I am currently in the wash stage and finishing stage of the M107 “Mad Dog” kit from Italeria. To best simulate the Vietnam colour, I have applied a preshade of Flat Black and then applied a coat of Tamyia NATO Green
I then faded the colour with a mix of NATO Green mixed and flat white. After that I applied a dusting effect of dark yellow to give the shade I wanted. To get ready for the wash (which will be in oils) I applied the future coat.
As advice, I want to have the look of the dirt and grim from a fire base in Vietnam. What colour would you suggest to apply the was with. After a general wash and pin wash to highlight some of the detail on the gun mount, I will add some of the MIG pigments - Vietnam red dust to simulate the dust of the area.
Also it would be helpful if you could also point out some of the equipment colours that should be painted. i.e. on the gun mount, the hydraulic lines or firing buttons or other items the colors that should be used as it was. I haven’t found any clear pictures of what they looked like
Any further suggestions as I hop into this endevour would be appreciated.
paint color is just plain old O.D. green. You wont see a lot dents and scraps on them as these tracks only moved by road. I also noticed that the travel lock is missing, if it means a lot. The cradle for the round when lkaid on the crane should almost be bare metal as well as the spade should be bare for about a third of it. Do not install the seat belts if the kit comes with them, as they were not there in that era
OD green was just to dark for me and the Nato green was a better option as I wanted to get this lighter. I can sand out the seat belts as they were moulded in the kit. The travel lock was knocked off and I have to reattach it.
The cradle and spade will be better finished in bare metal as I get furhter along the finishing process.
Stuart, the next time you want to lighten a green color, go with moving in a tan, or Buff–even Dark Yellow. You get a much more pleasing, warmer color of faded green than the grayish-tone that you’ve got now.
I would wash this with some raw umber, in order to bring the NATO green more into spec with OD. NATO green really is too green for this vehicle, IMO. It will also tone down some of that washed-out green on top.
The MIG “Vietnam Earth” pigments should be all you need to really give this “the look” for the 'Nam. it looks like a pretty nice build all in all! [:)]
I agree with the others; NATO Green is the wrong color for a Vietnam-era vehicle. I would give it a good wash of OD to bring it back to the color it should be.
I thought the OD Green was just to dark…Since I was going to lighten anway, I started with a lighter shade…the Nato green. I bet if I didn’t mention it was Nato green,most people wouldn’t have noticed.
I will use the raw umber as well as the Vietnam Earth…
The Vietnam era OD was VERY dark. Darker than the WWII/Korean era shade of the same color. Folks here would notice but as far as commenting or not is a different question. You may want to consider a Burnt Sienna wash or misting overall wash to give the ground in effect of the red Vietnamese soil.
about half the M107’s in I-Corps will have both travel lock and cradle support, as they were built as M107’s. But the other half were at one time M110’s, so it possible that the travel lock was not attached right away (it’s also possible to see an M110 with the M107 travel lock as well, but still rare). The crane was sublect to a lot of abuse from the projo being pushed off it by the hydraulic ram. You wont see many oil leaks on one as they would be very dangerous to anyone standing close by
one thing to remember about Vietnam era O.D. is that it faded very badly over time. The top of the hull will be a lighter shade than the sides will be. Also if the SPG was painted in a semi gloss O.D. it will be a satin finish in about three or four months. The sun over there is very intense
a point to remember with the M107 is that there will not be any dried mud on it after firing two or three zone three charge in it. The blast is very violent to say the least. But on the otherhand it kicks up a lot of dust, and ends up all over it (a dark red clay kinda dust). Somebody posted a picture on here about a month ago of an M107 firing out of LZ Ross (3rd/18th) that will give you a pretty good idea what they looked like after a couple months
NATO Green…Ahhhhhh…yes the VN era OD is quite dark…a good match for future reference is Tamiya XF-74 OD JSDF. Use it for the overall coat. As Gary stated, that paint would fade in the sun so you could mix XF-74 with some Tamiya Yellow Green to make a lighter shade and paint the top flat surfaces.
I would pin wash the air screens with a black or almost black wash to give them depth.
The M107 has the old style taillights…the top is red only on the left…the right is black.
The breech would be a steel color. The loading tray would also be a steel color
The equilibrators (the pistons on the side of the tube) ram would be shiny aluminum. Same for the pistons on the recoil spade
The slide section where the barrel sled slides into the carriage would be shiny aluminum on eash side.
The drive gear, put wear marks on the teeth.
OK…enought of that…washing…stick with what Karl (the Doog) said for an overall wash. Asfterward I would pinwash all the details to bring them up and create contrast.
As far as diry…as Gary stated…two or three rounds and all the chunks stuff was off. BUT VN soild dust was everywhere. MIG pigments VN Earth is great. If you don’t have it a real red pigment dust. The front especially would have a haze of dust on it.
Weathering as described above and then dust it. Too many times, I see a model that’s real dirty/dusty/muddy on the sides etc but, never on top where it all settles/dries up eventually. (NOT posted to steal your thread. Just hoping to help with your build.)
