RAR Leopard 2A6 WHIF

sotoolslinger · January 17, 2009, 08:15:51 PM

UUUMMMM ........Holy Crap

That is beyond good

barraxr8 · January 17, 2009, 08:22:45 PM

Quote from: sotoolslinger on January 17, 2009, 08:15:51 PM
UUUMMMM ........Holy Crap That is beyond good

Thanks Mate - when it's got the Dozer blade on and painted it'll look really cool I hope

Cheers

Paul

barraxr8 · January 17, 2009, 09:20:44 PM

Quote from: John Howling Mouse on January 17, 2009, 07:59:08 PM
Those wheels and tracks look so heavy-duty metal and weathered now. Do you brush paint or do you have to mask off all that fine wheel/track work for airbrushing?
If you could show some techniques for your painting of this fantastic piece, I'd really appreciate it (you'll convert me to modeling tanks yet!).

Hi John !

I use the same procedure for pretty much everything and change things if I find something better.

Everything is painted with my Iwata Airbrush, I premix the paints in a tray and add them to the hopper with an old brush (the paints are thinned with Tamiya Acrylic thinner).

I add the thinner with an old syringe for better control

For the wheels I primed with Tamiya Primer then painted them a base of Tamiya Nato Black to get the Tyre color. I mixed the color for the Aussie Camo Green (my formula is 60 % Tamiya Olive Drab & 40 % Dark yellow), and masked the wheels off with a graphics stencil. These are great as they have 0.5mm increments in the hole sizes, so you can do pretty much any sized wheel

I seal all my painting with Testors Dull coat. It gives the piece a good surface to apply washes and pigments to. And that flows nicely over the clear coat too.

Once the wheels were painted and sealed, I applied a light wash of Mig Wash Brown (Oil paint in a tube which I mix with White spirit). This is done with a small brush (the wash is really like dirty water), and the wash is just dabbed onto the crevices, wheel nuts, hubs, etc and allowed to flow into all the nooks and crannies.

When dry the wheels were ready for the dust.

Same deal a little Mig Pigment (I used European Dust) mixed in White spirit. White spirit is good because it has no surface tension and just flows really well into all the low areas for that worn, dirty look. Now the pigments don't dissolve well in the White spirit, but that's ok, I just make sure I get some pigment when I dip the brush in the solution when applying it.

The story with washes and pigments is LESS IS MORE. Just do a tiny bit and let it dry. Add more if you want later, otherwise it's easy to over do it !!

The tracks are done the same way. Wash them well, Prime them (I used the Tamiya Primer), then Airbrush the base coat.

In this case I used 50 % buff & 50 % Flat earth.

The tracks when dry are ready for the rubber blocks (Nato Black which I use for ALL rubber on my models). This takes a while and was done with a brush. Make sure you have sufficient paint on the brush and paint each block. I do the sides first as this allows me to get into a groove, and then come back to the flat surface.

When dry I seal the paint on both sides with the dull coat.

The weathering on the tracks is done with a 4B or 8B graphite pencil. Really easy..... just rub the pencil in the wheel tracks and it leaves a metal covered finish

Same thing with the wheel guides, run the pencil on those to get a metal finish and then dry brush the tips with some Tamiya silver (for the really shiny tips) and you're done

I haven't put any dust on the tracks yet, just a little on the rubber blocks at the front for the photos. I did that dry with an old brush - just dusted up the blocks to make them look less 'black' and more 'dirty' ! There won't be a lot more to go on the tracks anyway. Just some to match the weathering on the hull when that's done.

I did apply a Mig Brown Oil wash to the tracks to bring out the detail a little more. Same deal as the wheels. It's just 'dirty' water, and less is more. So you just let the wash run into all the nooks and crannies as you dab the brush onto the areas you want to weather.

That's pretty much it so far. Let me know if you have any other questions

Cheers

Paul

Ian the Kiwi Herder · August 19, 2009, 12:41:33 AM

Not seen this build before. Looks like a shed-load of work has gone into it. Would really like to see how it's going now.

Ian

barraxr8 · August 20, 2009, 01:26:45 AM

No progress recently.

Getting back into it soon

buzzbomb · August 20, 2009, 03:53:11 AM

Uber cool,

Great vision there.

Waiting to see more

Captain Canada · August 26, 2009, 10:07:14 AM

Ya. Very nice...gotta love Leo !

barraxr8 · October 02, 2009, 10:34:04 PM

The Hull is clearcoated and I've painted the White Chevrons with stencils made of Tamiya masking tape.

I'll add decals to the Hull and touch up some of the camo on the Turret in the next few days.

Pics a bit later when the beast is ready for weathering

Cheers

Paul

sudzonic · October 03, 2009, 02:26:59 PM

Good stuff can't wait to see this beastie finished.

barraxr8 · October 09, 2009, 02:33:57 AM

Quote from: sudzonic on October 03, 2009, 02:26:59 PM
Good stuff can't wait to see this beastie finished.

Should have pics in a couple of days before dusting etc.

I'm going to try a camo net on the barrel I think, I'll do some practice on a spare "Barrel Depot" barrel I think. I'm thinking Gauze bandage with some Oregano perhaps.

I'll see

chrisonord · October 10, 2009, 04:34:23 PM

I have only just had a look at this thing, and I am really liking what you have done so far, please don't tell me it is 1/72nd scale as I will sulk big time

I want some leopards for my Honduras builds also but they will be no where near as good as this

Chris.

barraxr8 · October 10, 2009, 05:41:50 PM

Quote from: chrisonord on October 10, 2009, 04:34:23 PM
I have only just had a look at this thing, and I am really liking what you have done so far, please don't tell me it is 1/72nd scale as I will sulk big time
I want some leopards for my Honduras builds also but they will be no where near as good as this
Chris.

Hi Chris !

No it's not 1/72 - it's 1/35 -- Tamiya base kit

Anyway a bit of an update, just took some quick pics:

Camo and decals done, the next step is weathering - a wash and mig pigments I think...

I also still need to add quite a few of the details including:

Commanders 50 cal.
Loaders MAG58
Commanders Peri
Gunner sight doors
Spare tracks
Stowage
Dozer blade etc
Commander (Mouse House ASLAV Crew Commander I think)
Camo net on the Barrel ?

Some progress pics.

Cheers

Paul

GTX · October 10, 2009, 06:56:58 PM

Looking good - home stretch now...

Regards,

Greg

barraxr8 · October 10, 2009, 09:38:07 PM

Quote from: GTX on October 10, 2009, 06:56:58 PM
Looking good - home stretch now...

Regards,

Greg

Getting there....

I'm looking forward to applying the wash and pigments.

The Dozer blade need to be done first though - I'll use the hairspray technique to get the wear on the front-bottom of the blade (ie steel showing through).

Cheers

Paul

batmancustoms · October 10, 2009, 09:39:52 PM

Holy crap! Damn awesome!