Meng FT-17 French Light Tank Riveted Turret

First stage in applying the camo pattern is complete! I'm using the kit's finishing guide for an American tank at Verdun in October 1918 that sports a hard-edged three-tone scheme, so the first order of business was marking out the green areas. I used some 'worms' of poster blue tack putty rolled out and pressed down with a wooden toothpick to create the masks.

Some Model Master enamel Khaki was airbrushed at low pressure using a fine detail tip. After sitting for a couple of hours to touch dry, I removed the blue-tack to see how it turned out.

So far, so good, just some tiny areas that might need touch-up later on. Next up will be the red-brown portion.

Got the rest of the camo pattern on today with the red-brown portions. Same drill as with the green, I used the blue-tack approach to mask off the appropriate areas first.

Out with the airbrush and a mix of 50-50 MM enamel Military Brown and Leather did the trick in no time.

After doing some light touch-ups here and there with the base coat, I sprayed a mist/filter coat of heavily thinned base coat color to tie the scheme all together and fade the scheme a bit.

Once the tracks are on it will help break up the pattern some as well and provide some additional visual contrast.

Just a quick little update albeit an important one. Tracks received their base coat treatment by airbrushing some MM enamel Burnt Umber over the black plastic and will get some additional detailing/weathering attention later on. That doesn't mean they aren't still useful as it was time to go ahead and permanently fix the suspension elements in place to the hull. It was necessary to scrape some paint that had accumulated inside the drive sprocket and final drive mount holes as well as the mount pins themselves as the fit was too tight otherwise...something I had thought to prevent by masking those areas off with blue tack but forgot to do until it was too late. Liquid glue did the trick for those areas along with some CA for the metal struts at the front of the hull. The track runs were dry fit once more to ensure I had a level set top and bottom for the suspensions on both sides.

As you can see, having the tracks on totally changes the visual perception of the camo pattern as well, so that works out nicely. Just for fun, I also checked to see how it would look on the kit's dio base.

I'll let the suspension set up nice and solid before the next steps deal with the remaining details prior to getting the weathering process started.

This is gonna get intense! Can't wait for you to bring it home with the weathering. Awesome paintwork Bill.

.

Looking great there Bill. Is this a WW1 scheme or later.

I recall reading some where that these were still is use in the late 40's by Egypt during the Arad Israeli war, not sure if that's true or not though.

Thanks Mustang!

Rob

Bish

I would not have thought of schemes like this in WW1. Its rather forward thinking, I am sure I am not the only one who see's the similarity to the late war German schemes.

Bish

I would not have thought of schemes like this in WW1. Its rather forward thinking, I am sure I am not the only one who see's the similarity to the late war German schemes.

After giving it some thought I decided to go ahead and continue work on the base area first before I start weathering the vehicle. This way I can treat them all as elements of the same end result more or less instead of working on them independently. To that end, I turned to Step 21 which deals with the trench details (sandbags, wooden frames/braces, etc.)

The sandbags that go in along the top edge consist of 5 different pieces, 4 of which you can assemble together to create one large unit with the 5th piece, K4, needing to be dealt with separately. I had to enlarge a couple of the slot openings in this area to take the tabs on the underside of the sandbags but nothing major. I also cleaned up and test fit all of the L sprue parts that make up the frames/braces for the trench to see how they would all play together.

In Step 20, the instructions would have you add the angled frame plates of the base individually but I found it easier to attach them separately to create a single frame as some sanding/putty was needed at the joins to create a seamless result. I also had to sand down a couple of the tabs as they were slightly too wide to fit the slots in the base frames.

So with that done, it was time to give the airbrush a workout to 'block in' the colors I needed for the trench detail elements. I used Testors Model Master enamel Afrika Grunbraun for the canvas on the sand bags and used my 50/50 custom mix of Dunkelgelb/Light Gray for the wood frames/braces. That may seem like an odd choice but it's just a foundational color that's going to undergo some significant changes before its all said and done! While I was at it, I also applied some MM enamel Flat Black to the base frame.

This will all get a chance to cure before moving on to the next steps but it is moving ahead!

 Looks good enough to bomb......

                         Mighty fine Bill.

.

Thanks Steve! Bombs away!

Rob

More progress on the base to report. I applied some weathering to the sand bags in the form of some black artist pastels and some dry brushing to create some shadows and highlights.

For the wood braces/planks, things turned out a little more interestingly. I originally started out planning to finish them as relatively 'new' wood and applied a wash of MM enamel Leather over the previous paint base color. This worked out fine by themselves but when I placed them on the base I didn't like the tonal contrast, so I switched gears and decided to go aged wood instead. Rather than strip it and start over, I decided to keep what I'd already done and build on it instead. So I applied another wash, this time using MM enamel Gunmetal, and then dry brushed some MM enamel Light Gray to bring out the wood grain pattern. Some strategic use of black artist pastels also helped add some definition here and there.

I'm fairly happy with the direction this one's heading in so far especially since it's sort of uncharted territory as I don't usually do bases for my builds.

One these days I'll brave dioramas and figure painting. Great work!

Totally cool beans, Bill! I love the idea of a trench!

Cue The Lego Movie theme song; "Everything is Awesome".

But you've thrown me a curve here, why wash the wood grain with Gunmetal? Doesn't that give it a metallic sheen, especially in a groove that would normally be in shadow? 

Thanks Mustang!

Karl

Ixion

Bill, Great job on the base. I like how you handled the sand bags and the 2nd color wood choice seems to be in keeping with the "breakage" shown,.

 If I may be so bold, to suggest that some earth/dirt clumps and staining on portions of the wood ; may help convey the idea they were in close contact with the dirt of the trench before being broken/shattered. Also, the ends of the wood would be new wood color(s) as they are broken./split apart.

  All that said, should your plans already have covered this and doubtless other further enhancements, I apologize and will go sit in a corner until allowed the come back out to view the post.  

ps the tank is no slouch either   

Thanks Steve! No need to go sit in the corner...it's all good! There will be more work done on the whole base to tie things together and make it all look more integrated. Right now the wood pieces are just dry-fit into their slots so I could 'see' if they were all looking like they belonged together vs. working on them as individual pieces. I had the same thought as you on the broken wood pieces...the trick here I guess is whether they were recently broken or just older scrap wood used for some of he braces, they all have jagged ends of one type or another as molded. I may do some one way and leave some as-is, not sure. The ones at the top at least will look like they were broken by the tank once it's posed, so those will probably get a different look at a minimum. I've also been playing around a little with some pigments to help make the painted plastic look a little more 'earthy' too, it's all still a work in progress though, so stay tuned!

Silly putty camo looking good and that wood grain effect, real real.

Bill..... Sorry, but I'm still confused here. I have a jar of Model Master Enamel Gunmetal #1795, (not the Metalizer), in my hand. I stirred it up and looked at my stir-stick. I see flakes of metallic aluminum floating around in the paint.  Are we actually talking about the same paint here? If so,  my original question still stands. I can understand using a dark blue-gray for shading purposes, but I can't get past the metal sheen.

Ixion

Bill..... Sorry, but I'm still confused here. I have a jar of Model Master Enamel Gunmetal #1795, (not the Metalizer), in my hand. I stirred it up and looked at my stir-stick. I see flakes of metallic aluminum floating around in the paint.  Are we actually talking about the same paint here? If so,  my original question still stands. I can understand using a dark blue-gray for shading purposes, but I can't get past the metal sheen.

SprueOne

Silly putty camo looking good and that wood grain effect, real real.

It's jus' cute as a little puppy......

Thanks Russ! It's the 'grand-daddy' of modern tanks in terms of the rotating turret and such so it might as well have a cuteness factor built in to go with it.

Continuing on with the base work, I decided the trench area needed some help in the pigments department. I used a combination of Mig Dark Mud and Dry Mud applied as dry powders with stiff bristled brushes and worked it around until I was happy with the depth/shading it was giving me.

Then the wood braces were permanently installed along with the sand bags and the glue allowed to set. Once that was solid, I blended them in where appropriate using more of the pigments.

Shifting gears a bit, I went back to the vehicle and did some of the detail work there. The sledgehammer, shovel, and pick were hand detailed and installed where needed. Leather straps were painted and detailed and the muffler/exhaust worked on and installed as well. The folded tarp was added to the tail to round things out in that department.

So here's where things stand at the moment as the little scene starts to come together.

Things look like they are coming along nicelyon this one Bill. I like popping in on these WIP's like this with armor because I get to see the processes involved. Stuff like the details added on before the weathering process and all. With aircraft I add all that stuff last but can see where the details added before the weathering takes place benefits the outcome. Those MIG productions washes are tha bomb. I've been using those things religiously and havent been disappointed yet. This build here is a true blast to watch come together.

Thanks Mustang! Lots of different ways to tackle things when it comes to armor builds, sometimes things are forced on you in terms of the order, other times you have a choice! Glad to hear you're having as much fun as I am in terms of following along.

Looking great there Bill and looks really nice on that base.