Hey Harold, this project is coming along very, very nicely.
just found this build, that does look rather nice. Looking forward to more of your work
Excelent work so far, especially your reasearch elsewhere on colours.
I look forward to seeing more.
Never say never, but the Matador was associated with the ‘Mediums & Heavies’
QF 3.7" AA
BL 4.5" & BL 5.5" Medium Gun
BL 6-inch 26 cwt Heavy Howitzer
BL 7.2-inch Heavy Howitzer
Accurate Armour or Thunder Models though.
I’m loving it Harold. As for the freehand camo, practice, practice, practice until you’re comfortable. And if it all goes wrong, there’s always fishing.
Looking very nice Harold.
Thank you G.S., Ferg, Jon, Rob and TigerII. I am almost done with assembly and the base coat S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab paint. I have a little more to do on the interior then I can glue the cab together. The next step will be to install 28 gage, soft copper wire on the canopy as tie-down rope. This will be threaded through the holes on the sides of the canopy and secured on exterior truck bed hooks. Then I can glue the canopy to the truck bed. Once that is done, I can install decals and add the camouflage in Nato Black which will represent S.C.C. 14 paint.
I have practiced free-hand camouflage painting for a couple of days on art paper and decided to use a combination of forest camo airbrush stencil template and free-hand to apply the Matador camouflage. The stencil set is shown below.
Harold
Well;
It could be used for a camper I guess. Where’s their War Surplus office? Oh, by the way How come they sprayed O.D. all over the windows or is that some kind of Preservative I haven’t seen before?
Now, when the paint Job is finished I won’t need a Deer Blind that’s cramped. I can have a stove to keep warm! Maybe even a Porta-Potty ( Camp potty)
The stuff on the windows is masking tape. I will leave the tape on until the camouflage, decals and clear coat are finished.
I have some good news and bad news. I have completed all the assembly and base coat of S.C.C. 15 paint. Waiting now for the camouflage stencil template to arrive so I can complete the rest of the painting and decals. The bad news is I did not take a photograph of the interior painting before I glued the cab together. I did remember to remove the masking tape on the inside of the windows, but I am afraid the interior will need to wait until the painting is all done to be seen.
I also received Mike Starmer’s books today and was pleased to see that my S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab paint matches his colour chip perfectly. However, I was surprised to see that his books updated in 2019 did not include Tamiya mixes. But I have no doubt that Mike is the kind of person that will help modelers find the best Tamiya paint to match whatever British colour we are trying to represent.
The photographs below are take with a combination of direct flash camera lighting and indirect LED and incandescent lighting to reproduce the color as it actually appears to my eyes.
Harold
Mike Starmers’ definitive article British Vehicle Camouflage, 1939-45 [EDIT: from the mafva.org website]
Dated 30th APRIL 2019, does include Tamiya Mixes.
Mike is pretty active on the Airfix Tribute Forum RAF Vehicles paint schemes which is full of interesting info.
Jon you are correct, Mike Starmer’s article: British Vehicle Camouflage, 1939-1945 amended April 2019 does include Tamiya paint mixes. However, and I want to be careful not to create any misunderstanding here, I was talking about his books:
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British Army Colours and Disruptive Camouflage in the United Kingdom, France and N.W. Europe, 1936-1945 amended December 2019
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British Military Camouflage & Colours, Sicily & Italy 1943-1945
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British Military Camouflage & Colours, Alamen & After 1942-1945
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British Military Camoulfage & Colours, The Caunter Scheme
I am a great fan of Mike Starmer’s research in the field of British Military colours and patterns used during World War II and highly recommend his books. In each book is a sheet of color chips that are not printed, but actual colour chips like the type you would find at a paint store. With each colour chip he indicates the paint he used and, in most cases, it is Humbrol and Revell enamel.
The article you are referring too is an excellent piece of work in which Mike has detailed Tamiya acrylic paint mixes in addition to the enamel paint in his books. And I would venture a guess that Mike considers references he has made to Tamiya acrylic paint a work in progress. For example, in the article Mike indicates S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab can be represented with a mix of Humbrol 150, 159 and 33, or alternative Humbrol 253, 80, 159, 33 and Revell 84. He goes on to say S.C.C. 15 can also be represented with a Tamiya mix of XF81, XF58 and XF71.
When I asked Mike for specific help with a Tamiya acrylic mix that would match S.C.C. 15 he recommended a mix of XF61, XF62 and XF3 and to use Neutral Grey XF53 to lighten the mix. At the time I did not have his books or Neutral Grey, so I used XF66 Light Grey and increased the amount of XF3 and it matched the color chip perfectly.
When I showed Mike what I had done he commented that it was good to see other modelers trying different paint mixes which to me means Tamiya acrylic paint as a substitute for Humbrol and Revell enamel is a work in progress.
Harold
Harold
I have edited my post to credit MAFVA hosting Mikes notes.
A thought occours, I have a number of the Humbrol acrylics,numbered the same as the Enamels though sadly not as comprehensive a range.
I moved away from enamels for health & Domestic Harmony reasons.
This ‘may’ give some more mixing options, though I make no claim for the Acrylic ranges’ colour accuracy, which I’ve used for the RAF colours.
Humbrol Acrylics are reasonably easy to get hold of in the UK, usually right next to the Humbrol Enamels, from Hobbycraft or some Hobby shops.
Jon, I have a keen interest in British and American aircraft and after Christmas I would like to build several models. An Avro Lancaster Mk-III, Supermarine Spitfire, Boeing B29 Superfortress and Consolidated PBY Catalina. Not all at once of course, but during 2021.
Both my Uncle and my Father were in the Air Force during the Second World War. My Uncle was an RCAF Flying Officer and Pilot of a Lancaster and Spitfire with the RAF in England. My Father was a Technical Staff Sergeant with the 20th Army Air Force in Burma, India.
Regarding enamel paint, I have similar issues in the house. My Wife is very sensitive to paint, so acrylic paint and mild solvents is all I’m allowed to use.
Harold
Oh My!
Now that is looking Good !
Looking good.
Hey Harold, excellent work on this British Matador. I like your tri-color scheme.
Thank you TigerII, GreySnake, and Tanker-Builder I really appreciate your words of encouragement. However, I stuff-it when I tried to use a stencil to apply the camouflage pattern. Then I tried to fix the mess by free hand with my airbrush and that made it even worse. So, as we were taught in the military always have a backup plan, in other words ‘Plan-B’. Part of my back up plan was to purchase two AFV Club Matador kits. An Early Type and Mid Production Type as shown below. The two kits are virtually identical except for the cab roof. In fact, the Mid Production Type has all the same parts as the Early Type plus the Mid Production parts.
Since I made a mess of the camouflage painting, but the base coat and primer were smooth I decided to try stripping the acrylic paint. I used heavy duty Easy-Off oven cleaner and sealed the model in a zip-lock bag for two-hours. Then I dipped the model in a bowl of Dawn dish soap for about 2-minutes and rinsed the oven cleaner and dish soap off under warm running water. I also used a large flat paint brush to get into small details. The result is what you see below. The oven cleaner took all the paint off down to the primer. Remember the plastic is a yellow color and the primer was an olive-green. So, what you see in the pictures below is a faded olive green primer. There was no sanding, scrubbing or abrasive of any kind. Just a large soft flat modeling paint brush. When the model was clean I dried it with my airbrush and then let it sit for several hours.
Tomorrow I will give the Matador a fresh coat of primer to cover water stains and when the primer is dry, I should be able to give the model a new S.C.C. 15 Olive Drab base coat. Now for the rest of ‘Plan-B’. I have ordered two types of camouflage masking putty, AK Interactive #AK8076 and Ammo Mig #AMIG8012. The Mig Jimenez putty will take a while to get here but the AK product should be here by next Monday. I have never used masking putty, but I understand how it works and I am excited to try it on the Mid Production Matador.
Plan-B has a secondary objective. I wanted to change the canopy from all closed to partially opened, but until I messed up the paint I was not willing to take the model a part. Since the Early Type and Mid Type use the same parts I will put a new partially open canopy on the Mid Production Matador shown below.
Harold
This is most excellent, Sargeant!
I love all of the research you’ve been putting into this. Love your accuracy on your builds.
I remember we had a saying that if Plan A & Plan B don’t work just say “F*** it, I’ll just John Wayne it.” But may I suggest Plan C. If you have it use some Silly Putty to help with your “freehand” camo application. It will help to make clean lines for your camouflage pattern. I hope this helps.
Cobber I love your attention to detail and your persistence in the face of adversity. Keep it up! I just know this is going to be a sweet beastie in the end.