IDF Group Build Mk. II 2010-2011

Awesome WIP pic's RBaer

The painting , weathering and wash is superb , especially the slightly different colour of the reactive panels .

This is truely one great build .

John .

Thanks John. I'm probably going overboard on the weathering and paint damage, seems like IDF paint is very durable, but I wanted to convey the feeling of lots of hard use. I plan to display this one in an urban setting, after a long drive through Lebanon, and thought a little artistic license was OK.

Ditto RBaer, fantastic work, it looks like it just drove down the street! When you're done could you give us a roundup of info, kit, accessories, paints used, that sort of thing? I'd love to see what goes into it physically, and what is then artistic skill!

Cheers, Mike/TB379 (whose PhD came through yesterday!)

Will do, Doc. Congrats!

Thunderbolt379

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Cheers, Mike/TB379 (whose PhD came through yesterday!)

Looking really good RBaer. Mike... can we call you Doctor Thunderbolt now?!?!?!! You could be one of Spider Man's foes!

Hahahahahahaha -- I probably have a couple of lightning bolts on my chest and a fiendish expression. I'll get that web-slinger yet, where's the Raid?!

M/TB379

RBaer -- tracks arrived! Many thanks, I must say they imbue me with more confidence that the old Tamiyas. Now, I have no excuse not to get back to the Merk 1, which stalled at the point of templating the running gear into Sinai Grey...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Glad they finally made it!, Of course, they did have quite a way to go.......

I've been splitting my time between the Magach and the Merk II left over from the first GB, both coming along nicely. I'll try and get some pics up  this weekend.

Pics! I have the heavy dirt on, just need a fine layer of dust. Pics make it look like it's got a camo color on, but that will be lessened after the dust is on. I'll probably use a filter, maybe more pigments. Not sure yet. Anyeay, here it is.

And the Merk II, with some detail painting and weathering started.

The Merk still needs the heavy first layer of dirt put on, then dust.

Sweet beasts RBaer! Looking GOOD! How did you tfind the Merk wheels behaved? Is this the Academy kit with the vinyl tires? The Tamiya has conventional wheels and the rim lip is soooo shallow the templates can't get a firm lock, so it's going to be a very careful job in which I have to physically hold the wheel aligned on the template -- and repeat twenty four times... Ack!

M/TB379

Thanks, Mike. The  regular wheels on the Merk are a mixture of Tamiya and Acad, and the front Acad. I don't recall much trouble with painting or installing the the "tires"  but it's been a while. I do remember that they don't  take paint well and have a sharp inner edge that's hard to fix.

Hi all, I managed to get back to the Merk 1 today, installing the return rollers and masking all axles. Oh, and a few days ago I did a Sinai Grey mixing and zapped the running gear. It'll need a touch more but I'm happy with the shade (a 1:1 mix of XF-20 Light Grey and XF-57 Buff, as recommended for a 1982 scheme on the IDF Modelling site). I'm very close to finished construction, there are only a few details left to fit before I'm into paint. There are some missing hinge flanges I can add from .005" sheet, a few details around the sights to go, then the batch of parts to be finished in metallic and weathered. Other rthan that, I'm onto the standard round of black mudflaps, base, shade and fade coats, spray the tracks, then bring it all together with the oil wash and dust process.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Looking forward to seeing the progress.......

Speaking of which, I'm close to wrapping up the Magach, no pics yet. I think for this one I may actually splurge and purchase some nice figs, instead of the Academy guys I usually use.

The Merk is coming along as well, will try to get current pics of both asap.

Sounds like you guy's are making really great progress .

I've been busy on the home front of late and haven't been able to get much done .

Hopfully some updates sooner than later .

John

A bit more progress......

Dusting, detail painting done, working on the AFV Club tracks. My "3"s didn't work so well, probably have to re-do those. I couldn't find any suitable decals, so tried to hand-paint them and ended up with some pretty nasty brush strokes. Anyway, here it is:

Trying to get ready for ScaleFest in May.

WOW , really looking good now RBaer .

The weathering is just superb .

Great Stuff 

John

Echoing those words, she's a stunner! I MUST add one of these to my collection!

I had meant to get the main spraying on the Merk 1 done on Saturday but things ended up busy, and it'll be tomorrow before I can rip into it...

M/TB379

Thanks guys. It's kind of fun when all the elements of the painting process start to work together.

I did re-do the number panels on the side, still working on the air ID panel and figs.

RBaer

A bit more progress......

Dusting, detail painting done, working on the AFV Club tracks. My "3"s didn't work so well, probably have to re-do those. I couldn't find any suitable decals, so tried to hand-paint them and ended up with some pretty nasty brush strokes. Anyway, here it is:

Trying to get ready for ScaleFest in May.

Looks really good from here. For the numbers - might you try a basecoat of white on styrene sheet, mask with some tape, then spray the black??

Good idea, but I went ahead and used decals on painted masking tape. I'm not totally happy with having to change the numbers, since up until now I was building a specific tank. Now it's "another tank in that same unit".  Although, if I can find some decal stripes or white decal paper.......

Well, only a week late but I managed to get some done on the Tamiya Merk 1. Last weekend I used .010" card to add the missing flanges of the hinges on the storage lockers, here's the evidence:

No way was I going to add two bolt heads to each of the 16 flanges without a punch and dye set... Next came the masking and preshading, also last weekend:

My first preshaded tank, we'll see how much shows through. Today I finally mixed the Sinai Grey (XF-57:XF-20, 1:1) and laid on the basecoat:

The light is a bit harsh, the grey is not quite as luminous as that, and the preshade is pretty much burned out here.

There's a bit more to do in the next session, I forgot to paint the MGs, and the wheels need a bit of a touch up on a few outer faces (they were painted about a fortnight ago), then I can get to the shade and fade coats in the same job. From that point it should be downhill to the finish...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I managed to complete spraying today, with an extra mixing of Sinai Grey for the MGs, double-coat the outer faces of the wheels, paint the drives and idlers, touch up as required, then apply the fade and shade coats too. At this time the Merk 1 is ready for detail painting and oil wash.

M/TB379

Hi Mike ;

I'm quite impressed with the extra effort you put in making those missing hinge flanges ;

Excellent work my friend

I'm yet to try pre-shading on my builds but I think I'll give it a go next time .

Anyway your really moving along with the Merk 1 , I look forward to the next WIP pic's

John .

Looking good Doc Thunderbolt! I've tried preshading a couple of times with little success, I'm either not making enough contrast on the pre-shade, or I'm using too much paint on the top coat. I probably should plan on doing the top coat in two sessions just to force myself to take a break & look at the progress partway through...

Thanks John and Vance -- I think the preshade vanished under the topcoat, if there's anything left it's probably going to be too subtle to show up in photos... Still trying to get the knack of this!

I may not have a chance to start the next phase until the weekend, real life is doing its thing, but it's good to have all the spraying done!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

I managed to put in some time today. I got the tires neatened up, assembled the wheels, unmasked everything and identified all touchups needed. Here she is:

Tomorrow I'll get into the touchups and detail painting, and hopefully start the oil wash. I'm a bit disillusioned with masking over XF-1 black, it never leaves a clean finish. The black seems to be particularly delicate, marking or showing residues no matter how carefully the tack is reduced before tape is applied, and brush painted touchups are always visible, if only because the thicker application dries noticeably glossy... I must develop a better technique for this part of the process.

Cheers, M/TB379

PS: The flange detail I added shows up nicely under the paint and looks like it really belongs.

Progress over the last two days, the wash process is close to complete, anything I spot from here on I'll pick up as I go. Some detail painting has been done and the MGs are underway. Here she is:

I'm hoping to mount the running gear tomorrow, and might possibly have a completion the day after...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Looks good from here. I like the way the wash defined all the different panels on the front hull.

I have a fair amount of progress but no pics. I'm trying to get ready for a show this Saturday and can model or take pics, so you can see (or not) what takes priority. Hope to have pics up next week of both the Magach and Merk.

Cheers!

Wrapping up nicely Thunderbolt!

 RBaer.... I guess we'll just have to believe you... Have fun at the show, what are you taking with you?

Very nearly home and hosed -- I did the general drybrushing of edges and mounted the running gear yesterday:

Then I painted the interior of the gun barrel and a few touchups, plus fitted the side skirts (the right hand skirt gave me hell, four goes to fit, exactly the same as the Academy kit -- ergo Academy reproduced Tamiya's error...) Today I did the bare metal drybrushing, picked up some missed wash weathering points, worked on the MGs and applied the decals. The sheet was old and pretty tough, and needed very long soak times, but the decals behaved fairly well thereafter:

I weathered the spare track links ready to mount tomorrow, and final jobs include last touch-ups, fabricate the antennas, apply pigments for dust, fit and weather the MGs and paint that stretcher (?) that's stowed on the rear hull. With that lot I think I can call this one done, pending only tow cables, whether a set of Eureka XXLs or experiments with braided copper wire from some other source, as the kit cables are no good, requiring heating and bending, a process I have no faith in at all, especially not to look realistic and fit into very delicate, tiny guide parts...

Hopefully I'll be posting gallery shots this time tomorrow.

Cheers, Mike/TB379