Rusty tracks

Unless you want to model a tank fresh from the factory, it's not gonna be shiny and clean. Depending on how old the tank is, its gonna be rusted and slightly banged up, as you can see from the picture below I took when visiting the military base in Brasschaat.

The first thing I want to experiment with is adding rust to the tracks. I mixed up some base rust color with equal parts glaze medium and spray that on the tracks.

(I have yet to determine what's the difference between glaze and gloss, but I happened to have it lying around)

 
The M60's tracks are plastic parts. I covered the middle with an index card and gave it a quick spray on both sides of the tracks.

The M1 Abrams' track is flexible. I taped off the inside, where the rubber padds wil remain black and did a very faint pass with the same rust mixture.

The tape stays in place because the middle is yet to be dry-brushed with a steel colour.

More masking

The Enterprise's display stand is coming along nicely. The gold and silver is done. It'll probably look even better with a coat of gloss varnish.

Underneath the black piece, airbrushing was impossible, so I had to brush by hand. This serves as a lesson learned to think about painting when doing the assembly.

Now the center part needs to be done in blue. The easiest masking material for this particular case is Play-Doh. It does not lift paint and is extremely malleable. It dries rock-hand, but does not stick to the model whatsover, so is very easy to remove. It can't be reused however - unlike silly putty - unless you do the paint-work and immediately remove the play-doh, before it dries out.
This is the first time I use it in this quantity, so let's hope the above statement about easy removal remains true.

Just one small problem: I don't have the necessary colour yet.

Preparing the Puma for camo

I've given up on free-hand camouflage, at least with my current airbrush.

• Without any masking, free-hand brushing just gives too much overspray. 
• Masking like I did with the Jaguar gives very hard edges, which is not the effect I wanted. 
• Spraying through a small rectangular mask, that I hold a few millimeters from the surface of the model, gave me the desired "soft" edge, but I can only do straight lines with it.

Conclusion:

• Free-hand camouflage? Buy a better airbrush.
• For now : use the same technique as on the Jaguar and stop trying for soft-edge camouflage.

I'll start small, only with the turret, and spray very carefully, because the biggest problem on the Jaguar was that the paint was too thick.

Post-shading result

The second attempt at post-shading, with a 2 to 1 ratio of yellow and white paint, has a better result, although it is still very subtle. I don't want to do a third try with even lighter paint, because I want to see how this looks under a coat of varnish first.

A closer look should make it relatively clear what the intended effect is.

Post shading

Post-shading is a technique to make a model look less "flat" as far as it's colour is concerned. Panel lines give the model depth and detail, but at such a small scale, no lightsource whatsoever is gonne give any shadow in these small panel lines, as would be the case on a life-size model. To fake this play of light and add shadow, several modelling techniques are used, among them pre-shading and post-shading.

Pre-shading involves pre-painting all panel lines (and only the lines) with black (or some other dark color), then when you are painting your basecoat, allow some of that black to shine through, creating the illusion of shadow. I have not tried this technique, because I have not yet mastered the very fine coating of paint, which is needed if you do not want to completely cover your pre-shading work.

Post-shading is the opposite. After your basecoat is dry, mix up a lighter shade of the same paint and spray that in the middle of all panels, creating - again - the illusion of light and adding depth and making it look more dynamic instead of one flat monochromatic surface.

I gave post-shading a first try on the Abrams, mixing up a slightly lighter tint of the sand color, by mixing 10 to 1 yellow to white. I did about half of the tank, then mixed again at 7.5 to 1 for the other side, just to see what would be the best result.

As it turns out (a day layer) neither of the mixes is really visible, except if you know what you're looking for and hold it at the correct angle towards a lightsource. This attempt was definitely too subtle.

I did the entire model again, with a 2 to 1 (yellow to white) ratio. I'll know tomorrow if it's enough. I'm cautious not to overdo it and ruin the entire model.

For both attempts, I mixed in a few drops of matt varnish (from Vallejo), as it was a tip I recieved at the latest IPMS meeting. While it did seem I had less problems with tip-dry and a more steady flow of paint, I'd have to test more to really confirm this.

Abrams base coated

It's starting to look better and better.

Airbrush practice

I found some time AND motivation to get back behind the hobby-desk, even if it was just for an hour.

• I finished the base coat for the Abrams and it's wheels. (I'll post pictures when its dry.) I still need to do the backside of the wheels, but the outside needs to dry first. Even though the paintflow was irregular - and I still don't know why - I am managing with it. The airbrush seemed in an agreeable mood today.
• I put a second silver coat on the Enterprise's display base, so I can move on to masking for the next color. I'm tempted to start basecoating the Enterprise, but my workbench can only hold so many works in progress. It's time to finish something.
• I tested free-hand lines on a piece of paper, because I want the Puma to have soft-edged camouflage stripes. (Masking would give harsh edges).
  For the camo to work free-hand, I need the paint-consistency to be perfect, the air pressure on minimum and my hand steady the entire time. If the airbrush sputters only once, it's ruined and I have to start over.
  I can manage lines as small as 2-3 mm, but not smaller and the overspray is about twice as wide, but looks acceptable. One of the next sessions should be dedicated to this and I'll start with the underside, in case it doesn't go well.
• Another attempt to put gloss clear on the submarine. Tested pure or slightly thinned, the liquid does not atomise well and sprays droplets rather than particles. I thinned it 200% just for the hell of it and it sprayd rather okay(-isch). Then I knocked over the bottle with the thinned clear and took that as a sign to stop for the day. When finished, it'll have taken 5 or more sessions, but I WILL finish the clearcoat, so I can move on the decals. (Since ALL models need a clearcoat in the end, this is kinda a major skill to get the hang of)

I've been in contact with 2 supply companies for Revell about the needle not sitting flush inside the nozzle, but both times the answer was "Send it in and we'll look at it." Even though I don't use it that often, I'm not yet willing to be without it for several months. I also don't want to spend too much money on repairs that turn out unnecessary because I only THINK it might be damaged.

I guess it's back to the same questions : Is it too cheap to perform well? Is it my luck to have a crooked version? Do I go for a - more expensive - Badger (or Harder and Steenbeck or whatever) or is it just me?
Only time will tell ...

Silver on top of gold

The gold layer is as good as I'm likely to get it, so I masked it off using tape and putty where tape was too difficult.

A first layer of silver went on rather heavily, but I thinned with water instead of the brand thinner, which may have been a mistake. Looks good enough for now. Second layer to be added later.

Desert sand

A first layer of "Iraqi sand" is added on top of the  primer, giving you a good idea of what the finished tank will look like. A second layer will be needed to provide complete coverage.

The airbrush performed as good as can be expected for about one hour, after which I started having problems with the paint consistency again. Not bad, I guess.

I had to stop midway through the turret, since little splotches of paint started to make their way to the model. Luckily, I was just doing the underside of the turret, so no real harm is done.

All the little bits are done, and the wheels have their first layer. They'll probably require 3 or more for full coverage.

Appearing in FSM

October last year, I submitted a question to FSM asking how to remove paint from a model. I quickly got an answer back and tried the method on my space shuttle. You can see the results here.

This march, I was surprised to see my question in that month's edition. I guess it's ONE way to appear in FSM. Maybe next time I should try with an actual model.