Hi all
Well this is my first German armour build. It’s the now-infamous Dragon 3-in-1 kit. I wanted to build a generic vehicle, so this does not represent any vehicle from any particular timeframe or arena of combat. It was a learning and experimenting excercise for me. The kit went together very well for the most part. I really hated the fact that the track links each had two parts, and that resulted in a whole evening worth of work. Ultimately, I screwed up with them, and the order of my construction did not allow me to properly fit them to the vehicle, thus the REALLY bad end result. The weathering was generic wear-and-tear with no environmental effects as I eventually want to incorporate it within a diorama. THe model sports about 10 layers of paint, filters, and washes. I found the filters to be an ESSENTIAL part to blending the camo together. Also, some basic techniques from Tony Greenland were applied. Please feel free to comment on whatever you wish, as I want to learn from this experience as much as possible.
Enjoy the pics:
Hehe, and just for fun, I found it GREAT that my spares box was filled with all sorts of goodies afterwards. Here’s what I had left after the build:
Well Zok, the camo turned out very nice and there is some good weathering. I did notice a huge gap in the fourth picture near the rear. Was the fit stubborn? That is a shame about the tracks. You might try ordering a set from AFV Club if you can’t fix these.
zok, really nice camo. sorry bout how that othr stuff went. did u use that post from a while ago bout filters n usin them?? if u did, n u have the link to tht post, cud u tack it up, id like to take anthr look at it. thnx. again, good job for a first try
Ditto on the link to the filters, Zok. The paint looks awesome, so I’d like to give it a try someday. It’s a shame about the tracks, because everything else looks great. Oh, and where did you get the info on the Tony Greenland stuff? Thanks.
zuper gut!!! (hehe german) great work! and very nice weathering! it does look like you had trouble with the tracks, cuz it looks alittle uneven, oh well! i really like the sdkfz 251, idk why… nice build!
very nice camo. very nice weathering. bad tracks, right wheel does not touch ground. please refrain from flaming me because I said something bad. I like the effect the filters gave it.
Hy … cammo is great but only little advice - that paint chipping is too silver try some darker tones ( I use mettalizers) and try to put it little bit less. Too bad for the tracks …sometimes they eat all my nervs [:D]
oh yes almost forget !! That figure is great !!!
Looks good over all. Great paint. You mentioned a diorama. You might deal with the tracks by using it as a battle damaged vehicle as part of a diorama. Land mine? Bazooka? Just a thought. Thanks for sharing.
Thats a bummer about the tracks Zok, but they can be fixed! The paint job and filtering is text book perfect, you sure can’t find anything there that could be improved on. You’ll get better at building tracks, we’ve all gone through it, so hang in there buddy. Semper Fi, mike
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Tigerman, yes it is a gap. i’m not really sure what happened. Before the paint, everything seemed to line up properly, then afterwards, try as I might, I couldn’t get it on. I tried tamiya glue and superglue, held together for almost 4 says with four of my gf’s hair elastics, and still it popped open.
Anthony, basically filters are very very very lightly tinted overall washes that alter the base appearance of a coat of paint. Imagine a coloured tint on a window, it would alter the colouration appearances of everything that you are looking at. I used a filter of light orange and an EXTREMELY thin filter of raw umber to blend in the camouflage. Again, these are overall washes, and are thinned to a much greater degree than a normal wash. The orange and brown had the effect of deepening the colour and contrast between the dark yellow basecoat, and the green and brown camo colours.
Buff, I picked up a copy of Tony Greenland’s “Panzer Modelling Masterclass”. I got it used from chapters.ca. It’s a decent book. Personally I would not recommend buying it new, as the info in it really doesn’t warrant the price for it, but the pictures of his models provide an EXCELLENT resource for colouring, markings, and other paiting tips.
Why you…hehe, just kidding. Really, I appreciate the honest comments, and I do want people to point out mistakes, as I think there are probably more than the wheels offbalance and the tracks.
The tracks resulted in this because of my stupidity. If I had taken care to fit them PRIOR to fitting the upper hull, I would have had more working space. Next time, I’ll be a lot more careful.
zokissima,
I agree with the others, in that you’ve done a very good job and it’s a shame about the tracks. Probably not much consolation, but what you’ve learned from this build will only make you better.
Do hope over time you will come up with a solution to the track problem.
Joe
I used Warhammer acrylics (tabletop war game) and Grumbacher artists acrylics that come in a tube.
ALso, please see the below link. There is a section in there explaining filters, as well as sections describing many other useful effects: http://www.missing-lynx.com/rareworld.htm
