PAINTING & WEATHERING
I start with the undercarriage that will be my testing ground for the Mission Models paints. It’s the first time I’m using them so I’ve chosen a part of the model that won’t be that visible eventually.
I painted the whole part dark grey and then I sprayed the chipping fluid. After that I started airbrushing the MMP white. I know… The undercarriage isn’t probably supposed to be white. But by the time I’m done, it will much darker anyway.
From the first moment I started spraying Mission Model paints I got really surprised with their opacity. Usually, with other acrylics, I need to spray lots of layers to cover a darker colour. And the white kind of stays grey anyway. The MMP white colour literally just killed the dark grey base in the first layer. Amazing!
I did some chips and scratches. The paint works fine with the hairspray but it’s pretty fragile. It’s easy to wipe off too much if you’re not careful.
Here’s the undercarriage after some weathering. I used oil colours mostly to achieve some dirt and grime effects.
I painted the wheels with different colours. On the reference photo one of the wheels is blue and another orange. I painted the third one white to get more variety.
After that I dry-brushed all the raised details on the wheels.
Dry-brushing is not exactly a sophisticated technique. I don’t recommend using it on the bigger areas of the model. But on the details like that I think it works just fine.
It’s time to paint the rubber tyres.
There’s actually 2 ways to airbrush the wheels. You either start with the tyre or with the rim. Then you place a mask and you paint the other thing.
This time I started with the rim so I had to mask it for the further step. It’s easy if you have a circle cutter. Just measure the radius of the rim, then cut a matching circle from a masking sheet or paper.
I painted the tyres with a mix of Ammo Black and Rubber&Tyres. I also added a little bit of blue filter as a gentle discolouration.
The cargo bed and the cannon were painted with Ammo Chipping colour. Then I covered the whole model with some chipping fluid.
It’s time to paint the main colour. I started with a light grey shade but soon I hit the surface with just a clean white. I realized I can do some gentle shading not with a colour, but with the intensity of the paint itself.
All the raised areas were given an additional layer of white to make the pop out from the surface. I used an ordinary piece of paper for masking.
I painted the inside of the cargo area with Ammo white. I wanted to achieve a very specific effect here and I chose the paint I have far more experience with.
I started the chipping with a trimmed brush. The idea was to to concentrate the damage around the tailgate. Here’s where most of the damage happens on a real pickup car.
I also made some thin long scratches with a needle.
The rest of the model was painted with MMP white. I made and error of adding glossy varnish to the mix. This made the chipping process much harder. But I didn’t need that much damage on the outside parts.
I decided it would be cool to paint the second door with a different colour – as if it was replaced at some point. I chose a beige shade and I chipped the door to reveal some of the rusty base.
The next step was to paint the red and blue stripes that go around the car. A very careful masking was needed to make sure the lines would end up sharp and clean.
I took a lot of time and care to position the masking tape properly. I’d get really angry to see any overspray afterwards.
If you did a solid job masking the model, removing the tape is a weirdly satisfying task…
The stripes aren’t perfectly even, but I don’t care about it that much. The upcoming layers will cover any slight imperfections.
I still needed to paint the Toyota logo on the back of the car. Similarily to my BRDM-2 project, I decided to create a custom mask by myself. I found the logo in the Internet and I printed it on an ordinary piece of paper. Then I copied the shapes to a piece of masking tape.
Again, a mask done that way won’t usually be perfect. But I didn’t really mind. I wanted the logo to be old and weathered anyway. I used the hairspray technique again to make same dents and scratches on the paint.
I moved to the front of the car to paint the inside of the headlights. Molotov Chrome pen is hands down the best tool to deal with such things. You can airbrush this paint but here I just used the pen itself.
The same method was used to paint the mirrors.
I masked the headlights with little balls of Panzer Putty. Then I painted the front grill with a mix of Ammo Black and Rubber&Tyres.
Even though the weathering is still ahead of me, the white colour looked too clean and immaculate. I thinned some yellow ochre oil paint and I airbrushed it on the edges and around panel lines. A piece of paper was used again for precise masking.
The lower parts of the vehicle were treated the same way. I also painted the inside of the cargo bed.
Here’s the car ready for the next steps. As you can see the yellowish filter added a lot of realism to the model, even at this early stage.
Next I decided to paint the AA gun. I started with the usual layer of Ammo Chipping colour followed with hairspray. Some of the elements were painted with an aluminium colour.
Then I used several shades of green to create a slightly faded version of a standard Russian green.
Next I covered the whole part with a thin layer of blue acrylic filter to match the colour to the reference photo.
Now I did some scratches on the most obvious places like the seat.
I also painted the ammo boxes and I did some chipping on one of them.
The last step of this part is to paint the platform. I base painted it with dark brown as well. Then I added a contrasting yellow colour and I removed some of the top layer using the hairspray technique. I really like the texture revealed by the chipping.
And that’s what I’ve got after this stage. All the separate parts are painted and ready for the next layer of paint and the weathering.
