1/48 Armor GB (Non Aircraft)

Lu, the basecoat weathering is looking really good already. You were using the same technique with your AFV club 251 and I like any technique that saves me a step.

mokei wrote:

Dupes,   Sorry for the confussion about gun barrel shade because I wrongly thought it was red primer . please forget my remark about it.

Lu - no worries.

mokei wrote:

Regarding the 251 thing, your guessing is correct and the Tamiya kit is one SdKfz 251/1 version. By the way I made the 1/48th AFV-Club 251 Ausf C some months ago and it is an excellent kit and they will also release one Ausf D version but no estimation when yet. Needess to say I will build the Tamiya kit too, and I am preparing a Hanomag-Mania GB over the M-L forun later this summertime to celebrate the arrival of the 251 family to quarter scale land. Lets see how it works.

Wow, let me know when you start the Hanomag GB, if I'm not able to participate I will at the very least look in very frequently!

Whippet looks great already...can you give me any idea of how much you're lightening/darkening the base coat with other colors? Like, percentage-wise? 

Guys,

Thanks for your kind words. Dupes, as for percentages, note I am spraying those other shades fromt he bottle directly and I am NOT mixing them with the base coat. I just followed painting over the former work and adding new tones to the base freely.  Bear in mind all shades used are quite different to the original Field Grey.

The Whippet is changing quickly.  

Once base shade is done, then I spent little time to add decals and to colour some details. The GasoLine decals were a nice surprise to me because they are excellently printed, are opaque totally and decal film reacted very well to the use of specific liquids, and although it looked thick in the decal sheet it fitted to the model surface surprisingly well. Regarding the accessories, only a few parts are coloured in different shade to base colour, and at this stage they all are primed with Vallejo Acrylics on theirs respective shade and they will be complete on following steps little by little.  

Note that the model became quite dark due to the satin coat I gave prior to decaling, but do not panic because all the former work is still there and the Whippet will recover part of its condition as soon as it becomes Matt again in the course of painting, and finally we can see unmasked here the national white-red-white ID bands painted on step #1.  

The true weathering process starts dusting up the lower hull and running gear by spraying one dark (German Grey) , medium (Earth Brown) and light shade (Buff) to reproduce a basic heavily dusted look. The method followed is the same used on the base coat fading and those three shades are overlapped over and over until they cover the base coat completely. In fact this process can be made on earlier stages if you want because -at the end- the lower hull and running gear end up not being green anymore. I personally love the contrast created on this step and this is just the beginning of the deep change the Whippet will suffer from now on.  

Lu  

Guys, thanks for your words much appreciated. By the way, I enjoy the private atmosphere here, as far as it seems we are only three at the GB at the moment.  

Dupes, thank you so much for the input very useful to me because it made me think a lot. I think you are right totally and things are not really well expressed by my side and I am sure this all needs better clarifications. Regarding the former step, bear in mind all colurs were airbrushed very thinned, so you are not spraying pure colour in fact and in that meaning nothing is really pure German Grey, pure Earth Brown or pure Buff but clear shades of them. Also the layering -soft edged- effect caused by airbrushing makes everything blend together smoothly naturally (although you can make hard/strong traces intentionally too). At the end, final shade is a product of those two main causes and it is much less traumatic than you might think reading a brief written description.  

Waikong, derivating form the above remark, I would recomend you to go slowly with any new thing you want to try until you get the experience to use it with confidence. Do not get me wrong I do not mean you have to pass a long training for that, because particularly this technique permites you to go as far as you want little by little. Next time you want to give it a try, just make the process one single time and stop for a second to see how it goes, if you like how it starts, then add a bit more and stop and see again. I am sure you will reach the point you want easily that way. Anyways, you know what? Even the few times I consider I overdid this effect on any of my models, at the end I realized that I had to have made it a bit more still. Can you believe it?.  The weathering is a summ of many things and not the product of one only technique as you well know.   

Now, upper hull must be dusted up in order to balance the former effect made on the lower hull and running gear. Diluted enamels work really well for that purpose used in two different ways. First a very selective light pin wash is given around raised details or recesed lines like a traditional dark pin washs. That is particularly useful for riveted or bolted areas, welding seams, etc. Following heavier dust deposits and stronger colour contrast is added in selected places on the model like the angled joins between the plates composing the hull, by dampening the area to treat with clean thinner to put small drops of enamels there and to blend them with a soft brush dampened in clean thinner.  

As you can see once more the look of the model changed and it became quite plain indeed. I personally believe exactly this is the point many modeller feel panic when weathering theirs models because it seems you have ruined all your previous work, but the truth is that we must be patient because this is just one more necessary step in the weathering process and things will change drastically again soon.  

Have faith.

Lu   

Well, private may be nice sometimes, but I do wonder what happened to the other GB participants - no comments?

Once again, your next weathering step nicely builds on what you have done. In regards to your comments about 'overdoing' an effect, I concur completely. Having built mostly aircraft which in general are not as heavily weathered as armor, I tend to 'underweather'.  The problem is that when I get the shades just 'right', successive coats of gloss, blending coat, and matt coat removes much of the weathering effect.  You really need to 'overdo it' to take into account the effect of those finishing coats.

Okay, The whippet looked very plain, so now it is time to enhance the definition of detail. After the dusting up we lost most of the detail definition and almost everything seemed to have similar finish (that is not 100% true though) so in order to gain that visual richness again I worked with acrylics on many small parts and reduced areas to recover some of the lost visual definition. For instance, a very subtle dry-brushing with a dark shade helps to highlight all rivets and edges, the tracks are repainted partially, small and very selected stains in various shades are added here and there to give definitive shapes to dust deposits to my taste... in summary many little touches that make the model look much more complex and visually complete to our eyes.

At that is how it is now. I think the model will be painted completely in the next step hopefully.

Lu

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.

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

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.

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.

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!) 

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

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  

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  

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! 

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

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

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

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  

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.

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!

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