Big tank

[HWR MKII]

Sorry for no updates lately there has been no good light to take photos by and im still in the middle of weathering. hopefully tomorrow will be better. Its been cloudy and rainy here the last 2 days im so wanting to go out and give the tank ist first mud test. .

What did you think the dirt on the Tiger in the pics was a weathering detail? he he

No tank looks good without mud.

[HWR MKII]

I gave the tank a wash and drybrsh session. Maybe i should have waited for the model to dry first. I couldnt resist the mud. Its been raining for about 4 days now. ill post better pics tomrrow its not supposed to rain so ill have better light. You can see the effects of drybrushing on the edges and details of the vehicle.

[HWR MKII]

This pic shows the highlighting a little better. I am also in the middle of painting te tank commander too. ill edit these pics once it is dry. No the wash isnt literal just because its wet. A wash is thinned out paint flowed into the edges and recesses of the details. That will be more noticeable as well when dry. I havnt finished te weathering yet since i tend to take it in steps on something this large. This isnt like painting a 1/35 scale kit or wargaming miniature. You have to be very subtle in the effects or else it kills the realism .

[Myersjessee]

What a monster!!!

[HWR MKII]

Ok they are finally dry. This is the result ou want from drybrushing. You want to highlight the edges and details on the model. I used olive drab mixed with dark yellow for my highlight color.

[HWR MKII]

Notice how the upper surface has a dusty look and feel to it. This is done by lightly scrubbing the brush around while drybrushing. It helps break up the flat areas that dont have much detail in them. I also wanted it to look like the crew has been walking around on the tank. For some reason the commander is the only thing severely out of focus in this pic.

Edited April 16, 2005 by HWR MKII

[HWR MKII]

This shot shows off the details of the commanders hatch really well. You can also see in the green areas where the wash has setteled in the lines and corners of the parts.

Edited April 16, 2005 by HWR MKII

[HWR MKII]

This is from yesterdays first mud run. I didnt give it the full run like i give the tiger since im still breaking in the gear boxes and getting all the motor parts seated. When i get the 1/72 scale monster im going to give it weathering alot like this. The details and shapes of the parts are so large that they dont need much to make them stand out and if done too heavily can make the monster look too toylike.

[Greyryder]

SWEET!

Even weathered with real mud.

[HWR MKII]

IM going to do a final post on it this afternoon . She is going to the real proving ground where i use the tiger. This was a fun build The tricolor scheme is one of the hardest ones to weather without looking chalky or just mudding up the scheme. The worst thing on the kit is that you have to take apart the turret interior components to work in the lower hull. Seeing how the slack adjustment for the tracks is internal it makes it a P.I.T.A. for maintenance. An external screw to adjust tension like on the tiger would have worked so much better. Thank you to everyone for your comments and questions.

Sean

[HWR MKII]

Well the museum was closed this weekend the owner was out of town fixing a scorpion in france so no mud pics. If you all would like to see my tanks lined up just say so and ill post a few for a close out.

[zeo-mare]

awesome work i wish i could build and paint kits as fast as you.

[HWR MKII]

I have been at it for 23 years now so i know alot of tricks to ease things. Armor kits usually fall together since tanks are usually roughed up anyway so incorporate that look into the model as i construct it. This one actually put my skills through a little test since i dont normally do the nato schemes. The colors are difficult to weather realistically.

[bhop]

Man.. I really envy you. If I had the financial capability, i'd be all over that kit in a heartbeat. At the TamiyaCon last week, there was a tank battle demo and they were demo-ing this kit as well. It was pretty damn sweet.

The most I could afford is the 1/35 R/C Tiger I that I got last year.

So did you paint the figure too? Pretty nice job if so.

edit: here's a pic of the one at TamiyaCon running.. it was pretty cool

Edited April 23, 2005 by bhop

[HWR MKII]

Thanks Bhop

I did paint the figure but didnt use the Tamiya paint guide its wrong. I used an actual German camo jacket with the Flektarn pattern on it. Im slowly getting these kits I hope they do an abrams next, or a challenger 2.

[hellohikaru]

HWR MKII

I seen the bootleg version of this Leopard II R/C. Comes prepainted though. I would assume there is a Japanese Type 90 R/C of the same scale as well as well.

[HWR MKII]

I think those are the 1/24 scale ones by a company called Mauri. They shoot BBs. A little too small for my taste. Thats the only R/C leopard aside from this one that i know of. Trust me i looked. There is a bootleg tiger that shoots BBs in 1/16 scale which is actually pretty decent and a Subcontracted 1/16 T34/85 from a company called WSN. The 34 is made using the trumpeter kit and runs quite well.

The tanks im really on the hunt for are the early80s Leopard 1 and Gepard Flakpanzer by Tamiya. I hope they rerelease them soon since the king tiger and sherman are reissues it may be possible.

[jipe]

Very nice job. I like the paint on the figure too, it's not the easier camo scheme...

[Grayson72]

That thing is awesome, I love modern weapons. How difficult was the electrical and mechanical innerworkings to build. I've built a Tamiya RC truck before, how does that compare?

[HWR MKII]

Grayson

These are worlds apart from the standard R/C vehicles. You have to build a gearbox in this one which uses one motor for fvd and rev and another for steering through a strange differential setup. Then there are the 14 tortion bars you have to clip into place for the road wheel suspension. All of the electrics and sounds are controlled through a DMD- TF-07 control unit. Other than that it is basically a big model kit. The area you have to be CAREFUL in is the fiberoptics for the lights. All the electric parts are basically plug n play. On this kit in particular all of the control gear and servos are in the turret the speaker box and gearbox are the only thing inside the lower hull. Another good thing Tamiya did to prolong gear life is to make the gears a water/grit proof assembly once its complete. These tanks can take a beating. My tiger has been through anything the real tank could take size for size, I havnt had a real opportunity to put the Leo through its paces.

Jipe

Thanks for the comment. This camo is difficult to paint and make look right. It has 5 different colors in it. Based on the jacket i own i used the following Tamiya paints Dark yellow,Nato Black, Nato Brown, German uniform grey,(sometimes called field grey) and Olive Drab. Base paint with the dark yellow and then add equal splotches of the other colors onto it. Make sure one color doesnt dominate the scheme. After the splotches are added go back with a fine point bursh and add dots of the colors all over the camo. There is no specific order to it but again make sure its even in distribution. After you have done that give all the folds in the uniform a wash of flat black to enhance the shadows and lightly drybrush with testors acryl Dark Tan.

Sean

P.S. A good reference guide to literally almost every Nato/UN country is the peacekeepers guide to bosnia. Its a 2 volume set with nothing but pics of armored vehicles, uniforms, and all sorts of weird equipment. Its where i found out about one of the neatest little french vehicles i have ever seen. The Panhard VBL. Look it up.

Edited April 23, 2005 by HWR MKII

[Grayson72]

Hey the Panhard VBL, I love that little car, I have it in 1/72 resin, looks like a futuristic fast attack vehicle.

[HWR MKII]

I found a 1/35 scale resin kit of the VBL with a full interior back in 02. I cant remember who made it though.

[Grayson72]

ADV/Azimut, same guys who made the 1/72

[HWR MKII]

Thats the one.

Im going to go out tomorrow if the light is good enough and get a lineup shot of my Tiger, Leo, T34/85 and Sturmgeschutz IV together and try to get some in action shots of some of them. The stug and 34 arent running at the moment since im cramming the more reliable tamiya tiger/sherman gearboxes in them.

[HWR MKII]

Thank you all for your comments on the vehicles i have built. but PLEASE i have recieved 20 Emails in the last week from people offering to buy the LEO off of me. I do appreciate the feed back and im happy that you all appreciate my work but im sorry to say the LEO is not for sale.

If anyone picks one up id gladly give any advice in building or paining it though.

Thanks again

Sean