Trumpeter KV-2

 Such a nice "tank looking" chassis. Such a D#%@ ugly turret.

 You did a really nice job, though. Maybe a bit more paint damage around the shell hit. But a really nice overall job. Good techniques.

 The tracks are somewhat lacking....? Pools of rust. Road wheels a little weak.

 Others will be along soon to help out more.

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Hey T-Rex,

Your builds are really improving.

A pin wash would bring up the moulded detail - plenty of bolt heads and nooks and crannies on this beast.

Your rust effects on the tracks appear a little inconsistent, as mentioned above. You've got heavy patches of rust on the upper runs, but very little on the front and on the inner surfaces of the lower runs.

I'd also suggest taking your photos without the flash - you need to get up close and personal when you're taking close-up pocs and your flash is washing out the detail and "flattening" your tonal variations. Try taking your pics outdoors or under brighter lighting with the flash off.

Hmmm... Just looking back at the pics, it looks like you may actually have some rust on the front and rear sections of track, but the effects may be washed out by the flash....

He's right, excellent advice.

I never use a flash.

Yeah the flash, I didn't thought it effect the pictures of this model, but there some time is does cover.

Anyways, I use a comination of pastel, acrylic and some artice oil. Stains on the massive turret is a first time, but it looks fairly real, I really proud of this build and is one of my best.

disastermaster wrote:

never use a flash.

Looks good, like the exhausts

If I could make a suggestion, if you're going for a rusty KV track look, I think they'd be an overall rusty/brown colour except where it contacts the wheels and road, rather than discrete patches of rust, tracks are only black when they're freshly installed or it's on display....but that could be because of the flash....

Get some white card and set it up to reflect some natural light in front of a window, but force that flash off, it's very unflattering 

Nice job I like the diferent tones of the base coulor.

Nice looking KV you got. I built the oher trumpeter KV-2 ( It looks like theres a difference in the turrets). Two suggestions though suggestion though. For the rust streaks on the turret, maybe you could grodually fade them into the base color so it is more subtle. Finally, the stain on the muzzle looks too sharp. You could gradually fade that too. Otherwise it looks very good and i liked how you gave the base color a nice fade to it!

-Brandon

Thank you for all your kind comments guys, I really apprciate it.

I admit the faded color looks great on this model, one of the first one with an buff wash.

After applling tamiya primer (a new step I discover) I sprayed to much on the turret and slip down to the bottom making a bump, I had to sand it out and reapplied the primer. AlthougthI accidentaly sand off the four bolts on the bottom of the turret on both sides, I had to scrachbuild some and sand it out, this was the only major mistake on the tank. I had to applie many coat of dark green to cover the sanding marks and manage to save the decals. Speaking of decals I use a setting solution to blend the decals in place, it work beautifully and the buff wash (another new thecnique discover) is simply heavily thinner tamiya buff, made the decals fade away, rader than bright and new writting. The buff wash made the tank look dusty and I applied more at spot were the crew would walk more often (around haches, engine compartement, and the climbing steps). And finally finish it with the weatherin, I always start with acrylics, then artise oil (raw umber) and the most effective of all, pastel colors like medium rust, soot, weather brown adn of course dust bowl brown (dirt). the tracks base color is Valgno black grey, which is much better color than flat black, and cover it with pastel, but I think that mud is alot more important than rust on tracks since its what the tank goes throught the most.

I do have a dio in mind (like many of my builds), I was think its crew coming out for a break after the battle of Kursk, near the shore of a lake or pond, with a light german self proppelle artillery laid to rest in the water.I will also try to get pictures in the next readers gallery in FSM.

Another new build for the army, and the first of its kind, thanks again.

About the paint job there was enough suggestions already. About the build itself, I think, it is very nice and accurate. I would only recomend to pay more attention to filling gaps between parts.

As far as your idea for diorama... This tank was a first version of KV-2 and it didn't stay too long in production. And I don't think any of them have made pass 1941. Plus no KV-2 (even the later version of the tank) took a part in the Kursk battle. But there are still many opportunities to include both vehicles in one diorama.

I also would like to mention the decal on the turret. Parts of two different decals, I guess? The first word means "fight", the second is one of the forms of a word "us (we)". So the actual translation would be as an invitation to "use us (as material object) to fight" something or someone. Russian language can be very tricky sometime...

I just hope I didn't ruin your day