Made a lot of progress this weekend, first up was the remaining details for the exterior. These mainly took the form of the equipment/tool clamps and some other odds and ends.
First up on the rear hull I added the Eduard clamps for the aiming poles. The Eduard set also called for the mounting of a metal step in the top left corner but this should actually be a grab handle so I fashioned one out of brass rod, drilled some shallow mount holes, and glued it in place with CA gel.
The front fenders were dealt with next, with the left side fender receiving the Bosch light and all the clamps for the tools on that side. The placement of the clamps needed to be fairly precise to allow the pry bar, the pick axe, and shovel to fit properly so I started with the clamps for the pry bar and worked my way outward. In order to insure the clamps had a solid base, I carefully removed the raised tread pattern where needed using the sharp tip of a #11 blade.
The right side fender was equally tricky in terms of needed precision, in this case though I started at the front and worked my way carefully towards the rear. The clamps for the S-hook and axe went in first, then the jack block, and lastly the jack itself.
That meant it was time to paint so I masked off the interior of the fighting compartment with strips of blue painter's tape to protect the details from over-spray.
The road wheels and other running gear elements were also prepped using wooden toothpicks and small blobs of blue tack poster putty to hold them in place. I use a draftsman's circle template to mask the wheel rims so the appropriate diameter holes were also masked off at this point.
The exterior received a primer coat of MM enamel Italian Dark Brown by airbrush. This made it easy to check the putty work and correct any needed areas before committing to the base coat.
The base coat was applied by airbrush using a mix of 50-50 MM enamel Light Gray/Panzer Dunkelgelb over the primer. I used multiple light passes to build it up to the desired coverage.
While that was drying, I also painted the road wheels. They were primered the same as the vehicle and I used MM enamel Gunmetal for the rubber portions. Using the circle template, the hubs were airbrushed and set off to the side for installation later.
That brought me of course to the highlight of the day...the application of the camo pattern. I used MM enamel Khaki for the olive-grun portion and applied that first in broad angled stripes over the base coat. The stripes were then outlined with thin stripes of 50-50 MM enamel Military Brown/Leather for the rot-braun portion. I corrected any over-spray using the base coat color and then thinned out what was left in the pain cup to roughly wash consistency and then sprayed a fading/unifying coat over the whole pattern from about 12" distance.
This Tuesday is my 14th wedding anniversary so this is where work will stop for now since I have to of course get ready to celebrate that with my extremely hobby-supportive wife!