1/72 MAN 8x8 Truck

[Guest]

Thanks Tim. I was having so many issues with this that I almost got the hairy stick out to finish it! I'd certainly have gotten sharper lines.

[Guest]

I'll definitely know who to call on if I ever go down the super realism route, thanks.

Military vehicles of the Cold War era are the ones I find most interesting

The model looks great, you’re getting a spray finish there that a lot of modellers struggle to achieve in 1/35 scale.

[minitnkr]

A beautiful job. The photos above show how dust & weather soften the edges of BW hard edged camo as compared to a new clean example. PaulE

[Guest]

Thanks Jakko & Paul.

It's in my nature to be really self critical. Anything less than perfect winds me up :smiling5: Good in a way as it keep me striving to get better, but a real pain sometimes.

Next one will be masked or maybe even brushed. Freehand camo at this scale is beyond me right now so will stick to a safer option for the time being.

[Guest]

I think I said it before, but on the real thing the overspray is so small that in 1/72 it should probably really be hard-edged anyway, if a realistic finish is the goal. Of course, soft-edged looks better on a model

As an aside, on the German TV programme I also mentioned earlier, they also showed how these things are sprayed in German service, at least the fold-down sides of the load bed. The painter hangs a metal frame over the side of the vehicle, which has bent metal rods to show the lines of the pattern, and then sprays freehand just inside those before removing the frame and filling in the patches.

[Guest]

A bit of detail painting, pin wash around some areas and made another item of cargo for the load bed. Will probably be doing a coat of varnish once that lot has dried then onto some light weathering.

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[Guest]

Looking good!

[JR]

Andy there is nothing wrong with that finish at all :thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2: from me .
As to your wows with the paint, it seems some of us love Vallejo , other hate it .
I've had my trouble with AK , just the same as you had with the Vallejo.

Having battled with mixes etc I think half of the problem is dried paint particals falling into the cup from the bottle.
I looked a one of my Russian 4 BO bottles tips and it was covered in crap.
Not saying yours are:smiling2: as can't believe a pro sprayer would do such a thing !
Oh time you altered your photo to include you are a member of the " Rabble " Jim is so right , he of course runs the tidy bench club , very few of us have even attempted to gain entry, I've failed 3 times and now banned :smiling3: Matron has just arrived , ow that hurt, " get up then " going , bye .

[Guest]

Thanks Chris and John. I'm getting over my doom and gloom of yesterday. I need to remember that the pictures are many time larger than the real thing and most of the stuff I'm worried about can't be seen from more than a few inches away!

Made up a makeshift "hot box" to try and cure it a bit quicker. Warmed up the model and a ceramic tile with a hairdryer, covered it in a takeaway container and some PUR foam. Heath Robinson would be proud :smiling5:

Picture proves I'm holding up my end of the messy workbench club too.

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John, I'm sure it must be something like that. I'm on the hunt for some small filters to try and rule that out. With such a small 0.2 nozzle I'm guessing it won't take much to block it up. I saw a video by one guy that was convinced it had something to do with the shaking of the bottles introducing air into the paint, causing dried bits to form. Not sure if that's the case but if I can eliminate one thing at a time hopefully I'll discover what I'm doing wrong.

[Guest]

Nope. Nope nope nope. Nope.

Just looking at that bench pic makes me anxious!

I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of paint problem.
I can only suggest it might be the thinners? I use vallejos AB thinner and adjust ratio until paint runs smooth and haven’t had issues. Also run compressor at 15 - 20 psi.

[stillp]

I've had trouble with semi-dried paint around the tip of the bottle. I keep trying to remind myself to wipe the tip of the bottle before loading the airbrush, but rarely do! A single drop of thinners in the cup before the paint seems to help too.
Pete

[Guest]

I'm using their thinner as it happens, it's somewhere in the chaos on my bench :smiling5: near my makeshift brush holder. I've been caught out by mixing brands and products at work so have brought that mindset home with me. I also always mix/thin it first before adding it to the airbrush so that the consistency is even. I'm trying to do what I can but must be missing something somewhere.

I really do need a bit of a tidy up. I'm trying to get in the habit of doing it before I start a new kit, deep clean all my brushes, empty my "slops" pots, make new sanding sticks etc. but once I'm rolling I like to have everything to (left) hand. I did keep losing my knife amongst all the shiny metal things though so I wrapped it in dayglo tape!

[Guest]

Just to add to this, I put a coat of clear on this afternoon (Mr Color GX-100) and it sprayed lovely, so at least I can rule out a problem with the airbrush. If there was any dried acrylic clogging the nozzle then the thinners I sprayed through first must have cleared it out (before painting I always flush the AB through with the relevant thinner for the material first, even if I put it away clean. A carry over from work again).

I'm now onto the steady weathering stage with this and back to work tomorrow so updates will slow down a bit. I'm dying to crack on with the MI-24P I've just received but really ought to spend a bit of time with the family :smiling5: I'm also looking forward to my first car kit arriving, a Fathers Day present, but that's coming from Japan so might take a while!

[Steve Jones]

WOW! What a wonderful blog!. I have certainly missed all the fun. Its been a joy catching up. Wonderful work and an excellent contender for messiest bench. :smiling5: :smiling: Keep up the great modelling Andy

[Guest]

Thanks Steve, glad you like it.

I did have a good tidy up on the bench though, finding drawer space for some of the stuff that was scattered around. I don't want to go too mad with organisation just yet as I plan to build a DIY spray booth and will work storage around that.

Slowly does it though.