Below is one of my recently completed armoured cars, the Sd. Kfz 223 from Tamiya. These rickety little cars with armour and loads of camo rolling noisily through fields sneaky beakying (a British army term for recon) have become my latest obsession and i hope you enjoy the fruits of my hours of labour (which may not be evident by the amateurish nature of my work).
The kit was a fairly old one from Tamiya that’s recently been re-released with some photo-etched hatches and a couple of remoulded pieces. It took me about a day to clean and build the whole thing and a further two days to prime it and spray on the base colour (Field Grey). Afterthat, I’m afraid i neglected the poor thing, for months while I was at University it was completely forgotten and sat in my display cupboard in loneliness back at my parents’ place.
Thankfully, the Christmas hols were long enough for me to have the time to dig it out and give it a good paint job (I think). I started off with a fairly watered down wash of field grey again, did the tyres in flat black and then did the tools etc. in the usual colours. Then i highlighted all the obvious edges with a light drybrushing of neutral grey. For all the wear and tear and bumps, scratches, mud and so on, i began by brushing the area lightly with flat black and then painting the relevant colour over it. For example, the areas where paint had been chipped off (such as the rear whell arc in the photo) were covered with a bit of silver drybrush. For rust I went over this with a wash of red brown. You get the point… I then put the decals on and weathered the whole model in varying tones of dark yellow, red brown and flat black.
Anyway, onto my favourite bit, the camocloth: I cheekily nicked the preview images of the German camo patterns from hobbylinkjapan.com and printed them off with my photoprinter. Originally, the paper was too taught to use so i rolled it about a lot and then molded it on to the car using 1:1 pva and water. After that the branches and leaves were covered in the same consistency mix and positioned. Thankfully the branches (which are actually thyme from my mum’s garden) didn’t require any additional touches. And that’s it! Included in the photos is also one of my recent converted SS grenadiers having a smoke, enjoy!!![8D]
Comments and criticism are a necessity!
(Photos were taken on one of my diorama bases in progress)
Rust and mud etc.
…and one of my converted SS Panzergrenadiers.
I’ll be making a few smaller (hopefully) posts about things like mistakes with the finished product but I need some feedback first![:D]
You’re pics are a little dark and, I couldn’t get them to enlarge. It looks like you’ve got a nice build there, but, unfortunately, we can’t really see it. The Thyme is a novel idea, but, from you’re pics, looks a little out of scale. It’s just my humble opinion, which isn’t worth a whole lot, but I think that the foliage thing can be overdone. I mean, there’s so much of it you can’t really see the subject, which is the purpose of the whole exersize. I mean, during my tenure in the NATO alliance, I sometimes completely covered my tank with branches,but, I wouldn’t want to model that, because I wan’t to see the tank. I think a few branches add to the realism thing, but it can be overstated. You might want to try a different web host for your pics, so you can share the fruits of all that labor with the gang!
Thanks, I’ve just taken some better photos in natural light. I was really keen to get it all on the net I didn’t think of something as trivial as to whether or not you can see it. I can’t find any other host sites though…
Nice job. I like the camo netting. Only suggestiion, in the future when you want to use plants on the camo netting, try to actually clip the green parts, and chop them up, as these look a little too large, and out of scale.
Hi, Seb!
Great-looking build you got going there.
I agree with the esteemed gentlemen about the scale of the foliage. When I first saw it, I thought: bananas!
I like the color choices you’ve made, and your converted figures are very well done.
One observation: the drybrushing seems a wee “brushy” in places; that is, the brush strokes are a bit evident. This is particularly noticeable on the tires and across the top of the superstructure. Try removing more of the paint from the brush when you’re drybrushing, to get a “drier” brush that won’t leave obvious strokes.
If you’re trying to replicate mud splashes and the like across flat spaces on the vehicle, consider the arcs and angles that would be created and brush accordingly.
Just some friendly observations!
You’ve done a great job, and the pix look good on my monitor (not too dark).
I’ve only just noticed the size of the leaves and compared it to my figures and, as usual, you’re right; they’re gigantic. Thank god I’ve only used them once, a lot of chopping is in order next time! Thanks for all your comments and observations so far!
Looks really nice!! I’m doing the same kit for the Armored Car Mad build next month, so the pics are pretty timely. No real criticisms from me, everyone beat me to the foliage scale issue. Pete
