Model Armour

On and off, this took about 2 and half hours (not including drying time), and then I had to let it sit overnight...

A couple things I ran into that'd I do differently next time are:

This time: Used Tamiya Clear for the paintwork protective coat.
Next time: Use Pledge One Go/Klear for the protective coat.

This time: Let the white wash coat sit for 40 minutes before starting to remove/work the paint work.
Next time: Wait 5 to 10 minutes before beginning work on removing bits of the white wash.

The beauty of a project like this (i.e. speed build) is that you're more likely to just give things a go rather than worry about being too precise. A great way I've found to try new things and experiment a little more. Then it was time to apply some filters. First filter was Blue. This gave it a nice frosty tone. I waited about 2 hours before adding a Tan filter which was slightly diluted with mineral spirits as I didn't want the effect to be too harsh. Total time working with the filters, about 5 minutes each.

I normally use MIG (Sin Industries) filters, which are oil based. If I find the effect a little heavy, I just dilute the mixture. I'll also mix my own occasionally using oils. The beauty of using oils is that if the effect is too heavy, or just doesn't look right, you have time to fix it/clean it up. The shorter drying time for enamels and especially acrylics makes me favour the oils. When applying them, I load a soft haired brush with the filter and gently apply it to the surface working my way from top to bottom. I only do one side at a time so that I can clean up any excess/correct the result where required.

These bargain/cheap pickups are great for practicing, refining skills and learning new techniques. To be honest, this will probably end up being a test model down the track, hence the speed at which things are being done. It's also a good way to just have a play without worrying too much about the result. Extremely fun and relaxing!

On that note, I added dark pin-wash followed by the oil dot treatment. First up, I added some Yellow Ochre dots and worked then in with Mineral Spirits. Next...Raw Umber dots treated the same way. This gave me a nice dirty look with the occasional streak here and there...

At this point I started some of the detail painting, being the rubber wheels, exhaust, shovel and jack block. The exhaust was done using LifeColor's rust set.

The same pinwash mixture was added to the rear of the hull.

As I had plenty of reference pics showing bogged and abandoned Hetzer's with no tracks to be seen, I decided not to fit the shocking rubber band tracks to the kit!

The final bits had been done. Acrylic resin with garden dirt, plaster and pigments had been added to the wheels and around the bottom of the hull. A tow cable had been added, pigments applied dry and the base touched up. Exactly 7 days since cracking the lid off the box. Whilst not even in the same universe when compare to the latest releases hitting the market, the Italeri offering builds into a nice representation of a Hetzer (except for the rubber band tracks!) The details are soft (or missing in some cases), but with a little careful paintwork, you can draw the viewers away from those spot.

It was a very simple, quick and fun build which in the end has turned out far better than I ever would have expected.

Many thanks to all those that joined in during the original blog of this project. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!