page 5 On to painting. This is my least favorite part of a build, due to my lack of experience. So bear with me as we progress. I started by priming the Hull, Fighting compartment and gun in a flat lacquer paint. This was followed by a progressive lighter shade of Tamiya German Grey. The markings were painted on with the superb stencils provided in the Voyager set. These were applied using blue painters tape with cutouts that provided further masking and a means of holding the stencil in place. Holding the airbrush perpendicular to the painting surface is a must. I mixed the appropriate colors thicker than I normally do to prevent any bleeding or drips in and around the stencil. I basically made a wipe across the stencil with the air brush, once and only once. It was tricky registering the 2 color markings, but in the end, it looks pretty good to my eye.  There is nothing new or novel about any of the weathering I did to this model. The tools and the like were detail painted with a combination of oils, acrylics, and enamels. A light use of Mig pigments was applied. The rust on the spare tracks was painted with the airbrush in various shades of Tamiya paints.  Here is the completed model on it’s base. It’s a simple celluclay base applied to a solid piece of Lemonwood. The grass is from Woodland Scenics and was applied in the normal fashion. I sprayed the base and ground work with Tamiya acrylics and the grass with gradually lighter shade of green with some light brown color to the bases of the grass clumps.   In the end, this was the most extensive use of PE and aftermarket products I have attempted and completed on a project. I was able to add some scratchbuilt details that really added to the overall appearance and gave me an excuse to use some different tools I have lying around. Ted Herman resides in Virginia where he still refuses to build German armor.   copyright©2006 ausfwerks |