Junkyard Dog

[kerick]

Thanks Phil

[buzzbomb]

This is really coming together.. terrific work

[kerick]

Thanks everyone!

[kerick]

I've been working on the side skirts. The front portion will be Challenger style while the rear will be a little Nagmachon style.
I bought some 3mm and 6mm Tamiya masking tape to try some digital camo. Paint colors will be Model Master from what I have in the paint drawer. Pray for me......

[Old Wombat]

The die is cast!
Your song is sung!
There's no hope now!
Your cogs are sprung!

 

[Wardukw]

The die is cast!
Your song is sung!
There's no hope now!
Your cogs are sprung!

 

   

[kerick]

My cogs are fine!!

[NARSES2]

My cogs are fine!!

Better than mine then 

[Old Wombat]

My cogs are fine!!

So, you've given up on the digi-cam, then!?

[kerick]

My cogs are fine!!

So, you've given up on the digi-cam, then!?

I'm going to try it. There was an article about a British experimental pattern that looked pretty good. Only thing is it looks like about five colors so it might get simplified.

https://defence.nridigital.com/global_defence_technology_mar21/challenger_tank_digital_camouflage

[kerick]

I'm going to try masking off each digital pattern separately to keep from adding five layers of paint by the time I'm done. There is some nice detail in many areas and I really don't want to bury it under layers of paint. I'm also going to try some preshading with very dark green or black. This should be something new for me.

[Wardukw]

Couple of ideas which might help ya with ya digi cam Ken .....ive a habit of taking several different sizes of tape ..just sticking em to a old cutting mat
.measuring what ever length I need along the entire length of tape and cutting them on each mark..then it's just peal and stick..speeds things up very nicely and it works great for annoying shapes..then I fill in any areas with more tape.
Oh this is all done with Tamiya tapes.
Sounds like a time consuming task and in away it is but it's many times faster than making individual masks which might fit or not ..ask me how I know 

For painting and so you don't have to remove your masking until your done ...just spray what ever colour your gonna use where your first mask will be .
Throw on the masks and repeat..different colour and mask away ...then you get all the colours you want with out a massive use if paint .
I let this completely dry for a  day or two and  then out comes the fine tweezers and a knife with a new blade.
This the part I enjoy the most 

[kerick]

I attached the side skirts last night with some putty I found at the hobby shop. They look pretty good. I managed to cast enough acceptable quality ERA panels.  I'll post the pics tonight. Babysitting the granddaughter today.

I don't know what the problem was with the casting process. I kept getting casts that did not harden evenly no matter if I put them in the sunlight or used the UV flashlight. The finished product had a slightly rippled and uneven surface on the face of the part. The next cast would come out fine. Another chemistry mystery. I need to mold the smoke grenade discharge boxes and cast hopefully four of them.

[Jakko]

Heh, another reason for me to stay away from casting my own parts, it looks like

[kerick]

Here's the (late) pics I promised.

This is the braces for the side skirts.





Here's the full skirt combo.