Merad

Here's the RFI:

This was part of a reddit group build for the 85th anniversary of the start of WW2 in Western Europe. This was my first build using a 3d cockpit (Quinta Studio), first time using MRP paints, and first time painting markings with 1ManArmy masks. Very happy with how all of the above turned out, and with the Kotare kit. Only one fit issue in the whole build, which I'm pretty sure was my fault. I do feel like the chipping and weathering are the weakest parts of this build, that is where I need the most practice. But overall a fun build and I'm pleased with the result. Brief WIP thread Google Photos album of the whole build

All done! One quick teaser pic for now, I'm going to let everything dry overnight and hopefully get it in the photo booth tomorrow.

There are two reasons I haven't tried hairspray chipping yet. I'm pretty committed to using MRP paints - colors already ordered for my next 6-8 builds - plus they're excellent. From what I've read chipping only works with acrylics? Also, I really like the effect that black basing gives and not sure how well it would mix with chipping. Although now that I do some research I see that Doog has an article on the subject. I have been eyeing a 1/48 A6M5 Zero to build in the near future, so it would be a good candidate to try some heavy chipping.

I agree, I wanted the wing root under the cockpit to be almost bare metal so that was intended to be heavy, but I don't think the pattern looks very natural and the chipping on other areas is really too heavy. I need a lot more practice with sponge chipping and I still haven't found a type of sponge that I really like and feel like gives good control of the effect.

That is amazing, looking at the first few pics it it took me a minute to realize it was the finished model instead of a reference photo.

Yep! I have to give all the credit to Doog's Models, I learned the technique from his excellent videos.

Did some chipping and couldn't resist getting her on her own feet with some of the details installed. Getting close!

I ended up using the kit decals for the fasteners as it didn't feel worth the effort of all the masking to paint them. The fasteners for the outer gun's access panel on the upper wing were part of the roundel decal so I couldn't use them, so I improvised and hand painted them with a single bristle held with tweezers. Sealed the decals with a coat of Aqua Gloss, then did an oil wash - dark brown on top, light brown on the bottom. Mixed feelings about the wash on the bottom, it's not terrible but I think I probably should've stuck with dark brown all over. Covered the wash with a MRP matt varnish, I think I did too heavy a coat because the paint looks a bit faded (especially noticeable on the black) but I think it actually works to my advantage because I want to depict a plane that's been run hard during those frantic months early in the war. On now to some oil weathering and final assembly. Minor disaster on the PE flaps, they were on a stick with some blu tac for the matt coat. I though they were just barely attached but when I pulled one off to do the other side it totally pulled apart. I was able to straighten it up pretty well, hopefully won't be noticeable. These things have been a pain, if I do PE flaps again I think I will try soldering them.

Weekend update - finished painting and clear coating all the road wheels. On to work on detailing the hull. This is the glacis plate. The headlights were just empty boxes so I filled them in with putty to try to give the impression of a reflector inside. The shape is a little weird though, I think I will work on it some more once the putty has cured. Also made some bulbs with drops of UV resin. On the real thing you can't really see the interior of the headlight anyway (reference) but it's a fun little detail to add. While the putty was curing I moved on to the rear deck, which is about 75% complete now.

I took a break from Spitfire painting to work on some road wheels. If you build this kit, I think you'd be better off painting them before assembly. I couldn't think of a good way to mask the rubber tires, especially the inner edge, so I've been brush painting them with a few predictable slips. Not too worried about it since they should be easy to hide with weathering, but if you paint before assembly the rubber pieces are totally separate parts. I've noticed in some reference pics (example) that the pins that hold the tow hooks are usually attached to the hull with a chain. I've been looking for some fine jeweler's chain to replicate it, I'm leaning towards the one in the middle. Also I found this youtube channel that posts lots of tank porn with many vids that are great references of dirty Leo's in the field: https://www.youtube.com/@tankchris/videos

I got the main stencils done. There are a few dozen fastener markings that still need to be added, and taking these pics I noticed overspray on the wing roots, so that needs some touch up...

This build has been in progress since March, but stalled for a while. It's my first large scale build since returning to the hobby and I went all in on the aftermarket. Cockpit is Quinta Studios, with a few pieces of Eduard PE, and HGW belts. Added Eduard PE flaps. I've read that RAF pilots were trained to retract flaps as soon as they left the runway so you wouldn't normally see them extended on the ground. We'll just pretend they're getting maintenance or something like that. The build was smooth overall except for the wing to fuselage fit. I think this was my fault, but not sure what I screwed up. The fillets were just a bit too narrow to seat in place on the fuselage and I had to do a good bit of sanding and scraping on the right side to make them fit. After priming I realized that the right fillet had collapsed a bit - I guess I took too much material in working on the fit. I didn't take pics of the damage, but the fillet was sitting a good 2-3 mm lower than the side of the fuselage. I used green stuff putty to fill in most the sunken area and Tamiya putty to fill in the top layer. It took about 4 rounds of sanding and priming to get the edges even and the shape reasonably correct. Finally yesterday and today I have been painting. All MRP paints - I marbled the top camo with RAF light earth and light green, then finished with dark earth & dark green. The camo was done freehand with the airbrush. I'm not unhappy with the result, but if I had it to do over I think I'd mask it. The bottom was marbled with white, and then the white side got some additional marbling with earth yellow before a top coat of white, and the black side got additional marbling with haze grey before a top coat of "black night". Going to put a gloss coat on tomorrow so the paint has some protection, then this weekend I will be trying out those 1ManArmy stencils.

On the topic of track painting, does anyone know what color the metal parts of the track would be from the factory? The instructions say to paint them "rust", which definitely feels wrong. This pic is the the best I've found where they aren't completely covered in dirt/mud. I'm think that looks like NATO Green with a healthy amount of dust ground into it.

Possibly! The track parts came on 4 large sprues, about 75 cm x 50 cm. I have a large 30" (76 cm) Paasche spray booth, so they would've just barely fit. The assembled tracks are about 1 m long but at least you can fold them up to work in sections. This Leo is so big it's going to present more than one painting challenge. Edit: The tracks aren't actually on the tank yet, in the first pic from my post I held the final link together with blu tack just to put them on and see how they look. All of the wheels are also dry fit so I can take them off for painting.