few quick builds would enthuse me somewhat.

I don't need to worry about interiors as they are so small and I will keep them closed up for simplicity.

Had't thought about aerials, would stretched sprue suffice?

I guess my main concerns are painting the tracks and realistically muddying the thing. If I paint the tracks off the model, won't the paint flake off as they are bend and placed over the wheels?

Oh, and I will remember to leave off the wings!

[Guest snipersmudge]

Thanks Mike, I seem to have lost my mojo with aircraft at the moment so I was hoping this would be quite simple and a few quick builds would enthuse me somewhat.

I don't need to worry about interiors as they are so small and I will keep them closed up for simplicity.

Had't thought about aerials, would stretched sprue suffice?

I guess my main concerns are painting the tracks and realistically muddying the thing. If I paint the tracks off the model, won't the paint flake off as they are bend and placed over the wheels?

Oh, and I will remember to leave off the wings!

For such a small scale I would say stretched sprune would be quite acceptable. as for the tracks I would suggest adding them before painting but not glueing them to the wheels that way you can move them about during painting

As regards weathering take a trip to your nearest construction site and have a look at the vehicles there to see real wear and tear plus mud. Then just paint and weather as you see fit

[daz greenwood]

Hi Jase.

Nice braille scale armour choices.

I leave the tracks off until after painting as this makes it easier for me, but thats personal choice.

And as for wear and tear study as much photographs as you can and study real vehicles.

Or just do what I do and make it up as you go along lol