The construction of the kit went quickly and smoothly. However, I knew from the start that the painting would me much more complicated. To make an old wreck like that you need a seasoned, nuanced surface with a long history of decay and neglect. And the painting stage is the time to start working on this surface – the weathering just wouldn’t be enough here in my opinion. I was curious how far I can…
Nuclear waste: introduction & construction
The idea for this build came to me after watching HBO’s TV series ‘Chernobyl’. I’ve always been interested in abandoned landscapes and postapocalyptic stylistics. And I will explore those subjects in future projects. But what I found particularly interesting in ‘Chernobyl’ is the realism of the story. The creators took a lot of effort to recreate the events as faithfully as possible. The show seems like a horror and the fact that it presents historic…
How to: paint rust with oils
There’s an enormous range of effects we can achieve with oil paints. Rust, fading, dust, grime, rain marks, smoke… You name it. I’m pretty sure you can weather a whole model only using these paints. In this tutorial I’d like to show you a way to paint rust effects with only 3 oil colours: orange, dark red and brown. You’ll also need white spirit or another thinner for blending. This is a part of my…
How to: weather a dirty windshield
Weathering a windshield is an essential step in painting almost every car. There’s something very attractive in the geometrical shape of the clean glass contrasting with the rest of the dirty model. Although some precision is essential here, the whole process is not that difficult. You’ll need: -a circle cutter -a piece of masking sheet -weathering products of your choice (preferably oils or enamels) This tutorial is a part of my Toyota technical project. If…
The improvised warfare: painting and weathering #2
Here it comes. The last part of this build. I know it’s been a while since the last section. I’m now really struggling to keep those projects going. But enough whining, let’s see what’s left to finish this model! In this episode I will talk a lot about creating the story of a vehicle. With each subsequent step I’m trying to recreate all the things that happened during its lifetime. It’s necessary to put those…
Mosonshow 2019
This year I decided to go to Hungary to visit one of the most respected model shows in Europe. Between 27 and 28 April a little town near the Slovakian and Austrian border is invaded by the best modellers around the world. I’m not much of a competition modeller, I don’t thing it’s the most important thing in this hobby. But I really wanted to be a part of such a big event, meet some…
The improvised warfare: painting and weathering #1
After finishing the interior of the pickup I can finally start to work on the main thing. The vehicle has different areas that I’ll have to deal with separately. So in this part I’m going to do a little bit of painting and weathering at the same time. I will put the loose parts together at the very last moment. If it’s your first time here, check out the previous parts of the SBS: Improvised…
Improvised warfare: the interior
In the next part of the SBS I will talk about the interior of the Toyota Land Cruiser technical. In a pickup car like this there’s not much space to work with. But I plan to leave both side windows open so the interior will be at least partly visible. It’s a nice change from tank interiors that get almost completely covered with the top armour. If you’re new to the story, here are the…
Improvised warfare: the construction
My two previous builds were pretty complicated on the construction level, especially ZSU-57-2. I expected Meng’s technical to be much easier. I like scratch-building, but the way I see it – painting is the essence of this hobby. So this time I decided to get there as soon as possible. This section of the SBS is going to be rather brief as I’ll concentrate on the most important aspects only. If you’ve missed the first…
Historical photo of the day #5
I talked about the history of technicals in the introduction to my Toyota Land Cruiser project. But I still have some more interesting photos of these vehicles used around the world. Modelling-wise a technical is a project with lots of potential. Consider it if you want to do some scratch-building or extreme weathering. After all, technicals were often heavily modified and rarely serviced with care. Take a look at the photos below, maybe they’ll inspire…