1/48 Armor GB (Non Aircraft)

Finally got those photos. I believe I'm done with this one unless I missed something pretty glaringly obvious. Let me know if you pick up on anything. Here's what she looks like:

Still working on the base, but I don't know when that's going to be finished. Keep plugging away in between other builds' dry times. Heh.

Hi All,

I've just started Tamiya's kit of Rommel's 'Greif' 250/3. I'm trying to hurry it through for June, so I might as well bung it into this GB too.

Completed photos of my Stug III Ausf G in the next week or so.

Cheers

Tony

Thanks a million for the quick response/fix, waikong.

That 1/48 Whippet is just plain stunning, Mokei, if your reading this, post your finished pics in the armor section, my fellow modelers whould love to see such fine work.

No problem, I've added the JPG version of the GB. 

I also updated the first page with Luciano's finished Whippet.

Amazing build Lu, absolutely stunning.

Thanks for the advice...I've made some more progress, toned it down a bit and added some  stuff, including the schurtzen, a rack modified from one in the Legend Productions set, and I'm just test fitting some stowage.The rust on the spare track links isn't that red, but for some reason it's more pronounced in this photo.

Cheers

Tony

Alright now Lu, your build is good enough, then you go and throw some spectacular photography in on top of it! Do we get some sort of mini-tutorial on how you pulled that off?

I've seen this sort of thing in Armor Magazine...always wondered how it was done!

Lu, that looks stunning! How much of the base is photo vs solid material?  Those photos look amazing, I like the 'dust' effect you created on them.  Thanks for joing up and sharing this build - I'll look for more of you build over at missing-lynx and MIS.

Tony, good work on the Stug. I think it is going very well specially being your second 1/48 armour build ever. Regarding your streaking challenge my thoughts are two:

1> If you wanted to airbrush the streaking/fading over the base colour as I made on the Whippet, bear in mind I made it at very painting early stage, and I used that airbrush streaking to paint a faded base coat and NOT as one true weathering process over the base colour. I mean the resulting thing is my true base coat on which I add weathering later.

2> But as I guess your intention was to add streaking as part of the weathering process (I mean the weathering we all add over the base coat) then my advice is NOT to use airbrush for that and to make that streaking by brush painting techniques (i.e. oil-doting like Dupes very well suggests or any other you like). In my humble opinion, airbrush is one very useful tool for painting  general effects, but I believe 90% of the finish of a model is responsibility and product of pure brush painting most of the times, because airbrush is hard to command for that kind of very selective and controlled effects.

Waikong, for the airbrush streaking is not really necessary to paint very fine lines. The layering will make the lines thin.

Dupes, How is that turtle going?

Okay, the final pics of the Whippet are here and that implies my work for the GB is done which makes me VERY happy. I really have a good time every time I can join here because you guys make me feel very comfortable making models with you.  Thanks guys for the support, kind words and the nice atmosphere. Sure we will meet again soon because I will follow the track of your works as much as I can.

Lu  

Hi,

Thanks for the positive comments. I've toned the streaking down somewhat by rubbing in some powdered chalk pastels mixed to the right colour. I'll have to drybrush again I think. Yes it did the streaking with my airbrush, to be honest, I found it a challenge, but was able to tidy up a few things later on. I found it hard to stay completely parallel, the lines tended to wander a bit.

Since taking these photos I've attached the schurtzen, then decided to add a storage rack on the rear deck, so I've removed the spare wheels whilst I do so. I've also cleaned up a set of Legend Productions resin storage accessories for this kit, ready to paint. I'll attach the rack tonight then post some more pics.

This is all very new and interesting to me, as I've built far more of everything else and only ten or so armor kits over the last 30 years or so. This is my 2nd 1/48 armor build.

Cheers

Tony

I've finally progressed the Stug. I can't say I'm totally happy with the look at the moment, but hopefully it will come together at the end. There's still a fair bit to go, including a good coat of flat, some weathering powders, paint chips, accessories etc, not necessarily in that order :)

Cheers Tony

Thanks Lu, another tip that I will adopt in my next build. I tried airbrushing lightened dark sand and German grey streaks on my model overnight, but I've found it quite hard to maintain a perfectly vertical, straight line. I'll have to do some tidy up before I move on.

Those two models really do look fantastic. My congrats to you.

Cheers

Tony

Lu - great finish on both builds!

Looking forward to seeing your Jagdpanzer in print...what magazine are you being published in? I hope it's soon!

Sorry to hear about your tight schedule. If you do free up a little bit of time before the end of the year, 1,000 Roadwheels will be waiting for you.

I suppose I can hold off final comments on the whippet until it's completed - but MAN it looks good! 

If the former step added definition to detail after the plain dusted finish now it is time to enhance the visual impact of the model. For that, I went adding very selective dark stark stains here and there little by little. Three different types of stains are painted at this stage. Flat Black stains that gives depth to the former finish, Glossy Black (Smoke) stains reproducing wet fluids and final touches of metallic shine to simulate wore off metal edges. Take in consideration at this stage the model is becoming quite dense visually and it is necessary to take your time to realize what else the model needs to prevent overdoing and to me the hard thing here is to decide when the model is finished. So although the process itself is not hard to make, the truth is that I spent a couple of days analyzing and retouching the model until I considered it done finally.

And here you have some images of  the painted model. As you can see I also worked on a crew figure which comes from spare parts. The bust was made over a Tamiya body on which I reworked arms and other uniform details with epoxy putty, and the head is a combination of ICM parts. Personally I am very sattisfied with that chap because he looks like a WWI gentleman somehow and -in my humble opinion- the model would look very different (poorer perhaps?) without the crew figure undoubtedly.    

Okay that is all for now. The model is painted but not finished yet, because I still want to make a decorated base where to display the Whippet, so I will need a couple of days to complete everything definetedly.  

I hope you like it.  

Lu  

Dupes, I see you are very active modeller and that is something I really appreciate a lot. I would love joining to the 1000 roadhweels GB, but to say truth I will have a very tight schedule in the following months, so I do not know if I can get spare time to make one Pz IV before the end of the year. Anyways I like that 72nd Lang. Is that the DML Kit?, You wil not believe this, but I bought the DML Lang some months ago just after I finihed the 1/48th model. By the way, no images of the making of the 1/48th scale Lang in the internet so far because It will be featured in the mags soon, but here you have some shots of the finished model and if you have any question regarding the painting, please do not hesitate to ask, okay?

Tony, the schurtzen were attached to upper hull and I kept upper and lower halves unassembled during the painting. In that way I could paint running gear comfortably. Anyways running gear barely can be seen once upper hull is assembled definitedly, so I did not worked so much on those hidden areas.

Lu  

Thanks for the tuition Lu, I've found it both interesting and enlightening

I've seen some very good figure painters shadow brighter yellows with Purple, which can be effective too, but I don't think you could go there with the colours of sand on an AFV, but feel free to try.

I am going to use your German Grey and lightened Sand principle on my Stug,  so any more hints would be fantastic (please).

Looking at your photo has generated a question. I see you are spraying with the hull schurtzen attached to the tank.  Have you already shaded and weathered the inside of the schurtzen, or do do you remove it and do this at a later stage ? Do you have any examples of the effect you go for with that ?

Cheers

Tony

Lu - sure enough, that German Grey looks great on there! I would never have guessed (or tried) that that would work.

Do you have a full build thread for that Jagd L/70 anywhere? Would like to check it out and see what the final product looks like...I'm doing a 1/72 version for the 1,000 Roadwheels GB right now. Speaking of which, you should head over there when you're done with your whippet - we could use some spectacular 1/48 stuff in the group. Would love to have you!

(She's actually a bit farther along than this right now...don't have an updated pic, though. Check out the appropriate GB for updates!) 

Tony, glad to hear you will be able to work on the Stug again. Looking forward to the pictures.

Lu, I hear what you are saying about the Grey. Since you are laying on the paint in very light layers, it's interacting with the color underneath to get the effect you want. Like I said previously, your build shows that I really need to experiment with being bolder with my color choices in weathering.

Tony, thanks for your kind words. As for your concern you know well you will always have a suitable GB here at FSM to enter 1/48 armor models and if not, at the moment the "Allied Power" is running over the M-L 48th forum until late June and after that we will have the "Hanomag-Mania" there from August.  

Dupes, Regarding your question. I personally think German Grey is one very valid shade for streaking a Dark Yellow vehicle and actually it works far better than (for instance) a Dark Brown shade for that purpose surprisingly.  In fact, attending to color theory, the deepest/darkest shadow of a sand tone can be a grey shade and for that reason it can produce a very nice weathering effect in my humble opinion. In your case, I think Buff (or a mix of Dark Yellow + Flat White), and German Grey are enough for streaking a Dark Yellow vehicle and I would not add any shade of Brown to the streaking effect to prevent a browny finish overall.

Take a look at that 1/48th scale Lang L/70 I made past year. Although that example is about colour modulation (and not streaking), there you can see the nice effect the combination of enlighted Dark Yellow + German Grey produces over a plain Dark Yellow overall base. Believe it or not, the shadowed Dark Yellow was painted by spraying very thinned German Grey directly from the bottle without mixing with any other shade. I guess this can give you a good approach tof what you can get layering German Grey over a Dark Yellow base coat. (Note the Earth Brown was used there to prime the running gear exclusively and NOT used to mod the Dark Yellow at all).

Hope this helps

Lu

PS: Yesterday I started the final assault to the painting of the Whippet and it is changing quite a lot quickly.

Well done on that Whippet, it's the ducks guts ! Looks really good, I think I'll have to go for a dark finish on my next one just  so that I can try it.

The Hetzer is really nice too. Reminder to self - try an ambush scheme.

What happens when this GB expires, I'd hate to have to live life without a 1/48 Armor GB (And all you guys).

In the meantime, after taking some serious time off from modelling to put a pool in the backyard and fully redo the landscaping, I'm back onto my Stug III G. I've had a change of heart, I'm going to go for a sand finish, weathered, and save the distemper finish for another challenge. Really got forced into this when I realised that the white vehicle depicted in the kit didn't have schurzen, but I've already attached the stays for it.

I hopefully will make some more progress this weekend, so that I can show some photos.

Cheers

Tony

Lu - your whippet looks amazing! All due to some very skillful airbrush work.

Question for you - would you suggest using the German Gray for streaking on a model that didn't have such a dark base coat? Say, dunkelgelb, for example? The other colors seem like they would blend with just about anything, but that one seems like it would be very contrasty over certain colors.