Rooikat

[Guest]

I gave the model a base coat of paint last week, but due to not feeling overly great these last few days (not Covid-related, I assure you ) it took me until just now to continue. My normal way of painting is to do the basic colours and then weather over that, but for this one I decided to try a more artistic approach again, which I’ve done a few times before but not that often.

I started with some automotive primer over the etched parts, and that showed me why I stopped using that particular brand/type for my models … but for this one, it did the job.

Next, I wanted to apply an overall coat of the South African light sand colour that Trumpeter would have you mix from Gunze-Sangyo paints. I had bought a suitable bottle of airbrush-ready paint for this shortly after the kit, but when I came to paint the model, [syndrome=“advanced modeller”]I couldn’t find it anymore — that’s to say, I was looking at some of my sand-coloured paints and couldn’t remember which one I’d bought for this model[/syndrome] :rolling: I had to look it up online to discover that the bottle of Hataka A253 MRG Stone is the one I wanted. Anyway, with that problem resolved, I turned the model from grey to sand with a kind of greenish hue to it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of it in that state.

Next, this afternoon I put some more of that paint into my airbrush and mixed in about an equal amount of LifeColor UA 225 Light Stone 61, on the basis that I might just discover a use for this brand after all. I then proceeded to add lighter patches in the middle of most panels, as well as the top of the gun barrel, to highlight the model. After that I also sprayed some of that LifeColor paint straight to add even stronger highlights. The last step was to mix some Hataka MRG Stone with a drop of Vallejo 71.139 US Field Drab to produce a somewhat darker shade, which I airbrushed onto all the horizontal and many sloping surfaces on the underside, as well as around the edges of panels around the lower sides and the front plate, to create the same effect as on the top, but coming from the other side (shading the edges rather than highlighting the middle parts).

[ATTACH]379647[/ATTACH][ATTACH]379648[/ATTACH][ATTACH]379649[/ATTACH]

Ignore the hull bottom — I use that to test colour, paint thickness, whether the airbrush is even spraying at all, etc.

[Guest]

I followed up with an overall wash of Revell dark earth to add shadows in and around detail, which turned a bit more orange than I had expected when I thinned it, but that’s okay, it doesn’t look too bad. (It also turned out to be pretty much spot-on for weathering the M70 Krueger MBT that I’ve put on hold for the time being.)

[ATTACH]380024[/ATTACH]

After that had dried, I drybrushed the model first with Army Painter skeleton bone, which was surprisingly difficult to drybrush, being far too wet. I then searched through my paint collection for another suitable one out of the bottle/tin, and tried White Ensign portland stone enamel, but that had exactly the same problem. I then settled on lightening the Hataka paint I had used for the base, with Vallejo white. This worked fine, and I should just have gone for that right away

[ATTACH]380026[/ATTACH]

I also painted the covers around the gun openings olive drab, but not done any other detail painting yet.

[Steven000]

Looking good :thumb2:
Steven

[Road of Bones]

Looks like it’s more fun to paint than to build Jakko! Nice work so far- assume you’re not tackling the camo scheme then?

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko

The tools on the hull rear, by the way, are not moulded on — they’re all separate and need to be glued in place, then the retaining brackets glued over them.

I looked really carefully at the back end photo and as I couldn't see any glue marks I came to the conclusion that the tools were moulded on. So my comment should have been to say you're a very neat worker :smiling2:
paint job is looking very good. I like the variation.
Jim

[Guest]

Looking good :thumb2:

Thanks

Looks like it’s more fun to paint than to build Jakko! Nice work so far- assume you’re not tackling the camo scheme then?

The build wasn’t bad, you just have to clean up some parts a bit more than with, say, a Tamiya or Takom kit. As for the colour, this one will be overall sand, no camouflage. Part of it is because I wanted to use it to practice some of these techniques after not having used them for years, for the aforementioned M70 that’s in Gulf War sand but looking too flat at the moment. The other part of the reason is that I actually wanted to paint this model in that strange shade of brown that some South African vehicles have, but had to guess at which Hataka paint colour matches that — and guessed wrong

I looked really carefully at the back end photo and as I couldn't see any glue marks I came to the conclusion that the tools were moulded on. So my comment should have been to say you're a very neat worker :smiling2:

I would argue I’m far from a neat worker The back end does look rather neat, though. All I can think of to explain that is because the glue evaporates without leaving too many marks.

paint job is looking very good. I like the variation.

Thanks. I try not to have too much variation, because IMHO it’s often overdone on many of the artistically painted models you see. I like the look of this one at the moment, though, so I think I’m on the right track.

[Guest]

Quick tip: when putting the wheels together, I found it difficult to glue the two sides of the hubs to each other. The solution I arrived at was to push one side halfway into the tyre so that the join between the two is accessible to a glue brush:

[ATTACH]380046[/ATTACH]

Also: drill out the axle openings for the front four wheels slightly, they don’t really fit the axles anymore if there’s paint on those.

[Graeme C.]

Just had a catch up, looking good.

[JR]

Looking good, nice selection of paint makes being used .

[Guest]

Thanks I use whatever paint I have handy that looks to be the right colour and consistency — I’m definitely not someone who swears by a single brand and refuses to touch anything else (if anything, I swear at certain brands ).

[Guest]

Done