THE INTERIOR
I started working with the interior by securing the parts that will be glued together after painting. Maskol is ideal for that task. It’s a step that I ignored in the the past and I regretted it many times.
A standard modelling glue doesn’t react well with the paint which will probably melt, make a lot of mess and prevent the parts from sticking together.
The other option is to clean the joints with sanding paper after the painting. But sometimes it’s tricky to get to them. And again, it’s usually messy.
For the next step, I attached the ammunition to a piece of paper with some Tamiya masking tape. The will make the process of painting much easier.
The parts were primed with Ammo Mig One Shot Primer.
And now it’s time for some chipping. I covered the inner areas of the turret with dark grey paint. Then I airburshed a thin layer of chipping fluid.
When the chipping fluid dried I sprayed all the areas with light colours: firstly Ammo Cremeweiss, and then Ammo Matt White as a highlight.
Making paint chips is a really satisfying job. But it’s better to keep it moderate. The exaggerated effect can ruin your model instead of improving it.
On the picture below you can see my favourite tools for the job:
-a big flat brush for moistening the surface and general, random damage
-a medium pointy brush with its tip cut off for some aggressive chipping and working the edges
-an old airbrush needle for scratches and little dents.
Here’s a closer look on the turret floor. As you can see I tried to work randomly. Some area were treated aggressively, others left almost intact. Obviously, it’s necessary to get some logic involved. Try to concentrate on the areas that are prone to damage for whatever believable reason (crew moving around, gun mechanics etc.).
I went through the same procedure with the main gun. Although the colour is green this time. Take a look at the photos below.
- Dark grey base (Ammo Mig black+white), then heavy chipping fluid
2. Now comes the Russian Base green from Ammo Mig’s 4BO set.
It’s time for a quick highlight. I started to gradually add some Russian Light Base and Light Green to the mix. Obviously I aimed at upper, flat areas with the highlight.
Here’s the cannon after the chipping process
Let’s do some weathering real quick. I started with applying a general wash with oil paints. In this case it’s raw umber and yellow ochre mixed in different proportions.
I usually use Talens van Gogh oils in my worshop. I think they are a fair compromise between the more expensive Rembrant line and low cost paints. Don’t buy the cheapest oils in the store. You’re going to regret it.
I blended the paint with a fairly big, pointy brush dipped in white spirit. Remember to clean the brush every 1 or 2 strokes. Otherwise you’d be just smearing the paint around.
Here’s the result of the wash. You may have noticed that I applied a delicate yellowish filter on the floor panels. It’s very convenient to do it in one go with the wash. Because a filter is in fact a diluted wash, nothing else.
For the last step, I used Oilbrusher paint to bring back the white shade and enhance the contrast.
The Oilbrusher is also blended with white spirit.
I used oil wash on the turret walls as well. There’s a lot of cool effect you can achieve by just brushing the paint down. I didn’t play long with this area though, as it will be almost invisible in the finished model.
For the gun I switched to the Ammo Mig weathering enamels. I find those colours really convincing for this kind of job. I used a generic Green Vehicles Wash, Streaking Grime and some rust shades.
Next up was the ammunition. After priming it, I airbrushed a fair coat of glossy varnish to make the surface smooth. Then I sprayed Polished Brass Alclad paint.
This was my first experience with Alclad, as usually I don’t have need for those shiny, shiny colours. I must say I’m a little disappointed with the result. I expected the surface to be more gleaming and smooth. And what I got was a bit ‘grainy’ look. The instruction for this paint suggests to prime the surface with a dedicated gloss black Alclad primer. I didn’t do that, so maybe it was my fault after all.
Now comes the tedious task of brush painting all the ammo tips. I used some Vallejo colours for that.
I still had to deal with the seats. I painted them with Vallejo’s brown leather colour, then I applied a quick dark brown wash.
The next step was to drybrush the centre of the seat with Vallejo’s red leather. Drybrushing is a technique that I use less and less in my projects. But here you go, sometimes it’s still useful!
You can do a couple of scratches as well.
Here’s a comparison of a seat after and before the drybrushing.
I glued all the loose parts together. Then I used gun metal pigment to polish some edges. I already mentioned in my SBS about the Ferguson tractor that it’s a really crucial step. Thanks to the graphite powder, the plastic will suddenly start to look like real metal.
The last step was the mud pigment from an old Mig Productions batch. I’m not sure what the name of this colour is. I applied a little bit of powder with a brush. Then I fixed the pigment with a drop of white spirit.
And that’s it for now, the next stage is finished. I’d probably put more effort into the interior, if it was fully exposed. But sadly, the superstructure is going to cover most of my recent work. 🙁
