Painting the fiddly bits

Small parts are usually difficult to paint. You can attach them to your model, but then you can't really airbrush them and you'll have to be really careful with a paintbrush. Or you can paint them separately.

If they have attachment pins, you can use alligator clips. These wil hold on to pins less than a millimeter in size. Mount them on a toothpick and you're ready to paint.

For the wheels, I just use toothpicks. If the holes are too big, I use a small ball of silly putty for every wheel to hold the toothpick in place. Silly putty will usually stay in one piece when you remove it afterwards, whereas normal "plasticine" will break apart and you'll never get the axle-whole clean. Since the wheels have to rotate freely on their axle, I want as little goo as possible to remain behind.

Some parts don't even have pins, like the stowage bins and jerrycans I made last time for the Abrams.
You can hold them in your hand and paint the sides you can see, but then you get paint on your hand and you have to paint it in 2 or 3 sessions. You could hold them with tweezers, but even then accidents usually happen when you try to put the part down to dry. It always falls on a painted side (Damn you, Murphy's law!)

After reading this tip in FSM, now I just glue a toothpick to the bottom with white glue (Elmer's glue, "wood" glue, ... whatever you call it). It will stick firmly enough so you can airbrush almost the entire part and you can pin it somehere to dry. When done, the glue easily snaps off clean, leaving no trace behind. You still have to do the bottom afterwards, but it's much more controlled and almost accident-proof.

Below the entire ensemble of all the small parts for the Abrams. Some alligator clips on the left side.
I'll try to gather some courage soon to get behind the airbrush-desk again.

Vinyl tracks, hot screwdriver

Time to assemble the tracks for the Abrams tank. The instructions simply say to use a hot screwdriver. Searching online did not give me that much information. I guess every modeller needs to find out for himself how to do it without messing it up.

The idea is to put the four pins through the holes at the other end, then use a hot scredriver to flatten the pins like a rivet. The result should look like a small mushroom, preventing the pin from fitting through the hole again. My immediate questions : 1) how hot? 2) how much pressure?

I started by holding a screwdriver in a candle flame for 5 seconds (nothing), than 10 (still nothing), than 15 ... until the plastic started melting. At 25 seconds, it became hot enough to melt the pin.

I pushed it down, which did flatten it, but I pushed too hard, I think. A combination of pushing too far down and too much heat ruined the pins : the plastic burnt and stuck to the screwdriver and nothing of the pin was left to keep it in place.

The first track is no success, even though it does remain closed. It looks like it barely holds together. I do not want to test how much force it can take. The model is not meant to actually be played with, so it's no real disaster.

For the second track, I heated the screwdriver less and pushed down slower and not all the way down. I stopped about 1/2 mm from the actual track. Now the intended "mushroom" effect is much more obvious and how I intended it.

An angled view may give you a better idea of how big I left the "head" of the pin.

Below is how it looks assembled on the actual tank. I've yet to decide how to paint the tracks, but I can finish the rest and do that later.

Abrams, construction (almost) completed

Step 7 (continued)

Finished adding the side-rails. The 2 machine-guns will be added after the tank is finished, because they're bound to break off during painting and finishing.

When you add the main gun, make sure your elevation is high enough. There are no locator pins to tell you how it should be attached, but make sure you fit the turret on the lower hull before the glue sets, because you want to check if the turret can rotate 360 degrees without bumping into anything.

Step 8 : Rear basket

The rear basket assembly is easy, except for the mesh. You have to cut the 2 pieces to size from the provided mesh. There's a template in the manual, but it's totally inaccurate. A lot of fitting and cutting is required and even now I'm not completely happy with the result.

Again, make sure the basket sits high enough, so it doesn't scrape against the lower hull.

The turret is now complete, except for some additional stowage which will be added after painting.

Step 9 : Fenders and tracks

This step tells you to add the fenders and the tracks and glue the upper hull to the lower. I suggest you skip attaching the hull halves, since some of the wheels become inaccesible because of the fenders, and you may want to hold off wheels and tracks until painting is done.

The tank is now as good as complete. Shown here with everything except the wheels and tracks.

Step 10 : Stowage and accesories

Additional boxes and jerrycans, some equipment I do not know. To be painted in different colors, so I'm keeping these off the model until the very last moment.

IPMS Ghent

Last night, I paid a visit to IPMS Ghent, the local chapter of the "International Plastic Modelers' Society".

The ambiance was fun and relaxed. People were showing off their latest creation (someone just finished a diorama, on which he worked for 2 years) or just the latest kit they picked up and discussing what they intended to do with it.
As for myself, I brought the Jaguar - the first kit I finished in over 10 years - and braced myself for the reactions. I recieved a lot of tips for masking, painting, weathering, ... too much to take in at once. The main thing I remembered is what I had already learned myself : be more patient while airbrushing. They can clearly see I covered it too fast and too thick. If you need to paint 20 layers, do so, but do it slowly.

Several members had also started their modelling career with the Revell airbrush, and when asked if free-hand camouflage (for the M60 and the Puma) would be doable, the reactions were unanymous : NO.
I'll have to postpone further work on those models until I buy a better airbrush, so I'll be focusing on the non-camouflage models for the time being.

I learned more in those 2-3 hours talking to experienced (and beginner) modellers then I'll learn from reading 50 magazines. I recommend everyone to look up local IPMS chapters, or unaffiliated modelling clubs, to share (or learn) ideas and knowledge.

Abrams, further construction.

Step 4 : Turret

The two turret halves do not fit particularly nice, so lots of tape is needed.
Tape can only get you so far. Sometimes the parts are slightly warped or simply don't fit very well. The only way to get them to stick right is to put on glue, take it in your hands, apply pressure where the parts don't meet perfectly and hold them like that.
If there's not too much misalignment, a few minutes should be enough to keep the parts sticking together how you want them. If not, you'll need extra tools - like a clamp, for instance - and let it sit overnight for the glue to completely cure.

Step 5

The smoke grenade launchers (I chose the Marine version of the 2 construction options) consist of 18 pieces each. They're really tiny, but construction is straightforward.
I'm not sure if it's really necessary to model each launch tube in 2 parts or if it just an easy way to up the part count.

The second part is some kind of lookout window (I'm not familiar with all the technical terms concerning tanks), with a clear window. Part J71 is shown in the assembly, but not labelled in the instructions, so you just need to go look for the part that looks like it.
I've postponed adding part B25 (the bottom) because I want to paint it first, and only then add the clear part, for which B25 would be in the way.

Step 6 : Stowage and hatches

The side rails consist of 9 parts for each side (not counting the back, which has a lot more rails and pieces), but assembles easily.

The hatch assembled in the previous step (D2 + D12) is shown open, but I suggest you close it. The interior of the tank is empty, so why open a hatch if you have nothing to show off? The commander is included in the kit, but the manual does not mention him. Since I intend to place my Abrams on the M1000 HETS, it's better not to add any personnel.

If you close the hatch, the support arms appear too long. I cut them in half near the joint, removed about 1-2 mm and reattached them. Traces of my modification are visible, but once painted, it'll be ok.

Step 7 : Weapons

Construction of two machineguns and the main gun. It's not 100% clear to me yet how to position the main gun. There are no locator pins and there's quite a lot of wiggle room to position it up or down. Since I want to position it in transport, I'll position the barrel is low as possible.

A new tank

It's been weeks since I did some modelling, but it's too cold to sit in the attic with the airbrush, so I started construction on the Abrams tank.

I'll try something new for reporting construction progress. I'll follow the steps in the manual.

Step 1 :  Road wheels, idlers and drive sprockets.

Every wheel consists of two parts, plus a poly cap that is inserted in between. This cap fits snugly on the axle, but allows the wheel to rotate freely. At least, that's the general idea. It remains to be seen if we'll end up with actual working tracks or not.


Construction normally goes fast, depending on the quality of the parts and how well they fit together. Sprue attachment points are usually located near the edge of parts, where they are easily removed or not visible once assembled.
Not so for the wheels of this tank. The sprue attachment points are on both sides, so one will always be visible.When I used to handbrush, the layer of paint would be thick enough to obscure minor defects around badly cut attachment points, but with the airbrush, the paint is so thin that all defects remain visible.

So I decided to treat every part with extra care and sand away the attachment point, rather than cutting and risk cutting too much. Since there's 38 parts for the wheels alone, I took my trusty sprue-cutters, hobby knife and sanding paper, put on a movie and started the tedious job. The movie was done by the time I was finished.

Step 2 : Lower hull

Assemble of the rear of the tank and return rollers (that don't actually roll).

This step has you instal the wheels as well, but - as usual - we will postpone this until after painting. The poly caps do allow the wheels to be installed and removed, but I do not intend to find out how many times you can do this before something breaks.

Warning : study the instructions carefully. I installed part J39 (only for the Marine build option) too soon and had to squeeze in part J56 afterwards. The reverse order would have been a lot easier.

Step 3 : Upper hull

Install ome minor parts, like headlights.

Parts A8 (the headlights themselves) did not fit in the designated holes. I removed 1 mm from the attachment point to make them fit.

Part D20 needs 3 clear windows installed. These parts are not provided in the kit. What's provided is a large  square clear plastic, from which you have to cut the desired shapes yourself. I would have preferred to see some actual fitting parts for this, but maybe this is to lower the cost of the kit.

I did not install the clear parts (nor cut them yet) because I want to paint the inside first.

M1070 truck & M1000 HETS trailer

Yes, I bought another kit, even though I have many unfinished ones. But I promise I won't be buying any new ones for the rest of 2013. Well ... I promise to try.

It was on my wishlist and when I found out the local hobby shop could get it, I just had to order it. "It" being the Hobby Boss 1/35 M1070 Truck tractor & M1000 Heavy equipment Transport Semi-trailer. That's quite a mouthful, but the kit is at least as elaborate as its title.

The box is huge and heavy and filled to the brim. Besides the plastic sprues, there's another box in it, with lots of upgrade/detail parts. (Keep scrolling to find out the content)

The kits I used to make in the past contained between 50 and 150 parts. The biggest thing I ever made was probably the International Space Station, which had around 200 parts. The M1A1 Abrams I'm about to make has around 300 parts.

This M1070 has around 1.500 parts (!!), counting only the 35 plastic sprues. They appear beautifully detailed and are well protected in the box. I haven't unsealed the plastic bags yet, because I don't plan to start construction right away.

The instruction sheet is a 48-page book with roughly half of the book for the truck and the other half for the trailer. Each step has a huge amount of construction, so it will be a challenge to build.

There are 2 painting options : "Sandy brown" or green/brown camo. I'm gonna stick with the sand color. Since my M1A1 Abrams is also 1/35 scale, I will paint both kits in the same color, so I can put the tank on the trailer (as shown in the box art), making up a nice display.

A bunch of decals provides warning signs and lots of small details.

As for the green box that is included, it appears to contain all the transparent and non-plastic parts.

51 rubber tires and 6 rubber suspension rings are provided. I'm guessing these will give a more realistic look and feel, instead of plastic wheels.

There's 157 photo-etch parts on 11 frets, which is a LOT. I only hope I will be able to bend and place all of them as intended. I have only ever installed 5 photo-etch parts and they required minimal bending.

Further realism is added by the remainder of the box. Metal parts and springs, rope and plastic ducts and metal wire are all included.

This is definitely the biggest, most expensive and most complex kit I've ever bought. I do not expect to build this in a couple of weeks. This is a kit for experience builders and even tough I have the required age (14), I'll continue sharpening my skills on my other works in progress before I tackle this one.

Finished : Academy 1/144 Sepecat Jaguar

After a 10-year break in scale modelling, I re-started my old-time hobby in september 2012. 

Because I needed to learn new techniques (airbrushing, for instance), I started small with this 1/144 scale Jaguar. It's really tiny, which was a challenge in itself, even though I only bought it because it had a camouflage pattern and I wanted to try that out with an airbrush.

Because I'm working on 7 models at the same time and I had to wait almost 2 months for my airbrush to arrive, it took a long time to complete, but here is the result.

It won't be an award-winner because the paintjob is a bit messy, the landing gear is crooked and the canopy is foggy, but I'm happy to declare this my first finished project.

Price : € 3.95
Number of parts : 36

Time spent : about 7 hours

Project completion time : 4 months

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This was the intended camouflage-scheme. 

The endresult is not identical, but recognizable.