La Porta

Doog,

 I am very interested in pinwashes, however, I haven't found any great illustrations or instructions as to how to actually do them.

Pin washes are easy. YOu just need a fine brush--like an "00", and some oil or enamel paint and paint thinner.

The process is very simple. Thin your paint until it's the consistency of milk. Take some into the brush, and apply it carefully into all the lines and crevices of your model, as well as around hatches, nut and bolt heads, anywhere that a dark shadow would normally be seen in the tank. Pay attention to any hull lines, around collars like on the gun barrel, etc. See the photo below. And don't worry if the paint gets "outside the lines". Since you're working with paint thinner, just wait for the wash to dry and then use a thinner-soaked brush to gently clean off the dried wash. You can reduce the imparted shadows away to very fine shadows in this manner.

Good luck!

Love the photo with the road wheels all lined up ready for inspection!  Nice work.  Oops, there were two more pages...I hate it when I miss that...did/does anyone experience bleed over when using a circle template to mask road wheels? 

Side note: I used my little taig lathe to true road wheels for my Tamiya M4A3, they're true now, and about 2\3rds the original diameter...what a Homer! Doh!

And to add to pin washes, if you do them over gloss coat, the lines will be sharper and cleaner. I do the decals and pin washes over Future then spray clear acrylic flat over and continue  with the dot and overall washes to darken or to tone down the scheme. The flat will give the dot and regular wash more teeth into the finish.

Nice Tip!

I use the circle template. Makes painting wheels a breeze. They are hard to find though.

After working on some of the pinwash and overall dirtying of the model (Thanks for the tips, Doog), I have come to a spot where I like the model. It is somewhat hard to see the effects in the pictures, but it is more pronounced in real life. Compare it to the previous pictures, and I think that there really is a noticeable difference. All I have left is the rear tail reflector, and soot over the exhaust. Also, I am thinking of gluing down the tracks to the upper return wheels to create a more "sagged" look. I also would appreciate some feedback on how to better make the rear tow cable stand out, if anyone has some suggestions. Comments always appreciated.

I can see some of the washes in the wheels, La Porta--it looks good, and an improvement from the previous photos, as you said. It's hard to see the rest of the ones on the hull, but if you're happy with it and you have learned a new technique, that's the whole purpose reason we're here!

It looks pretty good to me.  I would not really do anything else to the tracks.  There shouldn't really be any sag in them.  They were live track that is kept under tension and they lay pretty flat.

For the tow cable, you can drybrush it with some steel and then some rust brown to make it stand out a bit more.

It's looking really  nice.  Do you have plans to pick out the oval armored glass windows of the commander's cupola?  They look like they've been overpainted in olive drab.

Roy,

You are correct. I only realized later on that that is indeed just what happened. Any ideas for making them stand out? The only thing that I thought of is perhaps some bare metal foil over them at this stage.

To replicate the armored glass, first paint them black, then a couple coats of clear green, and a couple coats of clear gloss.  They will look great.  I do all my older armored glass periscopes and vision blocks in this manner.  Good luck on them.

I do exactly as Gino does for mine as well.  Don't forget to dust them a tiny bit to take the shine off.  But not too much as the TC would have kept his view ports clean

Thanks guys, I think I will try that out with the view ports. I suppose mask off with tape first and all that. I'll also attempt to take some better lit shots that show off the detail better as well.

No need to mask them off.  I just use a small brush and a steady hand.  It really isn't that hard to do.  Good luck with them.

Just did a quick pic of what I did. I used flat black, and then mixed in gloss green until it looked just about right, then put a single coat of that in each slot. Next, I will try and use the gloss clear over it. Here's a question: does anyone think that putting Future over the paint would be more effective than a few coats of clear gloss...or would it be too thick?

Future would do the same as the clear gloss.  I just don't use Future.

Well, I have finished the model! I took some much better pictures this time, and tweaked them a bit on the computer to really represent what this thing looks like in real life. The last few really didn't do it justice. Many, many thanks to those who helped me with the oil washes, details, and especially picking up that the view ports were olive drab!

Very nicely done! I do love the lines of the Pershing.

Congrats on a fine build!  You had fun, you learned new things, and it all came together nicely.  The mark of a good modeler.

Brian

Really nice work, congrads!