Greetings all. Much progress has been made since our last episode.
I gave the Stryker a nice coat of regular ol' Krylon gray primer, which I figured would be a good idea with all that exposed metal sitting there. The white balance on this shot is a little weird, as the vehicle is a nice neutral gray color here.
After a nice coat of gray, I added a nice coat of field green.
After the nice coat of green, I lightly airbrushed a coat of Dark Tan on the lower surfaces. All the Stryker photos I have from Iraq show filthy vehicles, so I'm not sure if its possible to over-weather.
I used the airbrush from above, hitting the top surfaces more than the bottom ones.
I attached the wheel hubs to a scrap piece of self-stick floor tile, then airbrushed them similar to the vehicle hull.
I added the tires to the hubs and then weathered them with a bit of Dark Tan and some yellow pastel chalk.
The slats were painted separately, and in the same fashion as the hull.
Once the tires were done, I was able to mount them to the chassis, then hang the wheel well slats in place. I also started to add crew gear to the sides of the vehicle, as it is much easier to hang them in place without the slats in the way.
This is one of the photoetch cargo nets. Two are provided. I tacked down the cots, ammo cans and pack with tacky glue (easily removable, as it became necessary later on.)
More stuff added. The Legend Stryker Gear kit has a lot of nice parts, but the most useless one is a giant block of gear meant to go in this space, covering the rail around the ventilator and any of its detail. I opted to not use it. Its also pretty much impossible to separate the individual items found in that block and use them elsewhere.
MAny tiny straps were added to both sides. The tool rack was also glued into place
So far, so good. I added a spare tire, extra water cans, a few ammo cans, a couple of experimental sandbags (since discarded, for reasons I'll explain momentarily) and began work on the second cargo net.
Right about here I discovered that the Eduard Big Ed PE kit doesnt have every set of parts needed for a proper Stryker. They have since issued a small set of blast panels that mount to the top deck of the vehicle, providing extra protection for crew members exposing themselves in the air guard hatches, and a RHINO anti-IED device. Photos of Strykers ICVs in Iraq all have these panels and devices, but none of the shots were really good enough to show what they looked like, making fabrication a bit difficult. The really nice thing about the Blast Panel set is that it also included the proper headlight assembly mount, which I was not looking forward to making out of scrap.
Alas, tales of adding the blast panels, headlight mounts and RHINOs will have to wait for another post. Until then, I am...
Ranger Joe, Defender of Bunnies