Trumpeter KV-1 Lightweight Cast Version (finished)

Despite the track woes, it looks like it turned out well. I've got the KV-1 also, nice kit. How did you paint your tracks?

Tigerman,

Thanks.

The tracks went like this:

1. Primer

2. Tamiya Hull Red (air)

3. Diluted light gray overcoat (Tamiya) (air)

4. Testors enamel gunmetal drybrush.

If I were to do it again, I'd add a touch of silver to the gunmetal.

Grant 

Grant,

Your KV-1 looks really good.  As I am still new at this game, I continue to marvel at the high quality builds being posted regularly.  And as a newcomer what comes into my focus when viewing a build is how crisp, clean and solid it appears.  Yours is exceptionally well done. The rubber hits the road when you take those close-up photos.  Any small imperfection tends to stand out.  I've gotta say that I see no "standouts" in your photos.  You get a five star, two thumbs up rating in my opinion.  I have one of the Trumpeter KV-1 kits near the top of my stash.  If I get anywhere close to your build, I'll be one happy tanker.

Larry

Zokissima and Goat Monkey,

I agree with you guys totally.  The streaks were an experiment.  After placing a few of these in heavy fashion on the KV, I decided to "drybrush" these streaks on the next kit, and the weathering that I was looking for is actually working.  With the really light dry brush texture to the streaks, these scrapes look much less dominant.

Thanks for the comments.

Grant

Larry,

Thanks for the kind comments.  I don't think the kit is IPMS worthy, but it sure looks nice in the model cabinet next to all of my American armor (been building too many Stuarts and Shermans the last few years).

Mel,

The streaks are from Windsor Newton Oils melted with mineral spirits.  I used ochre, forest green, raw sienna, and burnt umber for these streaks.

Grant

dupes wrote:

I just finished (at least, I think it's done) another similar Trumpeter KV-1, kit 00359 I think, and while the majority of the assembly was pretty tight, I had a bundle of track issues as well. Trying to assemble them without trimming resulted in a lot of "catapulting" onto my very similarly-colored (ugh) carpet...

 it's a study in balistics and camouflage.

Graymodeler wrote:

These Trumpeter kits are a real pleasure to build.  I did not have any problem with my KV2.  I painted my model with the fenders separate and had to watch that the fender matched the hull by lightly match sanding the joint before painting.  This is a very visible area which should not have a gap.  I really like the Russian green on your model.  Greg

I feared keeping the fenders and hull seperate during painting due to paint mismatches, major glue stains, and hull gaps (a few of which still exist on mine).  If I attempt another (probably with German markings), I'll paint them separately.

The main hue for the paint is testors russian green mixed with 20% white.  The dark hue is 50% Tamiya field gray, 25% brown, and 25% black.  I also overcoated the flat areas with 90% isopropyl alcohol (a.k.a. Tamyia thinner) and 10% white and/or buff.

Thanks again for the comment guys.

Grant

315rooster,

  Very nice job. The only issue about the scratches, to me, would be the color. Can't say they wouldn't be a lighter color because I just don't know.

 The two things that drew my attention were the tracks and tow cables. Can't tell if the tracks are highlighted (the contact areas) and the cables appear to be green. Small things on an otherwise good build. I'd go .

 Good job, be proud of what you've accomplished.

                                                                                                Joe

Panther 44 wrote:

315rooster,   Very nice job. The only issue about the scratches, to me, would be the color. Can't say they wouldn't be a lighter color because I just don't know.  The two things that drew my attention were the tracks and tow cables. Can't tell if the tracks are highlighted (the contact areas) and the cables appear to be green. Small things on an otherwise good build. I'd go .  Good job, be proud of what you've accomplished.                                                                                                 Joe

Cables usually aren't painted? I didn't know. :)  I assumed that they were added at the plant and painted at the same time.

The tracks are highlighted (acutally dark lighted) with a gunmetal color.  The colors for the tracks were another experiment.