Modeling Tips

I was out of the tank building game for years.I didn't even know they made individual links till this year.

 

Well i've been modelling for some years now and I can still remember my first tank with some seperate links. That was already a couple of years ago, and I believe it was Revell kit.
I wonder where you have been all that time, not knowing this system existed?

 

some time when painting you need to protect holes so the paint do not get in , to do this use white glue or carpenter glue, use a toothpick to put the glue in the holes, or partes that need to be protected against the paint, then paint it , after the paint is dry, just use a sharp x acto knif or similar and pry out the glue, it will came off very easy and you will have a clean hole!!!!!

 

If your kit has separate links for the tracks, and the vehicle has side skirts, leave of the return run of track. It's quicker, easier, less fiddly and gives you extra track bits to glue on to the hull front.
Also (although I admit not useful for everyone :smok: ), I have an A3-capable printer and (several) CAD packages. Draw your project, I do a good deal of scratch-building, on CAD, scale it down to 1:76, print at full size and then cut out the main components, glue them to the plasticard and you've got templates already done for assembly.
Turrets are easy (except for those wierdly-shaped modern tanks).
Do a "circle" of plasticard for the turret base, another for the turret top, and a third for the bottom of the turret basket (all my scratchbuilds have baskets, ensures the turrets stay on during a wargame). Space apart with rectangles and then use paper to wrap round turret bottom and top to get the hull sides (for proper circular turrets you can do it in one go).
Then "paint" the paper with a mix of tube cement thinned in liquid poly, three coats or so and the paper becomes nearly as durable as plasticard and takes good paint finish.
Oli

 

a must before you paint your model, is to wash it with a mild soap to remove not just dust but fingerprints and your oii you smear when you handle your model, i learned this the hard way :cry:

 

first paint the lightest paint , then the next light of dark, and so and so.
never paint the dark first

 

A good tip on making bags / stowed rolls etc for your tanks here:

http://www.battlefront.co.nz/Article.asp?ArticleID=741

 

Sweet link. Thanks Ricky!

 

WASHES.
To REALLY make those details pop on armor, or the recessed panel-lines of aircraft, I use a diluted wash of flat-black enamel.
It makes rivets and such details as vison-blocks, turret details, engine grill-covers absolutely come-alive. Same with recessed panel-lines, and flaps, aerilons and such on aircraft.
The trick is to use a REALLY fine brush and dilute that black til it's almost a gray. The capillary-action using enamel thinner causes it to literally RACE down recessed panel lines. You'll be impressed, believe me.
If you find after the first application it isn't showing the contrast you desire, repeat process til you get the result you're looking for.
Experimentation is the key.

Tim

 

would not be better to use water base paint for the washout?

 

Sounds like a really great trick. I'm surely going to try it on my next model. But indeed, wouldn't a water-based paint be better, so that you don't mess up the paint layers applied earlier?

 

Guys:
I use enamel for most of my paint finishing. If you use a wash of water-base thinned black over an enamel painted surface, it tends to puddle in place. (Not the result I'm after.)
Something about that enamel-based thinner makes it run a panel line and the end result is much-improved.
At least that has been MY experience.
Experimentation being the key... and I learn all of my most-important lessons the hard-way.

Tim

 

Damn. Finally made Corporal!
I was thinking I was an old "China-Marine" for awhile... they never got promoted.

Tim

 

very, very true. same here!
Thanks for the explanation. Imma try that next time

 

I was wondering:

http://panzer.nease.net/masterpiece/m5a1/m5a1-3.jpg

On the above example of a M5A1, there are distinct highlights on the edges on the hull. Does anyone know how this would be acheived? I'm painting the exact same tank, in an olive drab (Tamyia paint). I guess that to highlight the edges some form of drybrushing, but as the highlight paint, should I just add white to the olive drab or mix it in stages with the next lightest colour in the colour range? Thanks.

 

Adding white to it is the easiest way to do it. I like to add just a little bit at a time and gradually get lighter. That way you don't get too light to start with.

 

Thanks JCalhoun, but do I use drybrushing to pick out the edges? and what sizebrush do I use? Thanks

 

I've tried drybrushing on figures and found it always ends up looking scratchy, great if that's the effect you want, not so good if your just wanting to bring out the edges.

Your best bet is to thin down the paint then depending on the scale highlight the edges and any raised surfaces, using a number of coats and building gradually to the edge colour, it's more like blending really than drybrushing. It's time consuming, but this will give you the best effect.

On the other hand if you've got several hundred 1/300 scale T-34s for a Russian Army for wargaming, this is probably too fancy and drybrushing will do the job just fine.

 

I've found the trick to drybrushing is to use a quality paint. If the paint is not very smooth, it does turn out scratchy.

For a brush, I like flat wide brushes with stiff bristles at the top and softer towards the end. About 3/4" to 1" long hairs and vary in widths between 1/4" to 1".

 

In my experience, if it looks 'scratchy' just clean more paint off the brush. It will take longer, but look better.