Well, here we go. She'za ready for paint. Finally! It's been a long, arduous build full of planning stops and delays, but I'm finally ready for a bas coat and camo. Luckily, it's a soft-edge, so it will go on rather quickly.
I had to figger out how to do the tracks--this diorama is going to depict a tank that is in a park as a commemorative monument setting, so I have to figure that the tracks would have been painted alonmg with the suspension at some point and then neglected for many years after being rolled into place. I painted appropriate rust tones on the suspension and the tracks in the same manner as the interior, and then salted them up.
Next, I hit them with a dark gray mix of Tamiya German Grey and Light Grey.
Top that with a lighter shade of the same...
I knocked the salt off--well, "scrubbed it" off, more like it; this stuff sticks pretty good under paint--and then gave it an overnight wash of acrylics; Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna, for some more "deep" rust shadows.
Because of the corrosive nature of the salt, a few of the track links had been affected, and rather than go through the rigamarole of repairing what wouldn't be seen anyway, I removed the damaged links put the tracks on thusly, and glued them in place. The tracks are almost unseen beyond the first few upward-curving links, as you'll see..
Now I was finally able to put the sides on.
The guns will be put in after painting, lest they present a difficult projection outside the hull that would be a pain to mask. This way, I can easily fill the hull with tissue and spray the exterior.
Modeling doog Gerhardt watches in between his nap...HEY DOOG!
The top will be removable. Here you can see that it will sit reasonably well on the walls..
So I'm off to paint the exterior. Stay tuned; the actual diorama should be starting to take place soon once I get all the elements constructed, which shouldn't take too long!
Comments welcomed!