Tamiya T-55 Enigma - Done & on the base 8/6

Very nice Job ! !

Yeah, make room in the garage!!  You deserve that glass of red on the deck Marc!  The detail work is just outstanding and the faded desert paint job fantastic!  Does Vallejo make any other "Transformation" paint sets?

Finished? I think so for what it's worth...can't see anything wrong with it. Moreover, I see alot that is right with it. Awful nice job here, man.

Regards,

Mark

WOW!  All of your hard work adding welds really paid off... they look just GREAT!!!

Marc,let me know,also if you ever come across the top of the wings for the Tamyia(grey) 1/48th Zero,hold onto them for me as they weren't in the kit

thanks,

John

You bet Marc ..........have a good one

Awesome looking model to add to the collection Marc, congratulations

Liking part of it would have been good... but all of it... can't ask for more than that.  Thank you.

Hmmm? A glass of red on the deck sounds good just about now.  I accept 

I like it ...............i like it all !!!! Beautiful model Marc .

Anthony, thanks.  if you ever build one I hope it's useful.

Tread, thanks buddy.  I was worried too.  I didn't realize that this set are airbrush colors so I thinned them a bit and it went down really really thin.  But all the subsequent apps were out of the bottle and even if they looked heavy... they dried very thin and didn't mock up the details.

Bill, thanks for the compliment.  Beautifully explained.  One of this where ya say. "I knew that" but does no good if ya don't remember it when you need it.

Waikong.  Thanks. i didn't realize this until you said comeback tour but  I usually think of what I am going to start next 4 or 5 time in the middle of what i am working on.  Didn't do that once and now that this is just about done I still haven't.       HELP!

Thanks John.  Likely won't be there Friday.  Speaking of stuff you got from me... I found to kits that I thought were supposed to have been in that pile.  I'll check and let you know.

wow Marc,great work.Hopefully you'll come friday and bring it so I can see it in person. I'm bringing a Hasegawa 109 I got from you I built,and a Tamyia Tiger also from you...

John

Been following your 'comeback tour' kit - fantastic detialing on this one. Haven't lost your touch after months of abstinence!

Love the way it looks Marc, beautiful work all around!

As to humidity and rusting...humidity is not a prerequisite for rust...exposed steel needs only oxygen to rust...humidity just causes the corrosion (falling apart) to happen quicker. Exposed metal will develop an oxidized (orange to dark brown) surface quickly but won't corrode very fast at all without moisture to carry off the oxidized metal, hence old car wrecks being well preserved in a desert environment structurarlly but still having that deep brown rusted look. Long story short, I think you would see only minimal corrosion depending on how long it's been sitting but any exposed (non-painted) steel would have a rusty appearance quickly if that makes any sense? So if you chip, it would produce rusted accents but minimal rain streaking/corrosion buildup to go with it if you decided to go that route.  

Geez O Geez Marc ;-)    Now the finish is REALLY coming alive ! your welds and all the small detail popping right out ! ... I was kinda worried with all the multiple coats (of top coats) that perhaps something may get lost, but it looks outstanding ! and all the detail is there and it doesn't look muddied up, if ya know what I mean.   You can be proud of this one buddy !  all the extras are paying off dividends now !

great job buddy

tread

Looks just right Marc,great blog to follow along,thanks for posting

As I said earlier, I wanted to keep the weathering on the lighter side.  Not many Enigma models built but the ones that are seem to be very heavy on the rust.  More like they depict one that has been captured and been sitting for a long time.  

I know the humidity in the desert is not dead zero so thing will rust... but how fast and how much on an operational vehicle.  Need opinions as to whether to add some small chipping along some edges with a bit of rusty(ish) streaking coming down.  But again… not much rain to get those plumes of color running down the vehicle.  Looking at pics online the Iraqi vehicles that weren’t blown to smithereens didn’t look all that beat up.  Long story short (oops… too late) any opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Carl, I'l try not to make you wait too long.  You're gonna get a belly ache eatin' like that.  

Thanks for stopping by Mike and glad you like it so far.

Marc....I love it.....pictures can be deceptive....I get the drift of what you are doing and it is looking good....keep it coming.

Rounds Complete!!

I'm ready and waiting for the pictures !

Thanks Andy.

Keeping the weathering light on this one. Have not has time to take any pics but just finishing the tracks and the mg, and it will be off to the photo booth for the final shot.

It looks good!  Sometimes things don't show up too well in pictures.  Can't wait to try color modulation only my panzer soon.  

Marc:  Definately better, but I'm sure it's not showing-off the quality of your work!

Zerk, Ernest... thanks guys.  Glad you are liking it so far.

Steve, no doubt about it the pictures are not showing all that is going on at each stage.  These were taken with a flash and it washes out some of the variation.  A photo booth may have shown it better but I was concentrating on the paint, not the pics at that point.  Being a bit out of practice it was a bit of a challenge.  

No there isn't a darker color to go into the deep recesses.  That is done in the 1st pic and each subsequent layer covers less and less leaving the deep areas dark.  I can’t go back and retake the photos but did adjust the contrast a bit to make them look a bit brighter.   

I have all 6 steps in a row now for a better comparison.  The last pic is the “Bright” step which pics out the highest point and applied with a brush.  The effect can be seen around the edges of the armor, gun mount, angles part of the fuel tanks etc.

Marc:  I think the pictures aren't telling the story.  I hope the effect shows more than the pictures depict.

 I;m afraid it'll all be for nothing once you add washes.  Any chance you can get this to the photo booth and post some more pic's?  I think the workbench and the tools are throwing off the camera.

That first photo is cool, BTW...is there a third color/darker shade to spray deep down in the shadow areas and crevices?

Looking good with the paint on Marc!!  I'm very interested to see how this multi-stage paint set works for you!

Looks great Marc, love the scratch built items.  Paint is coming along well, can't wait to see what's next.

Zerk.

Bill, Carl... thanks guys.  So far getting lucky with new paints, The set is from Vallejo,  and new mixing and dilutions.  Out of my comfort zone so the end result is way up in the air.

The set sounds like it must have a lot of potential for variations in the shades . Look good .

Very cool Marc, nice to see this one with paint on!

Some things fell into place recently... the paint set, Desert War-Zenith Transformation Set, I ordered arrived... and I found time to actually use them.

The set has a bottle of primer, satin varnish and Glaze medium and 6 colors… 1st & 2nd shadow, Base, 1st & 2nd Light and Bright. Step by step instructions guide you through the procedure. The idea is to get a finish that looks like the vehicle is exposed to the desert sun… needless to say. To help in the visualization of the “zenith” idea, when applying the “1 & 2 light colors, they suggest putting a real light the model to give you an idea of where the lighter areas will fall.

Here are the 2 shadow and base stages of the painting. . In the first I did a little more in the way of pre-shading that they do not mention. So far it does show though the added layers, more than in the photos, and has a nice look.