Zil 157 truck from Trumpeter kit 204 . Its 9-26 and Its finished ! Cutting edge pictures posted !

Much Masking Madness . I masked off the black frame and drive train .I used a base coat of Model Master enamel Russian Armor Green . Then cut the green with flat white and sprayed the areas that would be fadded .

Zil untapped ! I touched up some areas with M M acrylic Russian Armor Green . The acrylic wont lift the enamel coats of paint .

Next the engine .

Heya Shell :-)

looks great man..  I have just a simple question,: if you touched up with MM acrylic , why didn't you just shoot it with that originally ?  inplace of the enamel

color me curious,

tread

PS  I liked your comment in the thread about using Future.... the proof is in the seeing !  and I agree with you

Tread man , i didnt airbrush the model with the acrylic because , well .i simply havent found a way to spray MM acrylics without it building up on the tip of the needle and causing spattereing . I can clean the tip but it builds up again ...............enamels are just easier for me , probably because thats what i worked with from the beginning . If used a retarder maybe that would help but i dont have that many MM acrylics . I have fairly good luck with Tamyiya acrylics ..........they must have a finer pigment i guess .I bought some of the MM acrylics and then found out how it didnt spray well for me anyway .

Glad you and i agree about the Future . Man i like using that stuff . A few times i thought i had a disaster with it but it dried nice and level .

Tread , have you used Archer dry transfers ? I might try them out on my build for Eric's "Cat" g.b.

Take care you ole corn pie .

hi again Shell

I use MM acrylic (and Vallejo) all the time... my best advice with them is ( if you ever wanted to try and use them again ) is to thin with distilled or bottled water only... no alchohol,, no lacquer thinner ( like you can with Tamiya)  and make the paint very thin. I also like enamels for some things.. I like the future also but I don't use it on the whole model but you sure have great success with it. On your Sherman with the decal problem, you actually could have used any kind of clear or flat coating, sanded it like you did and recoated and your results would have been just as great.. I like to mix the future with the paint to alter the ' dead flat ' to a semi flat on some parts of the model.parts that get wear and tear.  As you said earlier it's not what you use, it's more like how the results justify the method.   I have used Archer dry transfers, but only on 1/16 scale. In my humble opinion they seem a bit thick, I don't think you should be able to feel an edge , if ya know what I mean.  and you cannot mess up where you put them.. there is no wiggle room...perfectly placed or scrape it off and get a new one.

Here is a good one for ya... My Sherman that I just repainted is painted in artists oil paints , ..just paints,no filters, no washes no pigments... no nuthin... just a million shades of OD   LOL   ( the commander is acrylic)

yer pal ,Bill

Glad to see it painted!!!  Nice fading work!...

Bill , you use distilled water only ? Seems like that could make a it runny ? Is the secret thin coats and low air pressure ? I'd like to be able to use the MM acrylics i have so give me the info man ..............please .I like the painting stage of building so any hints you could share i would appreciate . The Sherm looks better every time you post a pic of it . How did you paint it with artist oils ? I mean did you brush on the coats or airbrush them ? Results look realistic .Just enough sheen . T.C. man is spot on . Where's this model headed , a contest or magazine ?

 I didnt realize you used acrylics . Like i said if i could use my acrylics i will . Its just the tip clogging situation that is a pain .

Sounds like dry transfers could be real tediouse but maybe worth the results . I'll give them some more thought b4 i order .

Thanks for the info Bill .

Carl

Andy , thanks for following this one ! I want to get more done on the engine today , we'll see if that works out .

Heya Shell

Yes on the water. I have read that people use other stuff,but it has NEVER worked better for me with just bottled water. If you have a filter on your tap water that would be fine too, but I think they just want you to use water that has no chemicals in it ( like well water is sometimes high in iron).

The viscosity of the acrylic ( for a base coat ) should be about 2  parts water to 1 part paint. On MM acrylic I have noticed that some colors are by nature thicker than others, so you have to take that into the formula. Vallejo all seem perfectly equal to me.  If I feel I need to retard the drying, I add a little dish detergent to my water. I paint at about 15 PSI to do a base coat. The other thing to consider in the formula is how far away from the object you are painting your Air brush is. At 15 PSI I might be 4 to 6 inches away with full fan on the gun.Here is a little tutorial on Vallejo, but I use them and MM exactly the same,and they can even be mixed together if you want. They are both ' true ' acrylics made to be thinned with water only ( un like Tamiya which is a hybrid )  http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/blog/2010/03/painting-figures-with-model-color/  

I painted my Sherman with oils because I was at a show and there was a 1/16 figure of a Knight wielding his sword on horseback. I had never seen paintwork like it . I found the guy who did the work and we talked for a long time about oils and I just said to my self, I have to try and apply this to armor. It is all brush painted , but it does have a base of acrylic for the oils to ' bite ' on. So instead of doing like post shading with your AB, if you want to go darker you add (for OD) van *** brown or black and manually blend them with a brush right on the model. Its like as if you were painting a canvas ,but it is in 3D. It was an experiment that is too time consuming to try again, but it came out with a unique finish.  Also after it is dry you can use a dullcoat on it or future over it or enamel over it. Do you think my Sherm looks a little too glossy ?... I kind of thought it looks a little more realistic (because of the 1/16 scale ) to have some gloss, but I pulled my T-34 out of the box the other day and it is ' dead ' flat and it looks pretty good that way also. Anyhow man you should be working on the ZiL instead of reading, but read the tutorial and when it says Vallejo just pretend it says Model Master.

Can't wait to see the engine in the Chassis !

tread

Nice work on the body Carl, looking good!

Bill (Tread) i looked thru that link , thanks . Good reference . Have you tried using artist acrylics ? They come in a tube like oils . I tried them on a couple of figs . I did use them with some good results . You just have to mix your own colors .At least the cheap Walmart set i got had only the basic colors . I got side tracked on that link and was looking at the Valejo pigments . Been looking at Migs selection and i am about ready to order some of theirs . Have you used them ? I thought i'd try them on this Zil . I want to try out the sponge chipping method also on this one . By the way i dint get much done on it today . Too nice outside you know .One thing i did do is paint the engine aluminum . sounds weird but the pics i have show it in aliminum .

(W)Bill thanks for looking in !

Heya Shell

Aluminum for the truck block during the war was not at all unusual for the Russians. The T-34 V-2 Diesel that in one version or another (always evolving ) powered all the T-34 76s and 85s and all the KVs and all the rest of their armor was all aluminum as well as their thick bodied transmission casing !  It was one material that was in good supply for them. Even the valve covers were aluminum castings.

does the ZiL have aluminum head also ?  I would guess it did and then they use an iron piston sleeves.

talk to ya soon,

tread

Bill i've been thrashing the internet trying to get more facts on the Zils engine ...so far lots of pics and not much specs , at least where i looked . Here's some info .......it is a 5.55 litre gas burnibg engine with a flat head developing 109 hp ( omg) at 2800 rpm . I does look as if the block and heads are aluminum and therefore the piston sleeves would have to be as you said .

Some of this looks like it must have been painted aluminum to me .

Fine work with the painting / shading and nice job with all the pin marks, they can be a real pain.   I like Archer transfers, you just have to get them in the correct place before applying but after that I thought they went on and look real good in my limited experience with them.  I will be using them again on future builds.

Cool pics , Shell...sure looks like the bell housing and tranny are aluminum also...I can't see the transfer case, but prob. aluminum too. Thanks for posting those pics... I am gonna save them.

tread : )

Bill , the kit instructions show painting the engine block , bell housing , tranny and transfer case black . I left the block aluminum color and painted the rest back . I guess it could happen to paint over the aliminum . I'll weather/dry brush the black parts with aluminum to help the look . Right now i'm doing some oil washes with black and burnt umber . Taking pics of the stages in the process . Trying to keep the boss happy with her honey doo's so it may take a while to get the engine done ....but it looks good so far . I started to do some rust on the block ....... ............glad you brought up the aluminum ! Pics maybe late tonight Bill .

Rob .thanks for that !!! If you already read the above then you know whats happening . Take care .

Later guys .

Hey guys ! I finished the engine . Here's a pic of it b4 i weathered it . I painted it with "old silver" from Floquil . Its a model RR paint and it dries with a hard surface .

Next I used artist oils , black and burnt ochre , to weather with and covered that with several coats of Future made flat with Tamiya flat base .

Take care out there .

Great looking engine!  Bet it actually works too...

I had the same thought as Andy...looks like it could fire right up with a turn of the switch!

Andy , Bill thanks . You dont think i over did the weathering on it ?

I deciced to do this in NVA markings . The kit comes with decals for that . My thinking is that the NVA didnt take care of their vehicles . I saw a clip of these dragging the SA-2 down a dirt jungle road durring the Nam war . So cleaniness was probably not a priority .

Hiya Shell

I think the weathering looks right on for the vehicle you are doing    .  If you were doing a Russian May Day Parade vehicle, I would expect cleaner, But in any case I think the detail work is excellent and thats what I really like

Fire that bad boy flathead up ! ( all 109 HP )

tread

Karl, a really nice looking engine! I thought you wouldn't let go on the opportunity to do some flaking red paint on the fan and the pulleys, but other than that the engine looks just the way it is supposed to. In Europe most of the engines have unpainted blocks, so the color is natural cast metal from day one, and later they just get dirty . No aluminium for this one - the technology wasn't perfected in those days, and an aluminium engine wouldn't be field-repairable. As for engine-standards I'd say your motor is actually pretty clean and well kept . Congratulations and good luck with your project, have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel , thanks again . The time period i'm thinking of is 1968 thru 1973 . This truck would have been with the NVA . I'm really not sure of what yrs the Zil 157's that the NVA were using in the time period would have been built . I'm not even sure where they were built .....Russia or China ? Any info you have i'll will use and appreciate !

Thanks again .

treadwell

Hiya Shell

I think the weathering looks right on for the vehicle you are doing    .  If you were doing a Russian May Day Parade vehicle, I would expect cleaner, But in any case I think the detail work is excellent and thats what I really like

Fire that bad boy flathead up ! ( all 109 HP )

tread

Bill , apologees for missing a response to your post yesterday . The look i was after was a really dirty aluminum engine . Maybe i grundged it up too much and it looks like a cast iron block now . In any case i have been getting the area on the truck where the engine will set dirtied up and then i plan on mounting the engine . I ordered some Mig pigments and they arrived today . I ordered the "rust -smoke " and the "sand-earth" sets directly from Mig .The "sand -earth" set contains a jar of "Vietnam earth" , just what i'll need !This is going to be fun using the pigments on this build !

Take care my friend

Hey guys ! I just found this instructional picture on how to clean your Zil !!!!

ooops double post

No Problems ,buddy.... Looks like you picked out the exact -right sets of pigments for your build. And I didn't mean to imply I thought the engine was ' Too " weathered  man you can still see all the fine detail and thats what counts.... pigments can be intence... a little goes a loooooooooooooooooooong way!

yer pal ,

tread ;-).... I gotta go help somebody wash a truck.... excuse me !

Bill , no problem . I didnt take your comment that way any how ...........oh , your probably gone now anyway ................watching for a Russian truck wash ................

You got more pictures of your friend? 

Yeah, that's just the way to clean it! It's always a good feeleing when your girlfriend takes the initiative, yeah, and starts doing something, say, useful, like washing a car or truck for that matter.

As for the engine, I say cast iron, how did you figure it was aluminium? It's definitely not overdone with the weathering.

I also wanted to ask what you mean by NVA? Is it North Vietnam Army (they sure had them, I think I even seen a photo of one captured by the Special Forces and used by some American installation - was it Nankom Phanom - to calibrate the seismic sensors dropped on the Trail), or is it Nationale Volksarmee - meaning East Germany, also a very big fan of Soviet steel. If you say NVA in Germany, they always understand DDR (East Germany). Good luck with your project, have a nice day

Paweł