GazzaS Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 53 minutes ago, Peterpools said: Gsz Looking so good. Thanks for the tip on using “student paints” and will be giving them a shot Keep ‘em comin Petrr Thank you, Peter. Before you get involved, there is a bit more to it. You will need a couple of other things to make the process work. 1. You will need a flow improver. Vallejo makes one, but I made my own using 50/50 water and windex with a couple drops of glycerine or dish washing liquid. This reduces surface tension of the paint, thins the paint, and helps work against dry tip. Ammonia based glass cleaner can strip the chrome from your airbrush. 2. Acrylic paints are pretty fragile. To make them more robust, the bulk of the thinning is done with Future. 3. Mixing. It is easy to get blobs of your tube paint if you don't mix properly. And by properly, I mean there is a process to follow: Once your colors are mixed to satisfaction, you have to begin the thinning process. You start by only adding a tiny bit of Future or flow improver (1/2 drops) and stirring it in. You keep working this way until your paint is fully liquid. Then you can start adding larger amounts until you get the right thickness for spraying. Sounds like a lot of work. But once you have a routine set it's pretty easy. When I was a kid, I had little money and only a few bottles of paint. Often when I tried to mix my own colors, I ended up wasting more and more trying to get the right colors from what I had. So,I when I returned to the hobby, I looked for a way to ensure I wouldn't waste whole pots of model paint when I only needed a a small amount of color. Critical to this effort is a color mixing book. The color recipe book provides you with many chips and the recipes to make them. Some of these chips won't be perfect to the shade you want. But they will get you close enough to where you can use your intuition. Best of all... if you ruined it all by going to dark, or whatever... you've only wasted a few cents as a tube of acrylic paint will only cost a couple bucks. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 11 hours ago, Kaireckstadt said: Wow great variety of beautiful models. The diorama with the 2 Tanks in Africa is stunning! Also like how your old Revell Me-109 turned out (Eagle Cals). I also mix colors when needed e.g. to create another shade. Just testing is important. For this I have an old 48scale DC-3 fuselage which consists of >100 () color layers in the meantime... Now finish your StuG Gaz... Thank you, Kai. No Eagle Cals. Except for the Swastika, all of the markings were done with masks I made. The tank diorama was a more of a slide-show with a back drop printed at home. Here is the rest of it in-order: 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 10, 2021 Author Share Posted April 10, 2021 Ugh... Even though I painted the commander's face as well, this guy is the better looking of the two. I thought his face looked pretty good with just my glasses on. Blown up, he looks so much worse. Practice, Grasshopper. I'll let him dry overnight, then start on the uniforms. One of the problems I find is that on one side of these Dragon Figs, you have one real eyeball to work with, and on the other side, a hole. Oh well. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wumm Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 He has that Marty Feldman look down pat though... You could always make the eye with the hole into a squint maybe? Brilliant work otherwise Gaz. S 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaireckstadt Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 9 hours ago, GazzaS said: Thank you, Kai. No Eagle Cals. Except for the Swastika, all of the markings were done with masks I made. The tank diorama was a more of a slide-show with a back drop printed at home. Here is the rest of it in-order: Painting on national markings is at least the best method because you can include them easily into to weathering process. You are often going the extra mile. That’s what I really like! Thanks also for the explanations to the Africa-diorama. You are not only a very good modeler but also photographer. Except the eyes (like Wumm said) the face-colors of the Soldier are looking really good. Kai 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 10, 2021 Author Share Posted April 10, 2021 The wet effect. Not sure I like this. I had to make my own concoction of Future and gloss acrylic medium. Anyway... here is a barrage of photos. Lemme know what you think, please. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 Thanks Gaz Appreciate all the information and help. Will be going to give it a try and see how it goes in the near future. Keep 'em comin Peter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 It's always hard to judge from pics, but I like the slush effect on the wheels. On the body, I would add some earth pigments or even fine sand into the wet stuff, to break it up visually. Cheers Rob 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 23, 2021 Author Share Posted April 23, 2021 Bringing many elements together, I present the closer-to-the-finish project. All that remains is to mate the suspension to the tracks and the tracks to the base all via either mud or snow. I think mud will be easier. I tried to see if I could get the gunner's good eye through the gun shield aperture. Here are a couple topside close-ups. Mainly to illustrate the crew and work done on the tracks to show where contact and friction have bared the metal in different ways. Today I went searching for MG 34 buttstocks. They all look much darker in current photos. But that is understandable. Most stained wood will darken over time. heh... I didn't realize that so much of the inner drive sprocket would be visible... silly me! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaireckstadt Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 1 hour ago, GazzaS said: Bringing many elements together, I present the closer-to-the-finish project. All that remains is to mate the suspension to the tracks and the tracks to the base all via either mud or snow. I think mud will be easier. I tried to see if I could get the gunner's good eye through the gun shield aperture. Here are a couple topside close-ups. Mainly to illustrate the crew and work done on the tracks to show where contact and friction have bared the metal in different ways. Today I went searching for MG 34 buttstocks. They all look much darker in current photos. But that is understandable. Most stained wood will darken over time. heh... I didn't realize that so much of the inner drive sprocket would be visible... silly me! Stunning tank Gaz! Beautiful details and awesome paintjob! The extra miles you went totally paid off! The gunner really brings life to the model! Gorgeous build Gaz! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 23, 2021 Author Share Posted April 23, 2021 3 minutes ago, Kaireckstadt said: Stunning tank Gaz! Beautiful details and awesome paintjob! The extra miles you went totally paid off! The gunner really brings life to the model! Gorgeous build Gaz! Thank you, Kai! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GusMac Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 3 hours ago, GazzaS said: heh... I didn't realize that so much of the inner drive sprocket would be visible... silly me! Don't worry Gaz, I did exactly the same on my AMX-13. Only when I posted the pics on here did I notice it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 Brrr, I'm freeeeeezing. You nailed the winter camo on the STUG to perfection Gaz. Despite being overly white, the paintjob doesn't look boring at all, great work. Cheers Rob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 That looks REALLY good ! The paint is perfectly done, in my eyes.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 23, 2021 Author Share Posted April 23, 2021 12 hours ago, DocRob said: Brrr, I'm freeeeeezing. You nailed the winter camo on the STUG to perfection Gaz. Despite being overly white, the paintjob doesn't look boring at all, great work. Cheers Rob Thank you Rob, Curiously... how is it overly white? I have a lot of photos of real-life StuG's much more white than mine. It's not really done, yet... I have been contemplating chipping up the snow a little bit more with the hull colors. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 23, 2021 Author Share Posted April 23, 2021 6 hours ago, Jeff said: That looks REALLY good ! The paint is perfectly done, in my eyes.... Thank you, Jeff! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 24, 2021 Author Share Posted April 24, 2021 Hi Everyone, Time to call this one done. I could play with it more... but I'm a bit over it... nd the tracks seem to absorb every attempt I make to muddy them up. I'm also trying my lighting box again. Last time I only had a phone camera. Now I have my wife's Olympus though I use it on automatic settings. If you have an opinion on the lighting, and ideas of how I might improve... I'm all eyes. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaireckstadt Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 2 hours ago, GazzaS said: Hi Everyone, Time to call this one done. I could play with it more... but I'm a bit over it... nd the tracks seem to absorb every attempt I make to muddy them up. I'm also trying my lighting box again. Last time I only had a phone camera. Now I have my wife's Olympus though I use it on automatic settings. If you have an opinion on the lighting, and ideas of how I might improve... I'm all eyes. You can really call this one done Gaz! As I already said: Awesome work! The pictures are a little too dark from my point of view (but this hides the inner drive spockets ). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 24, 2021 Author Share Posted April 24, 2021 3 hours ago, Kaireckstadt said: You can really call this one done Gaz! As I already said: Awesome work! The pictures are a little too dark from my point of view (but this hides the inner drive spockets ). Thank you, Kai. I played around with the camera a bit later and figured how to help with that problem to some extent. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 13 hours ago, GazzaS said: Thank you Rob, Curiously... how is it overly white? I have a lot of photos of real-life StuG's much more white than mine. It's not really done, yet... I have been contemplating chipping up the snow a little bit more with the hull colors. Sorry for the irritation, I've written overly and meant mostly or predominant, due to my bad English. I had a wrong meaning of overly in my German blockhead . To put it right with other words, I like the white appearance and it absolutely interesting to look at, with your pre painting and weathering, breaking up the monochrome. Cheers Rob 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocRob Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 7 hours ago, GazzaS said: If you have an opinion on the lighting, and ideas of how I might improve... I'm all eyes. The pics are a bit on the dark side (overly? ), but show the modulation of the white very good. You could try and play around with the exposure. There is no magic about it, but white is a color hard to capture, because all cameras metering against a gray base. Whit, specially snow or glare on the sea are problematic, because of that. Even with most smartphones you can steer a little, by pointing on the screen, for different meterings in differently bright parts of the subject. If the contrast is to harsh, like your white tank in front of a black background, you will only reach a compromise, but with yours bein yellow, there should be room for a perfect exposure. When you use the Olympos, you could try spot metering, when the camera is equipped with that. Combined with an exposure lock, you could spot meter the parts of the tank, you put emphasis on, lock the metering and chose your framing, easy, you can do it even in automatic mode normally. Cheers Rob 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackster Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 Very nice job, the figures add atmosphere! Cheers Kev 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peterpools Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 Gaz Beautiful work .. what a build - love the weathering and effect. Keep 'em comin Peter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzaS Posted April 24, 2021 Author Share Posted April 24, 2021 8 hours ago, Jackster said: Very nice job, the figures add atmosphere! Cheers Kev 5 hours ago, Peterpools said: Gaz Beautiful work .. what a build - love the weathering and effect. Keep 'em comin Peter Thank you, fellas! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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