Model Armour

Here is the base I was going to use...

Taking a page from Deano's book I wrapped it in plastic rather than taping the edges:

Then I screwed my carved foam section to the base temporarily- can't have it shifting around...

Check the tracks still work - nothing stupid happened since I built them.

Then I started to figure out how to fill the dead space - I want to do a ruined industrial area.

Now I needed to make a foundation for a building - this material is called drywall in the US. 1/2" thick. Since I just did the walls in my shop I have a lifetime supply leftover for 1/35th scale ruins!

Wet this and the paper will come off with a little rubbing leaving this, looks like concrete to me. It cracks and crumbles just like it as well...

I cut this up to make a foundation wall and a column as a vertical element...

Now the groundwork begins. I used plaster coated mesh to cover the pink foam. This stuff...

Good stuff- dip it in water put it in place and it sets up pretty quickly...

Then I mix up Celluclay, white glue and water to the consistency of oatmeal - just like Shep Paine says in his book- How to build Dioramas. Below is the result: (Leaving the screw heads exposed so I can take them out later.

Now I sprinkle on some cat litter - looks like rubble - takes glue and acrylic paint really well and its cheap!

It's a start - I want to add a short railroad track section behind the tank. The building will need a lot of work too.

The base I discovered a few years ago when I was dealing with the operator of a trophy shop. They are an ideal size for a single piece of 1/35th scale armour. He sold me a box of 24 of them for $2.50 US each. He would never reveal his sources unfortunately. They are veneered particle board.

Here is where the model itself stood at this time. I had primed it with gray primer. I needed to have confidence that the next layers would stick to the brass, aluminium etc. and let that cure for a day. Then I airbrushed it Tamiya Flat Black (XF-1). And let that cure for a day.

I started with these Tamiya Colours...

I painted everything with a thin coat of JGSDF Olive Drab (XF-74). I pained the large open areas of the panels. I left the details like tow hooks, vents etc alone. They get enough over-spray to tint them.

Then I split the leftover paint into two containers. I mixed Desert Yellow (XF-59) into one batch to lighten the green and worked upward from the fenders, and then I mixed Red Brown (XF-64) and Flat Black into the second batch to darken it, and used that to work downward from the fenders. I went through two steps of darkening and lightening to arrive at what you see in the pictures below. The Fenders are not an absolute dividing line - where the fenders are missing I carried some of the darker tint upward. I also painted the underside of the turret in the darker blend...

Whilst these colours are variations of the original JGSDF Olive Drab they are pretty dramatically different. Here is a shot of the highlighted transmission cover next to the darker hull underside...

Finally, I mixed Red Brown and Black and airbrushed the tracks to establish their base colour...

This shot shows the contrast between a highlighted upper hull part (drivers hatch) and the black and brown tinted suspension parts...

I then applied some clear gloss. My plan was to whitewash over this - (hairspray technique). Here is what my test hull looked like. (This is an old Tamiya T-34 I am testing the whitewash technique on.)

I took an old green hull and hair sprayed it. I used the salt technique on one side and just hairspray on the other.

I completely over-sprayed one quarter of the hull white and kind of camouflage painted (white bands over green) the rest. Tamiya Flat White

Once dry, I used a moistened cotton swab to wet the white then very gently used the cotton swab and a sharpened cocktail stick to remove the white. Really surprised at how easily it came off.

First I applied 2 coats of clear enamel to seal the Green base. I painted the number 13 on the sides and rear of the turret. When that was dry 2 coats of hairspray - dried with a hair dryer- then one coat of Tamiya Acrylic White tinted with Desert Yellow and Black. Here are the results...