Painting
The rear cab floor prop shaft access panel frame is masked off for the application of SNJ Polishing Powder.
I elected to keep the body panels in place before airbrushing Tamiya XF-2 flat white over a base of Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black – reasoning that it will98760- keep the joints free of paint and ease the gluing process.
Vallejo Leather Brown is applied to the seat back rests followed by dabs of Windsor & Newton Raw Umber. A dampened brush of Odourless thinners is then used to work this into the leather brown paint.
Main body parts ready for assembly post a brush applied coat of future, followed by an overall Abteilung Brown wash and a pin wash of Payne’s Grey oil paint to highlight details.
A judicious application of a course sanding stick was needed to sort the fit problem of the inner roof to the outer section.
Airfix supply the engine radiator which I fitted but didn’t paint – no need, it can’t be seen!
You know sometimes you think you have a good idea…this wasn’t one of them! I’d undercoated the underside in my customary NATO Black, followed by pencil graphite for engine, prop shaft and differential. The exhaust was then treated to an AK’s Light Rust Wash. Protect those parts I thought, with Masking Gel…Oh dear me, what fun I had trying to remove it. The fragility of the exhaust meant that it broke into 3 separate parts. Lesson learnt!
Painting of the camouflage commenced over a primer of NATO Black. This turned out to be a problem – the AK4031 Portland Stone taking many careful applications to build-up a sufficient paint density and achieve a satisfactory result – the paint seemed almost opaque! An attempt to overcome this problem by Increasing the ratio of paint to (AK) thinners, resulted in frequent tip drying on the airbrush needle. After careful masking, the second colour, AK4032 Silver grey was airbrushed with a slightly better result.
Here the body has been masked for the third and final colour AK4033 Slate. This went on without the problems of the previous two colours. In hindsight, It would have been better to apply the lighter colours over a primer of light grey.
Isolated areas of paint bleed are masked off and repainted.
Before fitment of the cab roof, the cab itself was treated to sand colour pigments. Decals for the instrument cluster and a information plaque were also applied with a of a drop of Tamiya gloss clear in each instrument binnacle to gave the illusion of a glass cover. Painting and weathering of the seat and other small details is also completed. The painted resin spare wheel is dropped securely into position behind the drivers seat without the need for glue.
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