All my armour build will be posted in this thread....keep a sharp an eye on this as alot of new methods will be included.

i will start off with something easy ...an OOB build with no modification, slowly moving on something harder and finally a full cut and slash build.

heres the list of build im planning, if time permitting finish them off this year.

Morser Karl
Panzer 1 ausf F
Stug IIIG
Panther Ausf A ( zimmerit)
Panther Ausf D
Panther Ausf G
King Tiger (zimmerit)
sFH 150cm Field Howitzer

Vickers
Chanlleger II

M60 Blazer
Nagmashot
Merkava

ok 1st to go is this italian M13/40.
this is an easy to build kit if you wanna do it OOB ...but theres alot one has to work on if one desires a more accurate representataion of the M13/40.
but im doing this OOb while saving the other for more added details.


no much to say about this 28 year old kit..its simple and good enough to do it OOB, the fittings is good and this is one of the better armour kits from Italleri, well you could expect this from an Italian company doing an Italian tank.





the downside is this sink hole...the only one in this kit




first thing to do is to give the smooth surface on the lower hull the steel look...using hardware shop thinner and a hard brush, i add a little black so i could see the surface better











i use this thread to join up the tracks




a plastic rod is inserted so i could tight up the tracks...which is very stiff, and it wont look nice if you dont work on it...stiff tracks always tends to bend upwards




once the tracks were tied in , i cut the plastic rod to a minimal...they wont be visiable one the tracks were painted and add in some pastel

finish





coat of steel is applied. Black 90%+Bronze 10%





a coat of hairspray and let dry for 3 hours





the tracks are sprayed with modelmaster rust




the camo..i used Panzer grey 80%+Grass green 15% and dark blue 5%




once dried i use the same mixture mix 50% light gray and spray on the central panels as shading




afterr masking ... alight over spray of Desert yellow + Olive green + light grey




shading ...part 1...the same desert yellow mixture, sprayed in the middle , panel by panel




shading...part 2...again with the same mixture but this time mix with 50% light gray, and again sprayed in the middle and slowly move up around the edges




shading ..part 3....add another 50% light gray and a touch of desert yellow to the pervious toned down mixture






masking off





a high light of dark gray + green and 90% thinner is sprayed around the hard edges and around the nuts and bolts






after high lighting a very very light overspray of light grey to tone down and blend the high lights






Filtering...i use Raw amber mix with 95% thinner to filter down the shading.
works stops here as one need to to wait atleast 12 hours for the filter paints to dry

Filtering Round 2...this time i use Burn sienna + Black + raw seinna and 90% thinner as filter medium. while the filter is still wet, i add in pin point wash around the edges , nuts and bolts and also create rain streaks, using a mixture of burn sienna + black and 70% thinner
. must allow atleast 6 hours drying time, before next step



note the tone changes after 2 rounds of filtering. next would be chipping, rust aplication dry brushing and toning

Wah! You weren.t kidding when you said its a fast build...smokin!

You always have ways to make realistic finishes bro..salut!

great job for a quickie build... i like how the shading and camo turns out so far.

thanks braders...fast coz this is an easy build with little parts and the fitting is good, just over 3 hours , but i think bcos its the holiday season, no work and the wife is away visiting her parents ..hahaha

well if you choose to detail this kit, indeed it will take alot more time, theres alot of area that doesnt really look accurate especially the head lights , tools and the engine deck...i choose not to use to the head lights as its so awfull and it takes time to recast one.

the filtering after drying





paint chipping is done with minimal effect around the hatches and engine area...









TONING

this method is to bring out the lost shades during filtering and bring the colour back to life, it also serve to smooth out the filtering effect and wipe out the rough after effect of filtering
this is basic colours i use for toning ...black, white , green and brown


the mixture of 4 of these colour will produce this shade..sort like panzer grey but to the greener side. the mixture is diluted with 90% thinner...i use tamiya enemel thinner for the toning..as i have more control with the flow compared to minyak tanah.
ONE WORD OF CAUTION....do not use this method if you are using the same enemel as base coat. Safe with Gunze or Tamiya water base paints




with a soft medium wide brush apply the toning mixture.
the left side of the turret is been tone down wile the right not yet..note the effect of the toning...and also note the streaks left behind by filtering on the right.



see how the toning erase most of the streaks and blend everything together



done and wait for it to dry ...another waiting game




next ..take some of toning mixture and mix with brown and use it to tone down the lower hull and the wheels...in this way you will have two tones on your tanks just to break up the dull single tone.



after toning with the brown mixture...so just wait a few hours to dry...enemel dries faster than oil paints

cool man, thanks for the step by step pic.

This thread's gonna be like a Bible of sorts for us armor modelers..hehe

Thanx Ari!

Toning after drying. note the several tones in these tank...the front section is different from the turret and the turret is different from the engine decks..but then these tones are so close to each other the difference is quite minimal





now for dry brushing. i used oilpaints for dry brushing for one simple reason , oilpaints do not leave behind streaks like enemel paints do.
the colour i use are white, sap green , yellow and raw sienna...mix them together will produce sort of a beige colour




with very light stroke ...the dry brushing goes in ...DO NOT over dry brush as we do not want a tank that looks like it came out from the powder shop. many times we had seen modeller dry brush on the heavy side to produce the high lights ...well i find this is not correct , its better to under dry brush than to over as we still have more work to do with the pastels





the very light effect of dry brushing...and at the same time i clean up the Kangaroo decal, as this is a new paint on a captured tank




a vey diluted white is used to paint the decals to give it an uneven paint finish...just as well as we dont really expect the kangaroos are painted with a professional finish...well not in Trobuk 1941

RUST

The hot climate of Africa is steels worst enemy as heat produce Oxide , and thats means plenty of rust.
here is the rust miture i used. one is in black brown, then other is reddish brown , finally one is flat brown.


rust is applied on selected spots, and on the nuts and bolts, but this is done at random as not all the nuts and bolts are rusted






rust is applied in thick soup on the exhaust



while its still wet, i apply water base chromite green



then i applied a touch of thinner on top of all this...and watch the green water base paint breaks up and form into speckls..which is the 1st stage of rust...oxide green

as always ari....nice 1... ;)

Sttttuuuunnniing Job! Thanks for the step by step pics.

the tank is given a coat of Future 30%+70% water...this will protect the coating and gives a muted gloss look. Plastic armour at 1/35 would look DEAD in matt paints, whatever highlights or dry brushing or whatever will disappear once matt paints are fully dried.
as the way i see it...forget about the True facts about how the colours would look like in real life, but produce something artistic and pleasing to the eyes. besides the muted gloss will act as contrast once the dusting is complete





Home turn.....Pastels
these are the colours im using for this tanks. a word on pastels ...always get the soft type without oils...and avoid getting those cheap made in china type, they are near hopless as most of them comes in oil


the wheels and suspension after dusting




a mixture of oil paints Black + burn seinna + varish is use to touch up the edges and bolts ....this will serve as contrast and also as the grease which will always be present when theres suspensions


the exhaust receive the same treatment



note the colour of the fender around the exhaust.....this is due to the heat from the exhaust. the same reason why exhaust are usually rusted, the heat simply melts the paints away...leaving it to the mercy of rain and sun
This effect is done with light spraying , toning and pastels






FINISH

so ..whats next?..i was thinking about the M60...but the i guess i have some unfinish business with the King Tiger.
well..work stop on the king tiger bcoz i have uncovered some info about tigers in berlin, and the colour and camo i did was incorrect...so in it goes to the store room waiting for the day for rework...and now its the time.


heres some photo of the berlin tigers







here a Tiger I ...look at the wheels and turret hatch, what does this tells you, i was surprise too looking at it, an early production tiger in berlin





this was the junk i had stored up




rework starts with the turret...the gun alligment holes were drill using tool bits as the one on this kit is too small and it sits 75 degrees instead of 90 on a real tiger. the turret is given a work about with a ball shape drill to create the rough texture...actually this a old Verlinden method..and i havent been using it for quite sometime.

ari
first of all ... this is great stuff !!! thank you for sharing, and the time taken to upload the pics.

aha ... so this is how filtering is done. Toning .. hmm , something new to me.

I hope you don't mind if I copy and paste the pics into MS Word document, and put in your step by step guide and print it out for my reference.

boy ... probably this will convert me from quick builder to a detailed builder ...

yar sure bos...copy as you please and hope its a help to your future build.
talking about fast build...i rather have a simple and fast to build kit, as i prefer to spend time on paintings.
i have about 60 boxes of armour and most of them are dragon's smart kits that comes with plenty of tiny detailed parts...good, but i just couldnt get myself to sit and start building these 400-500 part kits...thats the lazy part of me :wacko: tamiya offers a much easier way out of this but then loses out on the fine details.
so how then...i choose to ignore the finer details of dragon and the more expensive tamiya and start with easy easy kits like this M13, or some eastern european brands or even trumpeter.

In the past i could sit for weeks and fine detail a single tank ...and i was wondering why i couldnt get myself to do this anymore...probably back then i dont have any extra models to fool around with, buy one finish it , then only buy a new one...dulu dun have money la bos... :P

the mistake i done earlier was the colour scheme....i had read somewhere that the german had use salvaged turrets for tanks that took part in the final berlin battle. i presume it would be the same for the King Tiger...opps i was wrong. :P Panther and panzer iv ..yes...but never the king tiger ..
New info that i obtain is...the Alkett tank factory in berlin was completely destoryed by allied bombing..production stops, but Henschel who is charge of building the turret has a large stockpile of new turret. they do have a limited supply of hull delivered by Alkett before the factory stops production.
these were the last hulls avaiable and they are quickly assembled and send to berlin just in time for the opening battle.

most of the king tiger went to the SS Panzerabteilung 503. their defence of berlin become a legend



April of 1945, SS-Hauptscharführer Karl Körner (platoon commander from the 2nd Company) was supporting an infantry counterattack in the Bollersdorf area (east of Berlin), when he encountered two Soviet JS-II heavy tanks at a distance of 200m. He quickly destroyed the first one and second one trying to reverse in order to take a firing position drove into an anti-tank ditch and was abandomed by the crew. On the road from Bollersdorf to Strausberg, Körner observed additional 11 JS-II tanks and around 120 to 150 enemy tanks in the process of being refuelled and re-armed on the egde of the village. He then fired and destroyed all 11 JS-II tanks on the road and attacked the rest of the tanks and their suprised crews. Number of fuel and ammunition trucks exploded causing even more panic among the Russian tankers, while Körner fired all 39 rounds he had left and knocked out 39 enemy tanks before he withdrew. Following this action, sSSPzAbt 503 and other units were falling back to defend Berlin. On his way to Berlin, Karl Körner destroyed over 100 Soviet tanks and 26 anti-tank guns in total, achievement for which on April 29th, he was awarded the Knights Cross in the bunker of Reichs Chancellery. After the ceremony, Körner returned to his unit on the frontline at Charlottenburg district of Berlin. On May 2nd, last King Tiger from sSSPzAbt 503 was destroyed during an attempt to break out of the city on the Spandau Bridge


May 2, 1945

"Attempt to break out from Berlin in westerly direction with the last two panzers of our Abeitlung. Our vehicle with commander Lippert, the second panzer with the holder of the Knights Cross Schafer of 3. company. The heavy fighting against a vastly superior force lasted all day. There were very high losses of vehicles, infantry and civilians on our side and very high losses of personnel carriers and infantry on the Russian side due to the action of the two panzers. During a renewed attempt to break through, Schafer's panzer took a direct hit, two men dead, the rest seriously wounded. A further attempt to break out was no longer possible. Our last vehicle, the last Panzer of the Abteilung, was destroyed."

May 3, 1945

"During an attempt by Obersturmmfuhrer Lippert to make his way west as an infantryman, he was killed by a bullet in the head...."

The above action took place in Spandau as part of a group formed by Major General Mummert. The two King Tigers joined up with this group in time to help with the breakout across the Schulenburger Bridge. The Tigers of Lippert and Schafer drove up to this bridge and provided covering fire. As Lippert and Schafer opened fire the Russian fire died done and the spearhead of this attack was able to cross the bridge.

In a bit of irony, after moving a few hudred meters past the bridge the two King Tigers encountered Russian infantry and tanks, with a JS tank being the main obstruction, Schafer moved to a point to engage this Stalin tank when he received a direct hit from a German 8.8 antiaircraft gun that was captured by the Russians.

Schafer survived but was terribly burned. After many years and a period of temporary blindness, his serious wounds healed and he regained his memory.
"Ten tanks attacking over open ground posed no big problem for a well sited Panther."
Horst Zobel, Commander 1st Battalion Panzer Regiment Muncheberg


Karl-Heinz Turk, Unterscharführer in der sSS-Pz.Abt.503

I have luckily survived many different battles not only on the Oder front, but also in Berlin. My tank was 2 of 6, which were sent to Berlin. We took up positions in the Eastern area, around the Reichsbank, "Abschnitt 'Norge'". My Tiger, and that of Diers, was repeatedly put into service in the Spittelmarkt and Vollstrasse area. We were able to knock out a massive number of enemy tanks on the other side of the Spree. Diers was later on ordered to move back towards the Tiergarten later on in the evening. I stayed behind, with my practically unmanouverable tank here at the old Reichsbank. I then recieved new orders on this day to drive towards Potzdamer Platz by way of Anhalter bahnof in order to fight of repeated Soviet tank advances in that defence sector. This was a difficult area to manover through due to the amount of bombed-out buildings and massive rubble and damaged electricity and street tram lines.

We were not able to reach Anhalter Bahnhof, due to massive Tank and Anti-Tank gun fire. I ordered the gunner to open up and told the driver to make a hasty retreat under the fire of our own gunner, which he did. We then took up position in (around) the Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. We did this in order to conserve ammo and create a position of blocking fire to tie up the enemy from a distance, and to preserve ammunition, as we did not know when we could reload. Due to this, we were able to knock out many enemy tanks and block the area off. Due to the regular infantry and artillery fire from the Soviets, we were forced to keep our machine guns in action in order to ward off infantry attacks. During this action, we began to have problems with both of the onboard mounted machine guns (MGs). The noises of tank motors alerted us to the possibility of a early morning attack from the Russians. This was no mistake as the Russians began their attack during the morning, their tank guns blazing and causing havoc everywhere. They were somehow able to tow off all of the knocked out tanks from the previous day and repair them enough to take advantage in this attack. We shot at everything that came towards us,but recieved a deadly cover fire which caused numerous hits on the right track aand and on the side armor. After around an hour of this firefight, we were able to convince the Russians to turn around and then go home. We were sadly not even able to move at the end of this action.

After a discussion with the crew, I was able to make my way towards the Tiergarten in order to contact the Instandwerkstatt company to get a Bergepanther. To my luck, the only Bergepanther is commanded by Unterscharführer Piller, my Ex-Gunner. We then drove to Potsdamer Platz, where Piller and I were able to fix the tracks, all the while under rediculous artillery fire, in order for him to tow my Tiger II B to the Reichskanzelei. We are, after 3 hours, finally repaired and told that we can again take up position(the tank still has manoverability problems) in direction of Saarlandstrasse(which does not exist anymore.. the one that does is in the wrong direction). We take up our old position on the right side of the street. A new tank comes out of nowhere with 2 Luftwaffe officers and they instruct me to come with them to the new battalion command post in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (we havent had any form of radio contact for a while). We are able to reach our new destination after a risky time moving through rubble and half-destroyed houses, we spent more time hiding from the artillery fire, as we did moving towards the end positon. Sturmbannführer wants to know the situation with all of the tanks, especially why I disengaged myself from the fighting for 3 hours.

After informing him of the entire situation, I am able to return to my crew with the command to search out and take up a certain position in the Potsdamer Platz, where I would be able to defend the entire area and also be virtually unseen by the enemy. In order to do this, I move my Tiger II B in front of a Protection wall which stands in by a U-Bahn entry for the Potsdamer Bahnhof. We are able to command the area from this position. the on-board machine guns are able to take everything under fire, as we move the Turret around to take every suspicious movement underfire. The on-board MGs have to take sewer drains underfire as the Russians attempt to outflank us by using the sewers to get in and around our position.

May 1, 1945: we begin to run low on munitions, and we are not sure where to get any more ammunition. The artillery fire dies down during the afternoon, and due to the lack of any form of information, I am forced to go to the nearby U-Bahn station in order to see what I can find. The U-Bahn was, much to my suprise, full of civilians, who with totally depressed and hopeless faces asked whether the war was over and who had won. I came across a Wehrmacht Captain, who I implored to inform me of the entire situation inside of Berlin.

Sadly, this "Captain" was only a Courier, who had accidentally put on the coat of his Commander. He was able to give me very much wanted information, from which I learned of the death of Adolf Hiter. And through him, I was told that a Pionier platoon of the Waffen-SS unit was positioned in our area. This platoon was reinforced by Volksturm and Hitlerjugend "reinforcements". I instructed the courier to go to them and retrieve the commander of the platoon and bring him to my position, which he did. During this, I released the Volksturm and Hitlerjugend from their service and they all went home. The only people from the pionier platoon who stayed, ended up following their Oberscahrführer to my point, as the rest had run off.

We recieved several reports of break-out attempts The only one that sounds promising was that from the Weidendammer Brücke. The Oberscharführer informed me that there was still several manouverable SPWs at the Reichskanzlei. We repaired one enough so that it could drive, and then headed towards Friedrichstrasse. We drove quick through the hellish night, and through this we were not able to see a huge shell hole which lay ahead of us, into which ourour SPW drove into. After this point, we were not able to remove the SPW from the shell hole, so after the loss of our completely unmanouverable Tiger II B and now this SPW, we were not sure what to do. Thank god that we had a Berliner with us who was familiar with the entire area, as he was able to direct us through a portoin of the U-Bahn, which was set under a half meter of water, from which we we finally emereged at the Weidendammer Brücke

The breakout took place on May 2nd, 1945 at around 12:15 (00:15) or so, as far as my memory serves me. A "Kingtiger" took point and a massive wave of soldiers and civilians attempted to take cover behind him. As far as I remember, right after we overtook the tank obstructions, we began to recieve heavy, if not murderous fire, which shot down just about everything which was not packed off into an armored area. A Luftwaffe officer was able to make a jump over the bridge without being injured. After we made our way through the blockade, we were able to hide ourselves in a building of the BEWAG. We spent an entire day and the following night in this building. During which we were able to find the clothes of foreign workers and then were able to make our escape per foot in the direction of Frohnau. I was able to make it over the Elbe at Rösslau (Kornhaus) after being taken prisoner 2 times by the Russians. The first time in Berlin and the second in Steutz an der Elbe. After my swim over the Elbe, I was forced to then swim over the Mulde. I was finally caught in Leuna by a group of American MPs after four weeks of eluding the enemies. I was then placed in an US-prisoner of war camp and then later on sent over the Rhine to the French, from which I was then returned to the "internment camp -Darmstadt".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

turret been stripped


new parts added


a coat of surfacer




base coat black



overspray of orange...yup orange





light strips of field green




heavy strips of german yellow



black outlines been sprayed on



a light overspray coat of modelmaster rust



a coat of modelmaster rust + red for the final spray.





and this is how i did the Red primer paint, its not just plain red primer but its has a a couple of shades thrown in...well alot of work still ahead to bring out these shades and only could be seen after everything is finish

Great work on the red primer Ari. Some many different hues used just to develop a single red primer shade. Now wonder what you use for US Olive Drab.

Keep it coming Ari.

no idea bos on the shades for olive drab...but i will try to mix up something when the time comes,,,a good bet would be khaki and panzer grey...well see how first la.

Aisay brother, who's the bos? Me not but you are definitely the armour bos! I am just a part-time admin lah.

Anyhow, thanks for your info.

the hull is give a coat of light orange as base.






the gun is painted black, then an over spray of black+ bronze




its always diffcult to paint a tank thats half done...especially one that recieved a hasty paint job, so you really need to prepare yourself and plan ahead.

FILTERING
for this King tiger im doing a different filtering method...unlike the M13 which got 2 rounds of filtering, this one here is getting only one....but......

here the tiger get a coat of Purple + red + black oilpaint mixture.



next a touch of raw sienna is added in...apply this then use a brush to blend the edges in...



pin wash around the edges and curves with a mixture of black+brown enemel. if you should try this method, the word is you have to work quickly, make sure you get everything in before the purple mixture dries...if that happen , then you gonna have sharp contrast on your tank. what is needed here is the soft blend between the colours

the hull is given a light overspray of Russet....sort like reddish brown..infact its a mixture of purple, red and brown



next black outlines are sprayed on



a coat of primary green...its been sprayed in a way some parts are thick, while some are random in light coats, all the while leaving at some spots for the red primer to show thru. the last time i did , i hand painted it..and the result wasnt what i hoped for in hastily painted tank





next...the second coat of green, Luftwaffe pea green...this is the standard green finish used in factories late in the war, tank crews in the fields will later paint german yellow and red brown on it...i have been testing this particular tone many times, somehow i always didnt quite get it right, until i tried mixing with blue.
the mixture is light green Gunze 319 + sky blue..at a ratio of 9+1



the pea green mixture then mix with light egg blue and lightly sprayed to represent chalking. chalking is the result of paints been diluted with diesel..




outlines of Primary green + black




test fitting

fantastic WIP ari...every time we have something new to learn from you..thank you very much for showing us the step by step methods.. :D

no la bos..onli share share la, sometimes i aslo steal from orang puteh, so we thieves must share out the loot la :D

ok before i go on further, i would like to share some infos on paints and thinners

To say i have tried all the model paints avaiable in the market would be a big lie, maybe about 60% of them, and the rest is either could not be found locally or they carry a No No reputation..so you wouldnt be buying them anyway if you believe in heresay.

For Amour my choice would be Gunze lacquer paints. this is the only paint that i know of that could take alot of heavy abuse. other paints will not last long with all the coating , wash, filtering and even dry brushing if you dont apply a clear protective coat.
Gunze lacquer needs no clear coats, and it could stand off most the wash solution, unless its laquer thinner.
Gunze lacquer is toxic and the fumes from spray guns is a hazard to health, so stay clear when spraying or use a mask..
the plus point is its very thin and dries quickly...twice as fast as most enemel or water base paints. once dry, it will stay there forever.

to work with lacquer, you must know the right amount of thinner needed. for a matted finish, use 70% thinner abd spray in light coats, several coats to get a good finish.
if you want something that shines...use 40% thinner...and again in several coats. good for airplanes.
they work very well with anything from 15-40psi, but do poorly under 10 psi.

for base coating lacquer could be thin down with hardware shop thinner, but for fine lines Gunze lacquer thinner is a must...expensive but the result is beyond words.


my next choice would be Tamiya enemel...but i only use they for secondry painting, wash and toning. they are smooth ,dries faster than other enemels and it could be thin with almost any thinner...even minyak tanah.



OIL PAINTS.

this is one item you must have to produce decent armour.
The brands varies according to taste and budget...the cheap chinese type could be use but it takes longer for them to dry if they dry at all. so try to fork out a couple more ringgit to get the european brands....the tubes are 100% full with little oil unlike the half paint half oil and half empty chinese brands. we dont really need the oils actually, as they must be filter and thin down with Linseed oil before using. so if you are using chinese oilpaints, first make sure you filter out the oils with newspaper.

for wash mixture..oilpaints works well with minyak tanah or low grade thinner...but just add some linseed oil for a smooth flow. drying time should be around 12 hours, and 4 if you use oil paint quick dry solution...at art shop got many of this quick dry solution.

the favourite colours are Black, burn sienna, raw amber, white, red, sap green and yellow.
these colour could be mix with each other to produce different shades

For the toning i used tamiya enemel green...green will create a nice hue among the red shades and also tie them together giving a smooth look.
Toning will depend on what kind of finish you are looking for...sand or yellow base will need grey to look good, while green base needs yellow or khaki...the choice is never ending.





while waiting for the turret to dry..i did the hull. paints got rub off by all sort of reason



a close up


the turret almost dry...and the colours began show.

the hull is been given a toning of panzer gray and let to dry for a few days






while waiting i did this...but not sure how to shade this overgrown moving pill box. one thing abt KV tanks ..they are huge and featureless, thus its not easy to produce an eye pleaser out of them.

ari, U can achieve something that I will use months to do in such short time, tabik. keep it coming...like to see your KV tank.

Wonderful work ari.
The scheme is refreshing and detailing/weathering absolutely fantastic.

Thanks brader for the comments.... :)


now lets get down to bisnis......this Kv-1 will not be easy, just ask the braders who had build them, i mean the building part is easy, the hard part is the finishing.
a big, box like tank in a single colour scheme...green at that :D ...with no features or parts/tools to break up the dull look...
but i must say Trumpeter did a good job on this kit...correcting many of the mistake found in Tamiya"s KV-1 and at half the price...


got held up the tracks...finally manage to finish it...everything is downhill after this




finish ...the armour will only be fixed on after everything is finish




the usual steel base...this time i gave it a spray of future to protect the coat, mixed with 50% hardwareshop thinner. future will dry faster, ready for use in 30 minutes...while mix with water will atke as long as 6 hours

ok..lets see how we do this. to paint this tank with the normal russian tank green would be just too simple , guess im not the type to do that, then again how do we shade green russian tanks...from what i see, modellers would use a certain colour and then shade it with a different green..example 303 then shade it with 315 or something like that.
this is what i have to say ..if you do this...then you will have Rainbows..a very sharp contrast between colour, your tank will be just one of the boys.
Shading to my knowledge or perhaps the way i do it is to use one single colour, then tone it down bit by bit...the differents might not be visiable, but if you tone it down several time...the you could see the different shade of a single colour forming up...there is no short cut to shading , it has to be done layer by layer.

for this KV-1 ...its a very diffcult tank to finish, believe me..seldom do one see an impressive KV-1, due to its huge featureless shape..you really need to do something special for it....covering it up with pastel or mud is not the way to create an eye opener. the plus side is..a Kv-1 has plenty of flat open surface...so shading is very important here .

so this is the way i decide to this KV-1...tone it down, then bring back the lost colour by filtering it layer by layer ...this will give the tank a tinted look with hue shading to blend everything it.
it will required a lot of time ...as we need to wait for each layer to dry before applying the next.
if you decide to follow this method..you must use Gunze lacquer, this is the only paint i know that will preserve the details after many rounds of coating, as they are very thin. base coat and shading alone needs alteast 8 to 10 coats of paint. no other paint could achieve this ..believe me


first to go is the steel base coat...once dried i gave it a coat of future thin down with hardware shop thinner for a quick. then a coat of hairspray is given



next a coat of red primer...once dried a coat of hairspray is given. im creating the double chiping method for this tank




a very soild coat of panzer grey



my choice for the base green will not be russian tank green...as it will not give the desire tone that i wanted, instead i use IJA Nakajima green...weird huh..nakajima green on a russian tank :D



the nakajima green is tone down using panzer yellow..ratio...7-3




20% of light gull gray id added for the next shading



a further 50% of light gull gray added



Pause...ok lets see how many coat of paint up to here? the green has turn to a very light yellowish green..doesnt look like the green on a russian tank right. well, theres a reason why i did this light colour, they are needed to pick up the tones once i do the filtering. if i did it in solid green shades then at the end i would have a very dark/black colour tank


a detail spray of nakajima green + black




the space armour is done the same way except i use IJA kawasaki green






FILTERING
this is where the green will be brought back to live....i use a diluted solution of tamiya field green ..ration of 10% enemel paint and 90% enemel thinner. the enemel thinner will not spoil the base paint...but if you use Tamiya water base or enemel paints..then you will be introuble. you must stop after each layer to allow it to dry ...1 hour is a good bet.



this is the result after 3 layers of filtering with the same field green solution. note how the green is coming back...remember how yellowish it looked before filtering
once dried , a thin coat of future is given to protect what i have as we would be moving to a different shade.







the armour is done the same way with the same solution...once dried they are given a coat of future. from now on they will be filtered with a different shade from the tank. this to create contrast..and to express an on field conversation as Not all KV-1E are factory build, many of them had the armour added on it field workshops..so the diffrerent shade of green is expected

As usual, beautiful work bro! ^_^

How did you do the paint scratches/chips?...adds that touch of realism.

simple la bos..just scrap away with pen knife, and wipe clean

Filtering part 2


for this filter i used Tamiya bright green and as same as before thin down with 90% thinner. 2 coats are needed here





next filtering with a solution of brown + red +black and green. this wil give the tank a wore out look. only 1 coat is needed. once applied , quickly add in the pin wash and outlines with an oil paste mixture of black+ burn sienna





end of filtering..a coat of future is given. let to dry for a day, as it is important that the future coat is totally dried to avoid getting spoil by the next step...Toning







the different shades of green..later after toning they will look even less different




close up on the tow cable...did some extra work on this small piece..sort like metal, chipped paint, rust all thrown into one. got this idea after seeing the tow cable from the DBKL truck :D

now I have an idea ow to build my KV tanks, thanks dude.

Wow..I love those scratches!

Toning


i had a hard time deciding which is the best colour i should use for toning..i didnt want to make any mistake here as i know myself......if this fails , then this KV will end up in the store room...waiting to be repair whenever that day would come.

finally decide to use light brown....well it turn out ok, and no damage done lucky me. just need to wait a day or two for the toning to cure before moving to dry brushing and work on the lower hull,

hi ... it might sound stupid
but what's the hairspray for on the model kit ??
:ph43r: