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Once your model has been carefully built you are half way there. But it's the next half that can be the real test. You have to make plastic and resin look like steel and rubber. |
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Upper hull Acrylic panel lines Decaling The first stage of drybrushing The second stage What is drybrushing..?
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| For Starters |  |
| I usually build my models in sub assemblies, leaving the hull and turret separate from the hull, wheels and tracks. This works well for AFVs but can be tricky for Self Propelled guns. Softskins are a different case again and will be covered in a future article. |
| pic of kit sub assemblies | I'm using a conversion of the Zvezda T-34/76 Model 1943 with the Tamiya as my example. I've finished building the whole kit - but some of the sub-assemblies are not fixed permanently in place. These assemblies are the auxiliary fuel tanks, the turret and the hull top. The hull has all of it's other bits like the glassis and the brass tie downs and engine grill glued in place. The aerial I like to leave off - especially if its brass rod, as it can seriously injure if you poke yourself in the eye - not recommended :-) |
| The lower hull is completed but the road wheels, idlers and sprockets are usually left loose, and the tracks are built if I'm using a link and length track like Model Kasten or Fruil Modellismo to replace the kit supplied tracks. |
| Clean up your act | |
| The first thing to do is to clean the model' s sub assemblies. During building however carefull you are it will get fingerprints and sanding dust that always seems to accumulate no matter how careful you are. Kits also have a greasy mould release agent on them which will still be there unless you washed the sprues before starting. | I use a small jam jar filled with warm water with a few drops of washing up liquid. A cotton wool bud or a sponge makeup applicator make good tools to wash the model without getting it too wet. Be careful not to snag any brass or other added bits. |
| Once thoroughly dry the model can be dusted off with a large soft brush. I have a Coty Sunshimmer makeup brush that has long soft bristles and will remove dust without snagging kit bits that belong there... It's useful at every stage of modelling. |
| Hull first | |
| The lower hull gets one brush painted coat of the base colour - in this case a mid green Matt Humbrol Enamel - but I have used a number of suitable base colours. I find Tamiya acrylic olive drab works well too. Once that has dried the lower hull needs a bit of dirt on it. This particular T-34 will be at Kursk near the Orel salient in July 1943. |
| The ground there was mainly poor dusty soil, given over to large fields of arable crops. It turned to dry dust in summer and puddles of frozen mud in winter. So in July it would be very dusty, not too wet and little growth of bushes or trees. So the effect we need is of old dried mud mixed with grasses, overlaid with lots of dry road dust. With little piped water available the priority would not be on washing road dirt off tanks - except around air intakes, maintenance hatches and possibly engine decks. |
| So the dirt needs to be put on in layers to simulate the real deposition. I get a water colour palette and put some drops of Humbrol acrylic earth colour Matt 5029. Into this I mix a drop or two of water and a little model railroad grass scatter powder. | pic of bottles and pallette |
| pic of water colour palette and brush in use | If you'd like to read more click here for my blurb on using brushes. |
| This is available from model railway shops in a range of tones. I choose a brownish fine grade from Woodland Scenics, number T42 - its called 'turf' appropriately enough and is a dead brownish shade. They are made from powdered foam rubber waste and come in bags - I find it best to transfer the contents to an old jam jar and manoeuvre it with a large old paint brush. Just don't sneeze :-) |
| Dab and streak the mix onto the lower hull - don't be neat, this is mud don't forget. The mix will dry out fast so make sure you wash out the brush frequently, and only make up small batches at a time. This mud mix is lumpy and will add some texture to the lower hull - | and make splashes up the sidewalls behind the road wheels. If you are modelling a wet mud, lay it on thicker, especially if its Autumn rains time. Use less if its high summer drought or in the city where the tank might be running more on cobbles or tarmac. |
| Once the paint on the lower hull has dried - and because this is dry summer period without too much rain the mud will dry out. Simulate this with a line of lighter paint (I use Humbrol 116 enamel) to draw a light line along the top of the splashes. Practice it first on plasticard - its worth trying I think. |
| The inside face (road side) of the road wheels needs a wipe with the mud mix, but the prominent hubs and metal rims would be polished clean by the passing grass and other vegetation so as I'm using the Italeri/Zvezda T-34 which already comes in a convincing green plastic, it only needs to be dry brushed with the matt green base coat colour in enamel to look ok. Others will need to be painted and left to dry before the mud mix is added. |
| pic of painted road wheels | As most T-34 road wheels have a fat rubber tyre this needs picking in with Panzer grey - I keep a range of dark greys as no two tyres are the same shade, and none are black in colour. The side wall should be browner than the track face that gets scrubbed clean against the track face. The idler and sprocket would be bright metal along the face where the tracks rub. If you have any all steel wheels they are given a brush of steel on the road side face and a light dry brush on the rim. |
| A selection of different greys I use for tyres - there are enamels and acrylics - it doesn't matter about mixing the two types as it's the different shades we want here. | pic of panzer grey paints |
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This is what real T-34 road wheels look like - the Su100 at Bovington museum is well looked after - but still shows evidence of it's past career. Preston's T-34 at Cobbaton is regularly run around the local fields and is a superb guide to how these tanks really looked sixty odd years ago. |
| Tracks | |
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The tracks are next. If you are thinking of replacing the kit tracks, this is something I recommend as it improves the look of your finished product no end. But, it is a pricey option to take. Only you can decide if you want to go for it. I build two or three models per year with replacement tracks - the rest are kit supplied tracks - so I suppose I'm about half and half. So I know a fair bit about the delights of rubber band tracks. Some newer 1/35th scale kits have vinyl tracks that can be glued - the Tamiya T-55 is one. Others don't... |
| pic of stapled Tamiya tracks | This is one treatment for joining the older style of track |
| And this is another - heating the raised pins with a screwdriver. | pic of heated italeri tracks and candle |
| If you choose to buy plastic or metal individual link tracks - or if the kit contains individual links try clicking here for my article on building these tracks and also for a simple assembly and painting jig. |
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If you decide to go for the kit one piece rubber tracks the techniques are slightly different - look here for my methods of dealing with 'em! |
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Fixing the tracks in place is next, this is easier without the hull top and trackguards in place. - so if possible leave the top and bottom hull halves unglued. This is easier with the T-34 as most variants had a definate weld seam all round, but some others are more difficult. I've found that laying the track out on glass and running the tank onto them seems to work well, drawing the track around the idler first is easier - especially if the idler is free to turn, and make sure that the join is hidden. The T-34 doesn't have sand shields so you may want to put the join at the bottom where it can be better hidden. This is particularly important if you want to use the kit vinyl tracks as they are sometimes very tight and are mostly impervious to plastic glues. They often need reinforcing with thread or staples - If you do need to do this remember to disguise the area with a bit of your mud mix.
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pic of completed lower hull |
| Upper Hull | |
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I like to airbrush my base coat of paint overall on the upper hull. So I use Acrylic paint because it is an easy job to clean up after a spraying session. If you don't have an airbrush all is not lost Look here for my brush painting article that should help you get the best results with brushes. You may want to give more than one thin coat rather than one thick coat as that would obscure fine details. If you don't like acrylics then most of the advice there is applicable to enamels - apart from the type of thinners to use of course. |
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After your basecoat (whether sprayed or brushed) has thoroughly dried - give it two days to be sure - then the Future/Kleer overcoat can be added. See my other article here. This does need to be protected from dust as it dries, but you should end up with your basecoats sealed under a shiny layer of clear acrylic varnish. This is stage one completed. This is also the point where I start building a new kit as I get very depressed with how drab it all looks now. But, don't despair, as the next stage starts to bring it all together :-) |
pic of basecoated t-34 with future bottle in background |
| Acrylic panel lines | |
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Get a tub of your favourite acrylic paint. I like Humbrol Panzer Grey or matt black. The exact shade will vary according to the base colour of your model - black for Panzer grey base coat, or panzer grey for Russian Green base - right up to a light brown for Desert schemes, and even Dove Grey on Winter White schemes.
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pic 0/5 brush and base painted model |
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After stirring it well (the paint by the way) I put anything from a single drop up to half a dozen drops onto my pallette. The amount needed varies of course, according to the size of your subject and it's scale. The good news is that you can keep mixing up little bits of the wash until the job is done. Now dilute the acrylic paint sitting on your pallette with some clean water. Again this is personal preference but I like to start with five drops for every drop of paint. |
The water I use is tap water - slightly warm, and with a drop of washing-up liquid in it to break the surface tension. I keep a jam-jar full of clean water for washing brushes and mixing with acrylic paints and I keep it clean with frequent changes. Once the paint is thinned out to Very Runny Indeed (Sorry about the technical terms!) in your pallette get your 0/5 brush (yes that's 00000 size, very small.) Dip in into the paint and pick up a drop of the watery paint. Now touch it to a panel line or engine deck shut etc. The paint will flow into the gap and will flow along the shiny surface of the kleer. |
| pic of sponge applicator blotting model | Keep feeding the thinned mixture in until the panel line is full, or the paint starts to run out somewhere you don't want. Keep a cotton wool bud or sponge make up applicator to mop up spills. Keep this up until all the panels and shuts are treated. As the water dries it leaves the paint behind in places you can't get a brush. How neat is that eh! |
